Bead Bar Network Paper

Introduction

Bead Bar is a company that allows customers to create their own bead jewelry. The owner of the company started the company is 1998 and opened the first studio in New Canaan, Connecticut. In addition, the company has been able to successfully deploy three other divisions across the US: (1) studios, (2) franchise, and (3) Bead Bar on Board. The studio division controls six bead studios; the original studio, also there are two studios in New York City, one in Long Island, and one in Washington, D.C, and one in Boston, Massachusetts. The franchise division sells a complete beading supply package to potential companies that may want to open their own bead studio. The Franchise's division is responsible for fulfilling franchisees' supply requirements. There are currently five franchises Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; and Miami, Florida. Furthermore, there is another portion of the company called Bead Bar on Board. It's a special bead bar that is designed for cruise ship and decks or in lounge.

Background

The Bead Bar Company has several technical hurdles to overcome in order to truly maximize the company potential. Several technical solutions have already been deployed; they have already successfully deployed a well thought out desktop solution for the different divisions of the company. In addition, a database solution requiring Oracle 9i database was instrumental is moving the company from a flat-file database solution to utilizing an enterprise distributed database solution.

While resolving technical issues for the company we have introduced another technical hurdle, the new database solution requires all of the Bead Bar's system to be connected via the same backbone. Thus, the creation of a telecommunications system and computer network solution is required. Furthermore, outlining the pros and cons for the network architecture.

Recommendation Overview

There are several expectations from the stakeholders at Bead Bar Company. I have taking into account two of the highly respected stakeholder statement to provide an overall recommendation, Suzanne (VP of Studios) "It is important that all of our studios are connected to headquarters and maybe to each other." Another, pressing concern from Julia (Chief Financial Officer) "If we had a network that connects all of our studios, they would be able to send me their financial data quicker. I am somewhat concerned about the cost of installing a network and connecting all of our sites." Thus, my recommendation for providing a network topology and architecture solution for the Bead Bar Company is too implementing star network topology. It is my feeling the star network topology is a perfect fit based on the concerns stated by the valued stakeholders.

Network Topology

The recommended network topology selected is based of the business requirement stated by the stakeholders. The star topology offered the best features and most secured solution based on my expertises. In addition, star topology provides a faster connection and more secured solution because each system is directly connected via a core hub/switch. In addition, if there is an upgrade to the hub/switches the other systems connected are not affected, which allow for a high availability for systems e.g. workstation and servers, which in turn can potential make more money for the company. Furthermore, the selected topology can also address the concerns of Meredith (President and Owner) "A friend of mine installed a network in his store, but he had to run the wires along the walls. It looks terrible. We've spent a lot of money on the look of the studios, so I want to make sure they look good. The star topologies remedy this issue by benefiting from the use of twisted pair at the physical, because twisted pair wiring is already installed, thereby eliminating the expensive process of running new wire behind walls or through floors and ceilings at the Bead Bar existing site.

Network Architecture

The solution recommended for the network architecture is client/server. The selected network model allows for certain system in the network architecture to act as servers and the other systems to act as clients. A server in this model has faster CPU, memory and larger hard drive capacity, because the server allows for concurrent connections from clients, thus providing more resource available to the Bead Bar business units e.g. HR, Operation