Integrative Network Design Project

Integrative Network Design Project
Michael Morgan
NTC/362
January 20, 2014
Anthony Bruno

Integrative Network Design Project
Kudler Fine Foods is a top of the line fine food store located in Southern California. Kudler Fine Foods opened their doors in June 1998 by Kathy Kudler. Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale store that offers gourmet, imported, and domestic foods, wines, and spirits. Kathy’s main concern is how she can increase profit and ensure they have the latest cutting edge networking technology to ensure the greatest quality of communications between all of their locations.
After reviewing Kudler Fine Food network, it apparent that serious changes are needed to ensure optimal communication between all of Kudler’s locations. It is imperative that Kudler upgrades to the latest technology to accomplish this. The current outdated system is causing Kudler to fall behind by not being able to stay up to date with the current technology advances. Updating Kudler’s network and systems will allow Kudler to not only stay ahead of the industry but also allow for smoother day to day processing and communication between servers and subsystems between the stores. Updating everything now will optimize proficiency and prevent higher upgrading cost to the company. For example if only the network is updated and using the current outdated systems will only hinder smooth transaction processes between the stores and servers. It takes both to get the full benefit of the upgrade. An up to date network is only as quick as the equipment utilizing the network. Just as an up to date system is efficient as the network it is connected to. This is why it is imperative to upgrade as a pair. Upgrading just the network now and the systems a year from now could end up costing the company more in the long run.
The current issues with Kudler’s network is as follows:
• 56K modems provide slow connections speeds
• Host systems at all site running Window 98 – over 10 years old
• Windows NT servers are at the Delmar and La Jolla sites – over 10 years old.
• The XLS servers at the Delmar and La Jolla sites are running Office 97 – over 15 years old.
• The Novell Servers at the Delmar and La Jolla sites are running this was released in 1994. Over almost 20 years old.
• All sites have a stand lone ups system that will need upgraded to provide a redundant power supply to support new systems.

The first serious issue is all the stores are using 56k modems which is extremely old technology. This is causing a major drawback in communication between all the sites and the server. Furthermore, this is hindering real time updates between servers and profit and loss, inventory, and labor cost (accounting) databases. This can become an issue in several departments throughout the facility. The profit and loss database let the managers know where each department stands in order to build a marketing plan to bring in more profits for the company while bringing better selection to the customer. The inventory database is responsible for ordering products as they are sold so there is not a shortage of product for the customer. Finally the labor cost (accounting) database is responsible for computing sales against labor cost to give the manager a labor cost percentage so that the manager can take the necessary action to keep labor within range of the company policy.
The 56k modems will be taken off line and new technology will be put into place. The new hardware will be a wide area network (WAN) and each facility will have a local area network (LAN). To increase network speed all of the facility’s LANs will be linked by the WAN. This will also enhance the way employees will communicate with each other either from an in-house stand point and a store to store perspective. With the new network Kudler will be implementing voice over internet protocol (VoIP). The VoIP system will allow the facilities to use the new network infrastructure without any extra

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