Question

Network Resource Allocation cum Planning cum Technical Problem

Budgeting, Business/IT alignment, Compliance, Laws, Regulations, standards, Career development, Project management, ROI & cost justification, Storage, Vendors, Oracle, DB2, SQL, E-business, CRM, Partner facing, Linux, Enterprise Desktop, MySQL, OS, Servers, Security, Desktops, Management, Access, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Patch management, SQL Server, Networking, Availability, Bandwidth, Hardware, Routers, Switches, Hubs, Cabling, 3Com, Avaya, Cisco, Dell, Enterasys, Foundry, Hewlett-Packard, Juniper, Lucent, Nortel, Network management software, Benchmarking, Fault isolation, Network applications management, Network testing, Performance management, Protocol analysis, Remote management, Network monitoring, Network protocols, Ethernet, FDDI, Frame Relay, H.323, IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, NetBIOS, Novell IPX/SPX, SIP, TCP, Networking services, DNS, Active Directory, Bind, DHCP, Lotus Domino, General Directories, LDAP, NFS, Novell NDS, WINS, Ping, Application security, Exchange, Instant Messaging, Encryption, Database, secure coding, Current threats, Viruses, worms, Hacking, Spyware, Trojans, backdoors, human factors, Identity & Access Management, Digital certificates, Single Signon, provisioning, Security tokens, Biometrics, Network security, Firewalls, VPN, Intrusion management, Incident response, Forensics, Wireless, Platform Security, vulnerability management, patching, configuration, PEN testing, Security Program Management, Risk management, Policies, Disaster Recovery, Web security, access control, Browsers, SSL/TLS, filtering, DataCenter, Desktop management applications, Altiris, Intel, LANDesk, Marimba, Microsoft Systems Management Server, Novell, Vector Networks, Online transaction processing, IBM, InterSystems, Sybase, Systems management software, BMC, Computer Associates, IBM/Tivoli, Microsoft Operations Manager, Unisys, Tech support, Interoperability, Software

This is the real commercial problem face by my company. Well, the reason I ask this problem is I salute and respect all of you as I believe all of you are as good as network solution company out there, or even better!!

Lets me rephrase the entire problem again.

Company expand so fast that the IT infrastructure is not fast enough to cater high volume of traffic; the initial design is not scalable. The number of new branch offices setup caused the company pay a high price in the leased line communication.
Salesman and management staffs dial into company networks via 56K modem to access the database server and update the sale order. All the branch offices access the internet via HQ and download email via the external POP3 email server.
Plan to revamp their IT infrastructure and reduce the leased line access cost. Here are some of the feedbacks consolidated from the various country managers and local salesman.
1) The email downloading and sending is very slow. They receive a lot of spam email this caused their individual mailbox quota use up very fast.
2) The sales and marketing departments need to access the internet to search for latest news and market trends. But the internet speed is very slow. These people are irritated by spywares and popup often.
3) The File transfer and Database access is very slow even in the local area networks.

I decided to put the real network cum equipment diagram of my current company as I believe this will at least give INSIGHT in solving the problem.

Please visit the website http://www.hgym.photosite.com
for the diagrams which are network diagram and equipment diagram.

Now I plan to improve the IT infrastructure to cater for future expansion up to 10 countries. SAP will be implement to automate the overall company operation. Also expect 3rd party to access their server to submit and view sale order.

I also plan to redesign the network so that it is high available, scalable and secure.

Any suggestion and opinion? What is your comment after looking at my network and its insfrastructure (from the diagrams on http://www.hgym.photosite.com )
Any improving needed?

My email is hunkgym@yahoo.com Of course you can reply here, preferable :>

Thanks again for your opinion!! Thank You!!

Hi there,

There are some solutions for your network diagram about the infrastructure and security as well as capable conectivities.
The lowest cost of investment and meet you requirement is to:
1. At the branch office you should subcribe ADSL connecting HQ through VPN deployment over internet.
2. Configure Router at branch offices for your staff accessing Internet locally via ADSL instead of going through HQ gateway to reduce traffice.
3. Set up Firewall for both HQ and branch offices to allow any incoming and outgoing services for security reason. Normally we just permit SMTP/POP3/HTTP/HTTPS and VPN services.
4. Purchase MailSweeper and/or equivalnet to scan all incoming/outgoing messages to prevent from spawm and/or dirty messages before pointing to your Mail Server.
5. Install the RAS at HQ for your saleman & management staff dialing via PSTN.
6. At the HQ you should install separately all servers such File server, Mail Server, Database server, Application Server and the server for Fiwall/VPN/Gateway/MailSweeper or equivalnet.

PLease contact me at cuongtrinh65@yahoo.com for any queries/details. I will short out to help you if any.