Netw410 Week 2 Lab Report

Your Name

NETW410, Professor’s Name

Current Date

Lab 2: Application of the Top-Down Network Design Methodology

Lab Report

1. What are the business goals? (10 points)

Increase revenue and profit

Improve corporate communications

Modernize out-dated technologies

Reduce telecommunications and network costs, including overhead associated with separate networks for voice, data, and video

Expand the data readily available to all students and classrooms so they make better business decisions

Improve security and reliability of mission-critical applications and data

Offer better student support

The business goals are to implement a new network for the growth of students in the campus.

2. What are the business constraints? (10 points)

Politics and Policies

Your goal is to learn about any hidden agendas, turf wars, biases, group relations, or history behind the project that could cause it to fail. Be sure to find out if your project will cause any jobs to be eliminated.

One aspect of style that is important to understand is tolerance to risk. Most people can be afraid of change. Understanding these issues will help you determine if your network design should be conservative or if it can include new, state-of-the art technologies and processes.

Find out if the company has standardized on any transport, routing, desktop, or other protocols. In many cases, a company has already chosen technologies and products for the new network and your design must fit into the plans.

Find out if departments and end users are involved in choosing their own applications. Make sure you know who the decision makers are for your network design project.

Budgetary and Staffing Constraints

Your network design must fit the customer’s budget. The budget should include allocations for equipment purchases, software licenses, maintenance and support agreements, testing, training, and staffing. The budget might also include consulting fees (including your fees) and outsourcing...