Contoso Ltd.

Name:

Institution

Contoso Ltd.

As the network administer of Contoso ltd, there are a few improvements that can be made to the existing local network system to make it more user friendly as well as cost effective. To begin with the issue on the inability to use host names to access to internet destinations can be resolved in a number of ways. First, disabling the existence and function of NS2 and NS3 will provide a key point for query solution. This should go hand in hand with the introduction of netmask which allows the internal users to resolve internal issues but not external addresses. By doing so internal users will require to be presented using a name resolution configuration making it easier for identification. Disabling round robin will also assist in balancing the load that may exist in cases where internal clients want to access internet destinations at the same time as external users. Disabling round robin will prevent cases of load balancing which may hinder internal clients from accessing all destinations ( HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum” o “Andrew S. Tanenbaum” Tanenbaum, 2006).

Further, even after improving the system of Consoto Ltd by making the system user friendly and accessible. Ensuring that information origin can easily be traced is essential. In that light, since improving DHCP configuration in the multiple new branches has led to unavailability of the IP addresses, it is essential to quickly find solutions on how to improve DHCP as well. There are two main steps of improving the DHCP to ensure clients can easily attain their IP addresses. They include setting up short lease periods or durations which will assist in making IP address recovery faster. Secondly, the client must have the know how of configuring the system to provide the IP address before it shuts down. It is therefore worth noting that when lease durations are set too long it is possible for the IP address not to be easily restored. IP address are manually released and the users should therefore pose a command for it to be provided when need be (Healy & Donohue, 2010).

As the company expands the need to ensure all offices and individuals can easily access the database rises. As the management of the company notes, there are offices that are using broadband internet connectivity while others are using the telephone lines. There are multiple differences between these two systems. Telephone line based internet is also the cable internet and although it is ‘dedicated’, there are multiple limitations to the technology and that explains why it is only good for local service provider connection. Cable based internet is quite expensive for the company since every office or individual requires a single pre-qualified line. This many require continuous maintenance which is further expense to the company. DSL or cable based network is also distance sensitive. Since the offices may not be in a single region the performance of the network will not be good in all regions. However, though there are multiple limitation to the use of telephone line internet it is more secure since a person must sign up for the DSL meaning that intranet data will be secure. Even so broadband data is faster, cost effective and with extra effort it is possible to improve security on the same.

The move on hiring extra staff to assist employees in some hours such as 5p.m and 12a.m may pose challenges to the company in regards to security of company data. However, there are a few measures that the company can employ to ensure that the casual employees assist in the company but the critical company data remains secure. Some of these ways include using password-based system to ensure files or data is successfully kept away from unauthorized persons. Introducing digital signatures to help in identifying authorized persons before information is made available. Another strategy to improve data security can be continuous confirmation of transactions. For instance, once data is changed the system confirms though use of key words or passwords. Management should also take an extra step to know the kind of data that is stored in the intranet, this makes it possible to monitor carefully and take necessary steps. Other methods that the company management can take to secure company data from the incoming employees is through introduction of controls such as; manager controls, physical controls and HRMS security controls such as firewalls. However, these technical based methods can be effective in securing data but should also be emphasized by strict coordination of information technology policies in the entire company.

Further, use of WAN connections under centralized backups can be of great help in cost reduction as well as enhancing data security in Contoso Ltd. However, according to several company employees, the use of centralized back up is making the production sector of the company quite slow, therefore there is need to improve of revise the use of centralized backups. It is by fact that use of centralized backups has brought great advantages to the company is regards to cost effectiveness and data security. Therefore, the company should improve the system first before any dismissal plans can be considered. Centralized backup can be improved by eliminating traffic in the backup using local area network (LAN) which provides free machine backup using tape devices. Reduction of load can also be embraced to assist in improving the speed of the central backup. Load can be reduced using ESX server which allows extra backup data to run more virtual machines (Mackin, 2004).

References

Healy, W. & Donohue, D. (2010) CCIE Routing and Switching. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press

Mackin, J. (2004). Implementing, Managing and Maintaining. A Microsoft Server 2003 NetworkInfrastructure: Microsoft (2004)

HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum” o “Andrew S. Tanenbaum” Tanenbaum, A. (2006) Computer Networks, Fourth Edition, Pearson Education