Individual Assignment 3: Network Development and Design

You have been brought in as a consultant for a small startup company wanting to get itself into the cyber business and open an office here in Maryland.They are not network savvy people, made up of developers and human resources staffing.For a start, they are looking for a simple network divided into sections for their developers to build cyber capabilities with a server that can securely store them, protecting their intellectual property.Next is a portion set up for their HR team to properly look for new contracts, manage their current employees, and search for additional ones.They are also looking for a section to be used by their eventual network and security staff.Last for their desire to keep the small company feel, and have meetings in different parts of the building they have a want for a strong wireless presence.

Presently the company is only 300 employees, divided as:

• 50 Human Resources Staffing
• 25 Accounting staff
• 100 Software Developers
• 50 Executive Staff
• 25 Hardware Developers
• 50 Network and Security Staffing (To be hired soon)

However, they have multiple contracts about to be awarded and expect rapid expansion and the possibly opening of a secondary office across the country to specialize in Penetration Testing.

The required elements that they have placed on you are as follows:

• They expect the HR section to be contained and only accessible by HR individuals
• They expect the Payroll section to be contained and only accessible by Accounting Staff
• Hardware and software developers need to have access to the others network segments for collaboration.
• Wireless needs to be restricted to employee base, with a guest section for visitors
• Security of the intellectual property is paramount; loss of this information could kill the company
• While free research browsing is permissible, as is video conferencing, internet traffic needs to be restricted to keep employees focused on work during business hours.

  The
  products you are responsible for are as follows:

  1.
  Properly
  labeled and developed network diagram

  2.
  Explanation
  backing up the decisions made in the network diagram

  a.
  Include
  in this any security measure rules for those you use (i.e. Firewall rules)

  b.
  Defend
  what you choose; there are no completely wrong answers unless you do not defend
  them.

  Answers
  to the below questions
  

  • What steps would you take to solve Internet connectivity issues?
  • What are some basic ways to speed up network performance?
  • What things should be considered when designing an enterprise network?
  • Tell me about a disaster recovery plan you developed.
  • Tell me how you organize, plan, and prioritize your work.
  • What are some of the items you felt were not necessary?How do you plan to compensate for their lack?
  • What do you feel is the most vital element for this network?Why did you make this decision?
  • How much of your remaining capital do you have left?
  • How will you deal if there is a need to expand on the network?How would you scale your design to compensate?
  • One of the individual sections of the network go down, describe some of the steps that you would take to determine the problem and get the segment operational again.
  • What methods would you use to ensure that the network maintains peak performance?
  • Which protocols are allowed on the network?Which are not?Why are those allowed and the others are not?
  • What solutions would you purpose to leadership to combat the human factor disrupting networks?
  • What are some of the biggest challenges that you found with this exercise?