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approximately 500 words Details: You are a consultant and have been brought in t

ID: 3625619 • Letter: A

Question

approximately 500 words
Details: You are a consultant and have been brought in to assist the Southwestern Hospital Group (SHG) with its acquisition of the Western Arizona Thoracic Care Hospital (WATCH). WATCH is a small 300-bed facility with approximately 1,500 full-time employees. The reasoning for the acquisition of this independent hospital by the for-profit SHG group was to modernize and streamline WATCH. By purchasing WATCH, SHG's cash flow could be applied to modernize and streamline the WATCH facility and it could generate some profit for the SHG chain.

WATCH is set up with a Windows NT domain with a primary domain controller (PDC) and a secondary domain controller (two of each controller). It has two Linux boxes performing print server and Domain Name System (DNS) services. There are a couple of Apache Web servers performing intranet and Internet functions. The WATCH Internet site primarily is a static Web site with contact and facility information aimed at promoting WATCH services to the community. The internal intranet is used mainly for hospital policies and procedures. Also, the employees can update employee information on WATCH's Web site.

Currently, several domains exist at WATCH. The administrative domain includes the domain controllers, the Linux DNS servers, the Apache Web servers and 10 host computers. The bookkeeping domain includes accounts payable and employee payroll and benefits processing. This domain has 50 client machines using an Oracle database. The billing domain manages patient data, accounts receivable, the Linux print servers, and 60 client computers. The patient records domain is in an in-house hospital data system that uses SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3). Users feel that this system is nearing the end of its functional life. The proprietary system data is housed on an AS400 and is approximately 7 terabytes in size. In the nursing domain, there are three hosts in each of the 10 nurses' stations and an additional 12 workstations deployed at various WATCH locations for a total of 42 hosts. Backup duties are currently handled by Automated Tape Library DLT Drives storage backup, which can back up approximately 10 terabytes of data.

SHG wants to merge WATCH into its network infrastructure and centralize the administrative domain into its central administrative site in San Diego. SHG's network is a Windows 2000/2003 network with Active Directory. The patient records application will eventually be merged into SHG's DB3 database hosted on mainframes in the San Diego administrative site. SHG wants to eliminate paper patient records as soon as possible and get WATCH to use its wireless patient records and tracking application, which uses Palm handheld devices.

You will lead a team of eight administrators and network engineers consisting of three WATCH administrators and five other contractor network engineers who specialize in network migration and setup.


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Explain what you think would be the primary considerations regarding the WATCH upgrade. What preliminary steps would you want to take? Would you leave the existing domain structure in place or would you change it? What authentication would you choose during the upgrade? In addition to answering the question, be sure to explain why you are making that choice.

Explanation / Answer

A basic architecture of the system beibg developed must be designed. OSI model is considered as the primary network architectural model for internetwork communications.
The network architecture and design specialization will help you gain the technical leadership skills you need to design and implement high-quality networks that support business needs
client server architecture and P2P architecture are the network application architectures.
Networking standards:
There are various networking standards. Some of the standards are:
IEEE 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.16a, bluetooth.
For the given network, 802.11b can be used as it is considered as wi-fi certified. It can be used for Internet and Intranet applications.
Some of the primary network protocols are in use are:
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Data Link Control (DLC)
Infrared Data Association (IrDA)
AppleTalk
Firewall can be used to provide a secure network. they block unwanted
Note:
Information that may be useful for the presentations is provided. Using the information, the slides can be designed with brief expalnations of the concept.