I recently attended a trade fair for the owners and operators of convenience stores’ Dynamic speakers at the show inspired many of the participants asked many questions’ As it was in our booth to talk to these business owners developed a theme: “We have our network of shops and, if so, what is the best solution for our company?”
Wide Area Networks (WAN) can often be the technology investment that doubles your income’ — Well, maybe not double’ But I have your attention, and a WAN is a “balance” manufacturer’
In fourteen years of network engineering, I am Orchestra successfully streamlining command WAN implementations, eliminating overtime and reducing the costs decrease’ But all companies need a WAN? Answer six questions — Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (How inclusive) — the point is to find out’
Who: Gaining the support of all departments’ Stakeholders should be involved at some level’ A WAN is a significant investment, even if only used for point of sale (POS) movement of the project will be easier if you buy below the CEO’ A new WAN TOUCHENT training, sales, inventory, purchasing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, IT, and everyone in between’ It’s better than what they want’
What: The choice of a hardware platform is an important decision’ May the wrong decision will cost tens of thousands of dollars in two years from now, when you want to deploy VoIP and its equipment are not supported’ Open your eyes to the overall vision and plan for the future’ I recommend to my clients that they should consider no more than five years’ The infrastructure is ready for a renovation at the time’
When: Like the critics as “Why”‘ Time is a question of balance’ Take the time you can design your WAN and implemented properly’ Moving too fast, leaving holes someone (probably you) will fall’ One of my clients a more proven method before contacting me for help’ WAN asked 32 point too quickly and the results were catastrophic’ The stores do not have enough bandwidth to work properly, and VPN tunnels are not properly secured’ He spent most of his time, the WAN could not continue running and continue their daily work’ But, as I wrote before, time is a question of balance’ If you take too much precious time was lost momentum, and is easy to overlook an element of the project, such as IP addressing scheme’ I have often said, “The WAN is the living, breathing creature and they sometimes have the attitude!
Where: This is an interesting part of design decisions’ Although each store will be part of the corporate WAN, but what about the AC? Perhaps the time has come to co-locate your data center safe, professional installation? You may be eligible to invite one or two choices of suppliers for the WAN (called extranet)’ If you have any retail stores in May to be connected to your credit card to a faster processor (and potentially less costly) operations’ The same applies to the gift card processors, providers of VoIP, etc’
Why: There are many reasons’ The one most often I hear is: “We have access to the data output of each of our stores’” Or “We want to start using email’” Other reasons include the May review inventory levels, implementing a new enterprise application, providing online training for staff in the storage, video surveillance, or the addition of VoIP’ It is essential that we explore all the reasons in advance’ Determine the largest number of components you want in the end, before the maximization of profits and return on investment’ When it comes to network design, each request, its own network’
Review (or how): WAN comes in different colors and flavors’ Private organized VPN, based on software, hardware at the base, banda ancha, layer 2 and layer 3 are just some options available’ Decomp just consider these three options:
1′ In private, Gerês: This option eliminates the need for remote access specialists or highly qualified (and expensive) engineers who have experience in WAN technology’ A private provider of managed services will help the architect of the WAN for application of project management, and proactively monitor the network 24/7/365 once it is activated’ The result is a fast and secure network that do not require coding’
2′ VPN, Unmanaged: This is the do-it-yourself network that could be free to write until four or five stores’ After that, it becomes difficult to manage and recall multiple providers of broadband services’ You need to have someone (or a computer technician) who can travel in the stores and equipment installation, and (often) the maintenance of fire safety, and firmware updates’
3′ VPN, Managed: In this scenario, mission-critical data traveling over the public Internet between the store and office’ A hardware device (or software) on each end, through the process of building a “tunnel” between the stores and the data center’ Then each device to encrypt the data packets at one end and decrypted at the other’ Keep the VPN tunnel is quite intense’ Add to this the work of encoding and decoding, and you’ll experience the high latency and failures when the tunnel down’
The market is governed by the WAN providers’ This leads to great competition’ Competition leads to innovation (another reason not to build for a period of five years)’ Some of the players most recent (2000-present) offer the best value to customers’ Tier 1 providers are of course still there’ Smaller and more agile in May of companies offer the flexibility you need’ How much should I invest in direct proportion to the service you receive’ Finding a company that wants to help you succeed’ Have at least two meetings with a company before starting to discuss “how” question’ It is absolutely essential that both understand what is required in terms of bandwidth, uptime, monitoring, redundancy, billing, and other services’ Remember, it is an investment to increase returns’ “But David, a comment that is possible? asked’ Consider this:
Fraud, theft and reduce losses from inventory are all that we want to eliminate’ Your new WAN allows immediate access to POS transactions, stock levels, and to capture the “louche up with your hands, adding thousands to your bottom line’ CCTV also catch the thief in the night, not to mention the thugs who have used the current inventory of the rear door’ The world is moving towards Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and for good reason’ Site-to-site calls are free! Site of the calls are free! The fees can be eliminated! Sending credit card and gift card transactions on the network will reduce the processing time of 30 – 40 seconds to 2-3 seconds’ Customers to quickly move through the line check and have a happy experience, bringing back more often’ In addition, processors can reduce their use of transaction costs for a connection faster than dial-up’ The creation of a network eliminates the need for expensive telephone lines’ A broadband connection you can share your fax line in May and be able to eliminate the lines of ATM machines, credit card, and others’ These add to the idea very real dollars to your bottom line’
Making the decision to design and implement a WAN is an excellent first step’ Do not underestimate the importance of effort and time needed to make your project a success’ Finding a good partner in the market that is the spirit and work with you to respond with flexibility and exceed your needs’