Planning Your Proxy Server Implementation
A key factor in determining the success of any installation is planning. Planning involves several phases-from understanding your current capabilities, to determining your current needs, anticipating your future needs, and, ultimately, finding a viable solution. We have all been in situations where the immediate need surpassed the need for planning and the installation was rushed. More often than not, the installation had to be repeated to correct problems. Microsoft stresses successful planning techniques, both to ease the initial installation and as a preventative troubleshooting task.
The Site Analysis Process
A key consideration of planning future network capacity is determining what services, users, and data will be present on the network. Take the time to complete a thorough site analysis. A bit of formal analysis now will ease the process of upgrading and configuring the system later. Don't succumb to the "easy way out." Planning can be a long and arduous task that is overlooked far too often, but one that pays off ultimately. Network Capacity Analysis
The capacity of a network is that network's ability to support the amount of data transmitted over it. A network that can support the activity of your organization today may not be able to support the increased activity level when Internet access is offered via Proxy Server. You need to carefully consider the performance ramifications of adding new information services to an already overtaxed network.
Although Proxy Server's ability to cache resources saves on performance over the Internet communication link, it does not decrease the amount of data ultimately transferred to the client. Even if 100 percent of requested data is stored in the proxy server's cache, it will still be sent across your local network to the client computer, increasing network traffic significantly.
The first step in network capacity analysis is to define a baseline profile of the performance levels of your current network by using Performance Monitor and Network Monitor. This involves sampling various aspects of your network over several days. Examine these readings to decipher what is normal and abnormal about how your network performs. This includes pinpointing which areas of your network experience the heaviest load, which users or applications cause the most traffic, ...
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...oft recommends that the computer hosting Proxy Server meet the following minimum requirements:
ä Intel Pentium 133 or faster
ä 2GB of storage space for caching
ä 32MB of RAM, or more
Moderate-Volume Network
A moderate-volume network is typically a network in a mid-size company with under 1,000 computers. Moderate volume networks can obtain adequate Internet access using two or more proxy servers arranged in an array or chain connected to multiple ISDN lines or a fractional T1. Microsoft recommends that the computer hosting Proxy Server meet the following minimum requirements:
ä Intel Pentium 166 or faster
ä 2 to 4GB of storage space for caching
ä 64MB of RAM, or more
High-Volume
A high-volume network is typically a network in an enterprise corporation with thousands of computers. High volume networks can obtain adequate Internet access using multiple proxy servers in a combined array and chain combination connected to a T1 line or greater. Microsoft recommends that the computer hosting Proxy Server meet the following minimum requirements:
ä Intel Pentium 200, Pentium Pro 166 or faster
ä 8 to 16GB of storage space for caching
ä 128 to 256MB of RAM, or more
Don’t hesitate to bring in experts to make sure your network is configured properly. Correct assessment, however the lesson doesn’t factor in when to bring in an expert. Despite an over-reliance on technology, there needs to be a timeframe for this expert and how their analysis will support overall technological requirements.
Networking is a multi-billion dollar global market whose growth is spurred by the belief that the Internet is changing the way we work, live, play, and learn. Over the last year, there has been a key shift in the role of the Internet and in how the Internet is perceived. What was once a fairly complex tool used by an elite group of highly technical individuals is now a technology driving economic change globally by creating new jobs and market opportunities.
"Capacity is the output that an operation (or single process) can deliver in a defined unit of time. Demand is the quantity of products and services that customers request from an operation or process at any point in time".
Until recently, small businesses could not afford T-1 service to connect to the network. The recent advent of cable modems has provided a cheaper alternative to this problem. Cable operators have primarily targeted consumers in their initial cable modem rollouts. Multiple System Operators (MSOs) are now selling higher priced broadband Internet services to the corporate customer. The question is, does cable modem technology provide the optimum service for a medium sized company that is dependent on the Internet for data computing and research? To answer this question, we have to evaluate the price, bandwidth, and reliability in the business network.
Planning is a way to respond to the changes occurring in the environment around a person systematically. Planning is an approach towards the problem solving rationally. It can be taken as a remedial tool for creating change in the current situation in systematic and efficient way.
A process that finds amount and types of resources that are used to get an organization’s strategic plan is called resource requirement planning. Its main objective is to get the appropriate level of production. Resource requirement planning is used to meet the future product demand. It includes capacity planning, facility layout and equipment and labor planning. The first step includes capacity planning and it is very important part of resource requirement planning. In this essay, we will focus on capacity planning.
“Planning: is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 16).
Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Computer Networks. 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.
The Internet consists of a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks (e.g. ARPAnet, NSFNet, MILNET), mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols, chiefly the Internet Protocol.
Over the past few years, Internet-enabled business, or e-business, has drastically improved efficiency and revenue growth. E-business applications such as e-commerce, supply-chain management, and remote access allow companies to streamline processes, lower operating costs, and increase customer satisfaction. Such applications require mission-critical networks that accommodate voice, video, and data traffic, and these networks must be scalable to support increasing numbers of users and the need for greater
A network computer or data network is a telecommunications network that allows computers to exchange data. In computer networks, networked computing devices transmit data to each other using data connections. These connections are established with nodes using either cable or through wireless media. The most famous and interesting computer network is the internet network. There are many types of computer networks, local area networks (LANs) to wide area networks (WAN) campus area networks ( containers ) metropolitan area network MAN ) and home area networks (HANs). With massive uprising in pc’s in the early eighties, the LAN system expanded rapidly. The LAN system on a workstation can be functioned via a short networking cable. LANs consist of computer units linked to a control computer called server. Network technology is the way by which the numerous stations are linked with one another. LAN can be linked to greater networks including mainframe. This provides LAN users with the access to enormous computing power and excellent communication facilities. Computerization in the banking system is the best example of the network LAN.
networking sites, today, are growing in users everyday. These sites allow millions of users to
Networks in organisation are dynamic and complex entities which can be quite challenging to configure and manage. (Kim & Feamster 2013). These corporate networks consist of multiple routers, switches, firewalls, middleboxes and a particular advantage of network management is the ability to monitor the entire business network. As all the devices are interconnected with many event occurring simultaneously, problems with once device can eventually lead and spread throughout...
Network management planning and security planning involves identifying the best and most appropriate systems and hardware that the firm can use to better manage network and plan security systems. Therefore, the management required me to examine the best software and hardware systems in the market place that the company can adopt to enable it to manage the network and security. The management required me to advice on the implementation procedure of various plans that are going to be adopted. My responsibility also involved finding out or predicting the impact of the plan on the future operations. They required me to evaluate the challenges the company might face while adopting the changes in the network management plan and security plans.
Advanced Network Planning provisions effective utilization of all network resources affecting network capacity, including both physical and logical constraints, network configuration, IP addresses and all types of network elements. Capacity Planning tools help to predict and avoid resource and capacity shortages.