Choosing an Efficient

Local Area Network design and Accounting Software

 

 

 

 

by

Matt Summers

 

 

 

 

Topics:

 

·      Why is a new computer system needed?

·      Problems & Solutions

·      Poor Networking Media

·      Inadequate Speed

·      File-server accounting database

·      Accounting System lacks features

·      Recommended plan of action

·      Questions/Answers

 

 

 

 

 

Why?

 

·      Lack of features

·      Slow

·      “Ancient” technology

·      Hard to scale upward

·      Design could lead to tragic results

 

Problems & Solutions [1]

Poor Networking Media

Problem

 

 

Current media:

IPX/SPX over coax cable with BNC connectors

 

§      Difficult to manage

§      Uptime

§      Speed

 

Problems & Solutions [1]

Poor Networking Media

Proposed Solution

 

 

 

New Networking Media:

TCP/IP over UTP cable with RJ45 connectors

 

§      Easy to add new workstations

§      Easily Scaleable

§      10x faster

 

Problems & Solutions [2]

Inadequate Speed

Problem

 

Ethernet network provides 10Megabits per second; shared between all devices on the network segment.

 

 

10,000,000Mbps / 50 computers = 200,000Mbps = 25Kbps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problems & Solutions [2]

Inadequate Speed

Proposed Solution

 

 

Switched Fast Ethernet provides 100Megabits per second between any two separate devices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problems & Solutions [3]

Accounting system structure

Problem

 

File server architecture

 

Every operation requires takes longer.  All work is done by the client workstation.

 

Problems & Solutions [3]

Accounting system structure

Proposed Solution

 

True Client/Server architecture

 

Only the results are returned from a query.  The server does all computing.

 

 

 

 

Problems & Solutions [4]

Accounting system features

Current situation vs. New Software

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§      Able to restrict access to the database

§      Source code allows changes to be made by a programmer

§      Ability to add multiple servers as demand increases

§      Open architecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recommended plan of action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§      Begin immediately

§      Choose the accounting software

§      Purchase the networking hardware

§      Implement new accounting system

§      Training

§      Import old data into the new database

§      Run both systems during the transitional phase