Tiger Associates, since it has purchased Brake Environments and will be moving all of the Brake Environments personnel into our location, must come to an agreement concerning the networking of our data base functions. To facilitate the decision, this memo has been prepared to provide maximum information in a minimum space. This memo will discuss the following items: A) Why we need a client/server architecture; B) How much such a system can cost; C) What topology we should adopt for maximum efficiency and minimum security risk; D What telecom structure should be applied?
A. Why We Need a Client/Server Architecture
Before we purchased Brake, we had approximately 4,000 items in inventory and a customer database of approximately 800 clients. We had discussed , in numerous meetings, the advisability of committing to a full Intranet configuration, but the costs were deemed prohibitive. A large part of that problem has been eliminated with the purchase of Brake, since that company has a solid Intranet and Extranet program in place. What it does not have is customers, since the company was founded on the Amazon model, and
relied on the concept "If we build it they will come." They didn't.
And so we have a company with customers and no real communication infrastructure, and a company with an infrastructure and no customers. We have taken the liberty of doing a computer inventory of the two companies. In that, we find
Against this inventory of computers, the following business models have been committed to:
Sales will be generated in the main office and the two regional offices. The Brake remote sales office will have a sales manager who will report to the VP of sales at Tiger HQS.
The technical infrastructure will remain at the Tiger HQS.
The MIS of Brake will serve as co-director of the combined operations.
Based on these facts, the only logical way to structure the IT situation here is to adopt Client/...