Question

Designing a Corporate Network: Company XYZ has over 400 employees in four different offices across the
globe. The company has branches in Paris, Tokyo, and New York and its headquarters are in Los Angeles.
Design a network that connects the four offices of XYZ by wide area links. The company has users in three
different departments, each of which has different security and resource requirements. However, each of the
physical offices has some users from each department.
The financial department maintains personal and financial information that only authorized financial department
employees may access. Other users should not be able to access this information. The human resources (HR)
department maintains records of the employees in the company. Each employee should be able to view his or her
personal information but not the information of any other employee. Those who work in the HR department should
be able to access the relevant employee data necessary for them to do their job. The marketing department
maintains a database of products and marketing campaign information. All employees of the company should have
access to this information, but no one outside of the company should have this right.
Submit a written report that includes responses to the following questions:
•What type of network design would be the most appropriate for XYZ? Why?
•How can you organize users for security purposes?
Your report should include a diagram of your network design.

Answer 1

Based on the requirements of Company XYZ, a hybrid network design would be the most appropriate solution. This design would incorporate both centralized and distributed network topologies. A centralized topology would be used for the headquarters in Los Angeles, while distributed topologies would be used for the branches in Paris, Tokyo, and New York.

Each office would be connected to the headquarters in Los Angeles via a wide area network (WAN) link. The WAN link would be a dedicated link that would provide high-speed connectivity between the offices. To ensure the security and privacy of company data, a virtual private network (VPN) would be used to encrypt all data that is transmitted across the WAN link.

To organize users for security purposes, each user would be assigned a unique username and password. These credentials would be used to authenticate users and control access to network resources. Access to sensitive data would be restricted based on the user's department and job function. For example, only authorized financial department employees would be able to access financial data, while only HR employees would be able to access employee records.

A diagram of the network design is attached below.

Diagram:

[Los Angeles HQ]---(WAN Link)---[Paris Branch]
|
|---(WAN Link)---[Tokyo Branch]
|
|---(WAN Link)---[New York Branch]