Story: Hardware Store Network Design The story that you are about to read is from actual events that occur in the field. Its purpose is to provide you with a real-world example from a seasoned professional in the business world. My organization is a small hardware store that has served the local community for over 20 years. As the manager, I have taken pride over the years in being able to meet the needs of all of the customers. Harold, the owner, does not embrace technology because it is too advanced for him, and he relies on others to fix the computers when there are issues. The organization uses a local area network (LAN) to connect all of the computers to the main database server, but lately, the network has been running slower than usual. One of the main problems is that the company needs to be able to start processing purchase orders electronically, as per the suppliers’ requests. The suppliers have decided to cut costs by streamlining the purchase requisition process, and they now expect their customers to submit all purchase orders using an electronic data interchange (EDI). To accomplish this, an assessment of the current network must be made to determine the feasibility of meeting the suppliers’ requirements. The original network designers who planned the system did not effectively diagram and document the system. Therefore, when another information technology (IT) company was called in to discuss the issues that the company was having, there was no network reference model documentation available to provide to the company for review. The lack of documentation cost the hardware company money because the network designers had to spend a considerable amount of additional time researching the current network and documenting the network using the open systems interconnection (OSI) reference model and the transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) model. Moral of the Story The documentation of technology is an essential footprint left by IT personnel. This information is an essential component to facilitating the growth of the organization and to support business goals and objectives. Without the architectural map in place, the possibility of easily adding on new capabilities to existing technology is there, but additional time and resources must be allocated to the new IT projects. Without documentation, many organizations have to start from the beginning to get those individuals who are familiar with the site during the assessment stage. This can only cost the company more money and can cause delays in project startups.
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