Networking proposal standard?

[KBtrade]

I have an assigment due for my networking class, is there any industry standard on presenting my proposal?, such as the layout of the audit, breakdown of time and costs, price breakdown of hub, switches, cables, etc, overrun costs, etc...Thanks in advance!

Congratulations! You?ve been hired to do a network audit for a private school in the area. Your task is to document the current network (there is no usable documentation in place), and make recommendations for a 3-5 year plan.

The current building is a 1 story, 100-year-old converted factory.

There is a small peer-to-peer network in the office, where they share printing. Attendance is done on the head secretary?s computer, manually entered each day. They would like to eventually have a system that allows teachers to enter attendance from their desktop computers (once they have them).

The student?s records- attendance, academic, disciplinary and medical are all kept on separate department computers, and there is no connection between them. They would like to find a way to relate these records, and allow central management of the information. There are, of course, security and privacy issues to consider.

There are 3 separate computer labs for classroom use:

1. Library- 20 peer-to-peer computers (P200) running Win95. Software- Word 97 and various educational programs. The librarian would like Internet access in this lab.

2. Business- 30 P133, running Win95, used for keyboarding. No network. They would like to teach more advanced software applications in this lab.

3. General- 30 MAC computers used for various subjects. Running OS 7 (which does not support TCP/IP). Peer-to-peer network with shared printing.

They intend to place 2 computers and one printer in every classroom (there are 20). They require Internet access and printing on each of these. There will also be a third computer, which will be the teacher station, and need access to the school network and resources, as well as the Internet.

Describe the procedures you will use to document the current network. Based on the limited information here, make recommendations for a 3 year plan to meet the current needs, and a 5 year plan looking toward the future.

Remember, they are paying you to do a complete audit and make appropriate and cost effective recommendations. Include all the details- desktop systems, OS, NOS, cables.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I had to do something similar when I was in college, my suggestion would be to get with classmates and discuss each others views on this, getting info like you're requesting could be easily seen as cheating if someone were to lay it all out for you here, instead of just giving pointers. There's nothing like doing a layout and future installation planning by yourself or with a small 2-3 person group who are all trying to figure it out at the same time. Getting help from folks who have done this thing many times over won't teach you near as much as learning it yourselves.

 

[KBtrade]

Thanks lobadobadingdong, I am not looking to cheat or have someone give me an answer how they would do this. My question is there any standard protocols to follow when submitting a proposal or audit for such a scenario?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Oh, I see, well yes and no. Every business that does this type of work usually has their own way of setting things up, sometimes the cust. will even request the audit and planning be done with certain requests. Most will get a layout of the building and put symbols to show where the network drops, lan room, pc's are etc. and have a spreadsheet or database that contains info on which ones are active, type of cable, (cable testing info) from a lan analyzer if they have the capability, and get the other info from each machine, printer ect. after the audit is done, then you get the layout ready, but be prepared to be flexable on it, as the cust. might want to make changes mid-way through the upgrades, especially if it's something to be done over the course of months or years.

Submitting the proposal can be as simple as saying what's to be done, and how much it will cost. To breaking down each individual task and their individual costs associated, most companies give a layout on the proposal very similarly to the layout of say a resume, or legal documents with stipulations to time, costs, changes in pricing for example the cost of the pc's you propose for today will be slower and cheaper than those you would add in 3 yrs.

 

[Garion]

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt..

The proposal format that I used to use was:

Introduction

(Say what you the report is for, what you are going to discuss)

Review of Current Network

Discuss the current network. I usually started from the physical layer up.. I usually hit (in their own section)

Existing Cable Plant (what's there, etc.)
Existing LAN infrastructure (what kind of hubs, switches, etc. are in use)
Internet Connectivity (How they get to the Internet now)
Current security & Infrastructure (Firewalls, access list, computer account policies, etc.)
Existing servers (Hardware, NOS, redundancy, backup scheme, etc.)
Existing printers and print sharing strategy
Existing Desktop PC's (OS, hardware, expandability, etc.)
Existing applications (mail, attendance, accounting, etc.)

Next, on to Recommendations.

Take pretty much each of the above topics and make recommendations, Be sure to include what they need for the next three years and how what you're recommending fits into a five year plan. IE, the desktops and servers probably will probably last three years, but the base network infrastructure and cable plant should last five years. Most of your apps should also last 5 years - Maybe not the same version, but at least the same program.

Cost Estimates

Schools tend to be very sensitive to cost, so you need to mind your P's and Q's on what you recommend. For the infrastrure, you don't need Cisco, but don't want the cheapest brand either. Something like 3com would be good - decent brand but lower cost than the biggies. Blow your wad on good quality servers, like Dell. On new desktops, get everyone identical ones, then build a "perfect image" and use ghost to blow it across. if one blows, re-ghost it. Support is easy. Depending on the price, you *might* be able to get away with a low-end Dell machine. Otherwise, pick a quality clone that's easily expandable and very standard.

Just cost out each of the components, lay it out in a spreadsheet or something and you're good to go.

Lastly, I'd whip up a few Visio diagrams of that I expect the network to look like in the end. Since I was expected to actually run the project and have other engineers put it in, I usually included a project plan and a labor cost proposal, but you probably don't have enough information to provide any kind of decent cost estimates or project plan. There's too many variables, like data migration, legacy application integration, etc. that aren't spelled out in enough detail.

Lastly.. this kind of thing can be a lot of fun. I used to actually enjoy doing these propsals for old company. Something like this would probably be about 15 pages and I'd bill for about 30 hours of consulting time for. you've got most of the data given to you that I'd have to fiind out on my own, however - Lucky you!

This is just a bit of an outline and some things to consider. You, however, need to do the legwork. There's a lot more that you need to consider and take into account. Enjoy!

- G

 

[KBtrade]

Thanks Garion & lobadobadingdong I really appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Now come the fun part, finding the time to do it. Thanks again!

 

[Oaf357]

Bump