9. Requirements of a work/ business network

In this section, aspects of a business network are considered.

First of all, here is a list of some of the requirements of a network in the workplace. Not every network needs all of them and there are likely to be specific ones not mentioned below.

This list will help formulate an answer when you are presented with a scenario.

  • Assumes that professional or at least competent IT staff are present to set up the network and maintain it.
  • It needs to support all the staff within the business - e.g. anything from a few people up to hundreds of people
  • Needs to be scaleable, the network can grow as the business grows
  • It should be fast enough to support typical business services
    • Reading, writing emails
    • Allow central file storage
    • Running database
    • Support Instant messaging external and internal
    • Support an intranet and internet access
  • Each user will require authentication - username and password
  • It should be possible to use 'group access rights' e.g. accounts, sales, production etc in order to allocate rights by work function.
  • Data rates across the network should be fast enough to make it practical to handle large files
  • A central file server will be used to store all files
  • Peripherals such as network printers may be managed using a dedicated print server
  • Archiving and backup policies will be in place
  • Personal identification data will be protected as per the Data Protection Act requirements
  • Internet use will have an audit trail and filtering to discourage non-work related activity.
  • Software may be deployed remotely by IT staff along with regular operating system patches and updates.
  • Sensitive files and emails will be encrypted

 

challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Requirements of a business network