PURPOSE
Identify the appropriate technologies, infrastructures, and services for an optimum network environment based on a specific situation.

Question
Digital Farm is a renowned local company running server farms in West Malaysia. Due to its successful digital hosting-related services, Digital Farm has a huge number of clients. The management of the company has decided to expand its services in West Malaysia to reach East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak).

As the Senior Network Engineer in Digital Farm, you are required to prepare a report on the networking infrastructure between Digital Farm’s headquarters and its 16 server farms located in each of the states (total of 13) and federal territories.

• Provide the background of the organization including the business operations (eg. running 24/7) and the needs (eg. secure environment for its staff and patrons) of the organization.
• Propose a solution for the LAN network infrastructure of the organization’s headquarters (minimum FIVE floors) which is in Selangor. It is important to justify what you have proposed. Examples of proposed solutions are (but are not restricted to):
a. Networking devices (e.g. bridge, switch, AP, router, gateway)
b. Topology (e.g. bus, star, ring)
c. Communication media (e.g. coaxial cable, UTP, STP, fiber optics, WiFi)
• Propose a solution for the WAN network infrastructure of the organization’s server farms (all 16 server farms and one headquarters are to be connected together). It is important to justify what you have proposed. Examples of proposed solutions are (but are not restricted to):
a. Networking devices (e.g. core router, L3 switch)
b. Connections (e.g. T1, X.25, ATM, SONET, MPLS)
c. Network services (e.g. 99.99% network connectivity, redundant connectivity, undisturbed high-speed access, traffic shaping, load balancing, backup sites)