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Developing your management style
One thing a lot of us don't do in sales is take time out to analyse things. How are we doing it? Why are we doing it? Can we do it better? Taking time out to assess your management style is one of the most fundemental tasks a person can do. We...
Perfecting Management
As part of a management team you probably spend a lot of time studying
the multitude of differing business reports that lower level
managers turn in for your review. Without this kind of business
report it is hard to keep management up to...
Project management best practices
As both an active project manager and a project management
trainer, people often ask me what are the fundamental aspects to
successful project management. Whilst there have been many great
books written on the subject, I always summarise what I...
Time Management Training - A Necessary Investment or A Waste Of Money?
Many organisations view time management training as something they'll spend their money on, only if they have to. Usually when pruning the company or department budget, training is often the first area that gets the chop. And yet can you really...
True Information Management: Far More Than Technical Automation Support
Across the Regular army, the term Selective information
Management connotes different substance. In a garrison
environment, a unit or section selective information direction
military officer is typically that computer smart...
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Meeting Your Bandwidth Requirements For Supply Chain Management Applications
In today's business world it is critical for companies to deploy
supply-chain management (SCM) systems to enhance efficiency
across the product lifecycle by streamlining procurement,
production, fulfillment, and distribution processes. Deploying
an SCM solution that provides the intended return on investment
requires that the applications, servers, and enterprise network
infrastructure work together seamlessly. This is easier said
than done and will necessitate a thorough evaluation of your
bandwidth needs to meet the demand.
SCM solutions require integration of applications and data
across multiple geographically dispersed supply chain partners,
as well as internal integration with legacy systems. To ensure
success, your organization must deploy robust, end-to-end
dedicated bandwidth that delivers highly reliable and strictly
monitored QoS (Quality of Service).
An SCM solution is only as strong as the weakest link in the
chain. Access to SCM applications and data must be guaranteed
for all of your users, inside and outside the enterprise. Your
company must provide sufficient bandwidth to support constant
data flow between desktops and servers at the company
headquarters, geographically dispersed suppliers and partners,
manufacturers, distributors, customer service call centers, and
for mobile users and teleworkers. Connections between servers
and desktops must provide the necessary bandwidth to deliver
resource-intensive services, real-time application data to all
users, and enable integration of disparate data sources.
At your headquarters office, where corporate Web, application,
and database servers reside and WAN links converge, availability
and security are key. A redundant backbone switching
architecture with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to servers and
access switches is often indicated, along with a modular,
enterprise-class routing platform that supports advanced
security features and WAN bandwidth management.
In order to ensure availability over time, a successful SCM
solution should be built on an application design, server
architecture, and network infrastructure that can grow easily as
your business grows. This is called scalability. The solution
must provide the ability to easily provision more WAN bandwidth
to meet peak needs, to scale with fluctuating traffic between
vendors and partners, and to
Associated Websites
adapt quickly as supply chain
partners are added or replaced. To accomplish this, the solution
should readily accommodate new server connections, partners, and
locations. Network routers should provide enough capacity to
easily and economically provision additional bandwidth as
traffic increases, or to add new locations as the geographic
reach of the supply chain expands.
Each location involved in your SCM infrastructure will require
dedicated bandwidth to meet the functions conducted at that
location. This likely will involve some combination of the
following choices and is dependent on the complexity of the
deployed SCM system and the size of your organization:
- DS3 bandwidth, also known as a T3, is the reliable,
all-purpose, digital connection for extremely high-volume
requirements. Operating at 45 Mbps (equivalent to 28 DS1
circuits, or 672 DS0 channels), DS3 can provide a cost-effective
solution for smaller locations in the SCM network. With DS3, you
can link your high-volume host computers for resource sharing
and load balancing.
- OC3 bandwidth is a fiber optic line delivering 155 Mbps
(equivalent to 3 DS3 circuits) designed for those who expect
constant, high bandwidth requirements. For a mid to large size
business implementing a SCM system....this will likely be your
choice for infrastructure backbone (e.g. headquarters)
bandwidth.
- Gigabit Ethernet is a version of Ethernet, which supports data
transfer rates of 1 Gigabit (1,000 megabits) per second. Large
scale deployment of SCM systems and larger organizations will
likely consider this solution.
The process to determine and than find the appropriate bandwidth
solution for your SCM application can be a daunting task. Use of
an unbiased professional bandwidth broker will save your IT
staff countless hours of effort and headaches while guiding them
through the technology minefields towards the best choice for
system reliability and cost. I strongly suggest you take
advantage of their expertise.
About the author:
Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including
DS3-Bandwidth.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation
where you're welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest
BroadBand news, tips, & insights.
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