Cookies Are Us (minicase): Cookies Are Us runs a series of 100 cookie stores acr
ID: 3664427 • Letter: C
Question
Cookies Are Us (minicase): Cookies Are Us runs a series of 100 cookie stores across the Midwestern United States and central Canada. At the end of each day, the store sends sales and inventory data to headquarters, which uses the data to headquarters and uses the data to ship new inventory and plan a marketing campaign. The company has decided to move to a new WAN. As a consultant, what kind of WAN architecture would you recommend, and why would you recommend it? What kind of WAN services would you recommend? Would you consider scalability and availability of the network services as the most important priority for this company?
Explanation / Answer
Since Cookies Are Us is a business and relies on the incoming data to manage the shipment of inventory, the information is critical. I would setup a hub and spoke environment; whereas, all the 100 stores would login to the centralized LAN via the WAN and submit the necessary information directly into the headquarters. With an effort to try and save money, I would recommend going the TCP/IP route and capitalizing on the Internet’s backbone.
VPN may be another option to consider too since it is relatively less expensive.
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