Assume you are a network manager, and you are considering a long term contract f
ID: 3667676 • Letter: A
Question
Assume you are a network manager, and you are considering a long term contract for network equipment and/or services. Why is it important to consider carefully the decisions that will commit the firm for a long period of time? Discuss three reasons for carefully considering long-term decisions, and describe three examples of how a poor decision in these areas might affect the organization’s ability to be successful. Include specifics where possible. Your initial response should be a minimum of 300 words in length. Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Are their approaches logical? Are they missing important elements that should be considered? What other areas might they want to consider? Your replies .
Explanation / Answer
Whenever we consider for long-term contract for network equipment or services, we look into several aspects. First and foremost is the our requirement. The requiment could be current as well as future. The reason for both is if you are just buying for future requirements. Then, the system will idle for a large amount of time, whereas you could have invested that money in some other things. Also, in future the services/ protocol may be become outdated. So your purchased system may not work well. Also, if you just see the current requirements, then your costly equipment may become outdated in th next few years, wasting your money. Therefore, the decision should be a balance between current and future requirement.
For example, me as a network administrator, whenever we purchase a computing server, we look for certain questions. The number of users going to use that system? the kind of codes they will run in the system, is the system more I/O or CPU specific? Do we need to handle server requests in bulks? does it has enough RAM to handle user requests etc. Not only the current requirements, we also look how can the system be made scalable. Scalabilty is very important issue. Since, if your system cannot scale, it is of no use. Scalability demands system proper standadization protocols, extensive load testing etc.
Another important aspect of taking long term decisions is to consider the end users of the system. We cann't buy system that people cannot use. For example, if we purchase some linux command line system for windows audience. The end users won't like the system and it would be difficult to engage the end users. Also, whenever we go for long term desicions, we consult subject expects (that have seen both fall and rise of systems), end users, reviewers and competitors.
Overall, long term decision is a difficult task, since it envolves lot of stake holders. We need to consider the feedback of each stakeholder. We need to consider the positive and negative aspects of the system inself. We also need to consider the current and future requirements of the firm. We need to see the scalability of system as well the firm.