Analyzing IT Infrastructure Management for International Plastics

This report provides an executive summary of the IT infrastructure management at International Plastics, a manufacturing organization. The company's network includes a corporate headquarters and R&D section connected via WAN to three plants in China, Pontiac, and Albany. The headquarters network, mirrored in China, features computer terminals for various departments linked to Windows and UNIX servers, along with IP phones and printers. The Pontiac office connects the manufacturing floor with office computers via Cisco Ethernet switches, utilizing a blade server for ERP, file exchange, and printing. The Albany network design is similar to Pontiac's, with a different number of computers and printers. The report references cellular network infrastructure and network function virtualization to provide a comprehensive overview of the IT setup.

Running head: IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
IT Infrastructure Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Executive Summary:
The International Plastics is a manufacturing organization which is currently need an
infrastructure for their manufacturing processes. Considering the network diagram of
International Plastics the main corporate headquarters and R&D section is connected with
other three plants through WAN connection. These three plants are located in different
locations. Plastic fan plant is located in China, custom plastic parts plant is located Pontiac
and plastic beverage and container plant is located Albany.
The network structure of International Plastic’s headquarter is same with the network
that is present in China. There are total four computer terminals for the marketing
department, corporate department, HR department and finance department respectively. This
system are connected directly to the Windows network server, windows exchange server and
with the UNIX ERP server through Ethernet. Each of this department is also having 2 HP
LaserJet printers. There are total 35 IP phones distributed within the whole headquarters. In
this network structure there are total two switches which controls the whole network. Both of
the switch is connected with R&D network which having a MAC Pro system that is
connected with a separate Windows server. The MAC system is connected parallel with three
colour printers and one HP plotter. One of these switches is connected with satellite base
stations which is connected with VOIP router. The VOIP router is connected with 24 port
Linksys Hub for internet connectivity in whole network structure. In case of power supply
failure, UPS has been leveraged for additional power supply within supply base station.
Considering the network diagram of Pontiac office, it is connecting the manufacturing
floor with the office computer and printers. The manufacturing floor is connected with the
Cisco Ethernet switches. This switch is again connected with a Cisco Ethernet switch and
with a NAS Disk array through fibre link. A blade server is engaged in this case and provided

the services of local ERP, file exchange and printing. The second Cisco Ethernet switch takes
the internet connection through a Cisco Router 2900, but before that the main connection is
filtered through a firewall system. The second Cisco Ethernet switch is connected with 48
port patch panels that through which the computer terminals are connected. In this case four
network printers are also connected using the CAT 5 cabling. Here, the total number of
computers are 45 and all of them are Dell Vostro and having same configuration of Intel core
i3 processes and 4 GB of ram. In these four printers two are HP LaserJet M602n, one is HP
LaserJet Pro MFN M425dn and the other one is the HP CP4225n Colour laser printer. For
additional power backup to the blade server and NAS Disk array APC smart UPS is utilised
in this case.
The network design in the Albany of the International Plastics is quite similar with the
network design in Pontiac. The main difference in this case is that the number of operating
computers and the numbers of printers are different. For Albany there are total 20 operational
computers, having same configuration with Pontiac network diagram. In this case, only one
printer is leveraged which is HP CP4225n Laser Printer.

Bibliography:
David, N., Sendik, O., Messer, H. and Alpert, P., 2015. Cellular network infrastructure: The
future of fog monitoring?. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 96(10), pp.1687-
1698.
Han, B., Gopalakrishnan, V., Ji, L. and Lee, S., 2015. Network function virtualization:
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pp.90-97.