BWE ICT Assessment

The headquarter is located in a five-floor building, with a server room situated on the third floor. BWE recently acquired the second floor, which consists of two apartments. The first apartment will be assigned for the IT department, while the second apartment will be used as offices for the management. BWE's headquarter is subscribed to a DSL plan provided by ogero, an internet service provider company. The service includes open speed of bandwidth, unlimited traffic, and no public IP. The branches are connected to the headquarter with the ability to connect to the headquarter's servers. Communication and information sharing between the headquarter and branches is essential for any business and is usually done through a shared IT network. The network infrastructure at BWE's headquarter in Zahle was assessed by LWP, focusing on the cabling structure, switching, and routing. The cabling structure consists of horizontal and vertical cabling. Horizontal cabling is the cable running from the user's endpoint to the switch in the same floor, while vertical cabling, also known as Backbone, is the cable running from the switch in the server's room cabinet to the switches in each floor. The vertical cabling structure consists of two cables, one running from the switch in the fourth floor cabinet to the core switch in the server room and another running from the switch in the third floor cabinet to the core switch in the server room. These cables are category 5e, providing 1000 Mb/s bandwidth over 60 meters of lengths. The horizontal cabling is a mix of cat5e and cat6 cables, used to connect the user's workstation to the related switches cabinets. BWE's switching devices in use include four manageable switches and two unmanageable switches. The manageable switches are located in the server room and are capable of operating on a gigabit bandwidth. The unmanageable switches are located in the cabinets on the third and fourth floors and are limited to 100 Mbps bandwidth. The table below lists the switching devices in use: Device Location Brand Model Operation Bandwidth Fiber Switch 1 Server room 3COM Baseline Switch 2928-SFP Plus Manageable 1000Mbps Yes Switch 4 Cabinet – 3rd Floor D-Link DES-1024D Unmanageable 100Mbps No Switch 5 Cabinet – 4th Floor D-Link DES-1024D Unmanageable 100Mbps No Switch 6 Cabinet – 4th Floor 3COM Baseline Switch 2928-SFP Plus Manageable 1000Mbps Yes The assessment of BWE's ICT infrastructure has identified existing and future needs, and provided recommendations to improve BWE's ICT efficiency. The recommendations include upgrading the switching devices, improving the cabling structure, and implementing a new server room. The estimated budget for these recommendations is included in the budget plan.