Redundant WAN Connection

Having two redundant WAN connections allows continuity of business in the organization in case one of the links will fail. Since most of the resources are stored online, network connectivity will be needed to ensure continuity of business. Having two WAN connections reduces the impact the organization can experience when there is downtime (Spring 88). When Sifers-Grayson have a single network, and there is a failure, there will be nothing to rely on and the organization will be adversely affected. But with redundant networks, when the primary connection goes down, the other one will be used hence ensuring Sifers-Grayson will have access to resources stored online and no business will be affected. 

Question 2.

The security vulnerability the WAN connection have is having the two connections buried underground while they are also running together. In situations where there is physical damage, both the high-speed fibre optic cable and the copper cable from telco will be affected. The result will be the destruction of network connectivity for the organization which will affect some of the operations. One of the physical damage can be when people dig trenches around the area where the cables are running without knowledge of their presence. To avoid this, Sifers-Grayson can select one connection to be stationed elsewhere and not running together.

Question 3.

1. Redundant network cable should be wired separately. When planning on how and where to place the network cables, other factors such as the potential for being affected by a fire, water and cable cuts should be considered (Marianne 54).

2. Selection of hardware and software. To ensure the needs of all the people are met, the number of users to use the system should first be established and the best selected. The best software’s should also be selected and installed to guarantee security in the network. That will help to ensure no unauthorized users will have access to the network.

3. Use of wireless broadband technology. Sifers-Grayson should consider the use of wireless broadband which is good for a networking a wide area. The benefit it offers is that it can be a good alternative for network cabling (Alex 1). It is cheap to install as antennae’s will be the ones needed to be installed in various locations.

Work Cited

Alex Goldman. “The FCC Decision and the use of White Spaces.” Wireless Internet Service

Providers Association. (2011).

Marianne Swanson, Pauline Bowen, Amy Wohl Phillips, Dean Gallup, David Lynes. NIST

Special Publication 800-34 Rev. 1: Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems. (2010). pp. 52-55.

Spring, N.T., Wetherall, D. A protocol-independent technique for eliminating redundant network

traffic. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2000 conference on Data communication (2000). Volume 30 Issue 4, Pages 87-95.