Background:
Hiabuv Toys is a medium-sized manufacturer of corporate marketing products. The company designs personalized clothing, glasses, hats, and many other marketing products. It specializes in manufacturing unique items for large companies.
The company is acquiring one of its clothing suppliers. This
supplier is named Wide World Importers. The supplier is well known and has an
Internet presence on its own domain. This domain is named
wideworldimporters.com.
Wide World Importers will operate independently of Hiabuv
Toys.
Problem Statement:
Hiabuv Toys reports that there are too many IT
administrators in the domain. Mainframe administrators with minimal experience
have administrator rights to the domain. The company wants to decrease
technical support costs by performing all technical support at an IT center in
Detroit.
Organization:
Headquarters:
Hiabuv Toys headquarters is locates in Detroit. There are
two separate locations in Detroit one for IT and one of the corporate offices.
The IT center has 100 employees, and the corporate offices have 2.000
employees.
Manufacturing Facilities:
The company employs 20.000 people in nine manufacturing
facilities in the United States an in two facilities in Canada. Of these 20.000
employees, 9.000 use computers. Manufacturing facilities are also being built
in Europe and Mexico.
Geography:
The company is divided among the following regions:
East 3.000 users:
- Boston, Massachusetts -> Regional Headquarters?
- New York, New York
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Midwest 3.000 users:
- Chicago, Illinois ->
Regional Headquarters?
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
West 2.000 users:
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
-> Regional Headquarters?
- Las Vegas,
Nevada
- San Francisco,
California
Canada 1.000
users
- Montreal, Quebec
- Toronto, Ontario ->
Regional Headquarters?
The Montreal office will be permanently closed in the near
future. Many of the users from this office will be transferred to Toronto.
Although the Montreal office is scheduled in close during the Windows 2000 implementation,
it might not close until after the implementation is complete.
Hiabuv Toys is opening offices in Europe. A sales office was
recently opened in Frankfurt Germany. Manufacturing facilities are also being
built in Mexico. These facilities can be uses by all sales regions. The Company
is also planning to open manufacturing facilities in Europe.
Existing IT Environment:
WAN:
Pittsburgh and New York connect to Boston by means of
56-Kbps lines. Boston connects to the IT center by means of a 1.544-Mbps line.
Cincinnati and Cleveland connect to Chicago by means of a
56-Kbps line. Chicago connects to the IT center by means of a 1.544-Mbps line.
San Francisco and Las Vegas connect to Oklahoma City by
means of a 56-Kbps line. Oklahoma City connects to the IT center by means of a
1.544-Mbps line.
Europe, Toronto, and Mexico also connect to the IT center by
means of a 56-Kbps line.
Detroit headquarters connects to the IT center by means of a
1.544-Mbps line.
Montreal connects to Toronto by means of a 56-Kbps line.
Bandwidth usage is minimal.
Client Computers:
All of the desktop client computers run Windows NT
Workstation 4.0. The portable computers run either Microsoft Windows 95 or
Windows 98.
Network:
There are three Windows NT 4.0 domains: HIABNA, HIABEU, and
HIABENG. All locations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States are in HIABNA.
Frankfurt is in HIABEU.
There is a two-way trust between HIABNA and HIABEU. All
locations use Windows NT Server 4.0 for DHCP, WINS, and DNS. Each location also
has a BDC and a separate application server. However, Frankfurt has a PDC and a
BDC for only the HIABEU domain. There is not a HIABEU BDC in North
America.
Because of security concerns, users in the engineering
department have their own domain. This domain is named HIABENG. The engineering
department also provides administration for this domain. They administer all
user accounts and resources. HIABNA trust the HIABENG domain.
On the HIABNA domain, password expires after 45 days. On the
HIABEU domain, passwords expire after 30 days. (Comments: Need separate
domains to maintain this with GPO’s).
Each manufacturing facility currently uses a mainframe
computer to process orders and quotes that must be processed quickly. The
mainframe computer uses only TCP/IP.
Network Roles:
Each of the regional headquarters has a technical support
staff. The office in Mexico is managed from the IT Center in Detroit. The
locations without network administrators have mainframe administrators. These
mainframe administrators also help with domains administration. The mainframe
administrators respond to support calls for basic issues and add and remove
user accounts. However, their knowledge is usually limited to basic account
administration.
Envisioned IT Environment:
WAN:
Before the Windows 2000 implementation, the 56-Kbps
connection to Europe will be replaced with a 1.544-Mbps line.
However, there is no plan to upgrade the 56-Kbps connections
to Canada and Mexico.
Wide World Importers will connect to Hiabuv Toys by means of
a 256-Kbps line.
Hiabuv Toys wants to continue using the existing IT
administrative structure and security policies for Europe and North America.
Network Roles:
Hiabuv Toys will create two new technical support centers: a
North American support center and a European support center. Each region will
have a small IT staff that will be responsible for basic support such as
password resets and account lockout resets. Tasks that require higher levels of
administrative access or more advanced skills will be performed by the European
or North American support centers. Support for Europe that takes place after
European business hours will be performed by the North American support center.
Each support center will also be responsible for granting
the staff at each region access to resources as needed.
However, the North American and European support centers
want complete control of their own resources. The engineering department will
remove its domain during the Windows 2000 implementation. The users and
resources in this department will be integrated into Active Directory as normal
users and resources.
Software:
A software development company is in the process of creating
human resources software for Hiabuv Toys. This software will be integrated with
Active Directory, and it will enable employee management for all of Hiabuv
Toys. This software will add additional attributes to user objects. Wide World
Importers is also developing similar software. Both software solutions will be
implemented independently. (Comments: need own forest)
Internet:
Hiabuv Toys has registered hiabuvtoys.com.
Wide World Importers has registered wideworldimporters.com.
Client Computers:
Client computers will be upgraded to Windows 2000
Professional.
Policies:
Each region should be created in Active Directory as a separate entity. Group Policy can vary among regions and locations. Technical support staff in each region needs to have the ability to change policies at each location.