Title: Planning, designing and implementing an enterprise network in a developing nation

Authors: Augustine C. Odinma, Sergey Butakov, Evgeny Grakhov, Felix Bollou

Addresses: School of IT and Communications, American University of Nigeria, Yola Bypass, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. ' School of IT and Communications, American University of Nigeria, Yola Bypass, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. ' School of IT and Communications, American University of Nigeria, Yola Bypass, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. ' School of IT and Communications, American University of Nigeria, Yola Bypass, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract: The enterprise network is the lifeblood of any Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) with more than one site or supply chain partner. It enables access to business information and allows for profitable and effective communication flows between employees in different enterprise sites. Network enterprise network equipment are mature and ubiquitous, but the quality of services provided by similar networks varies from city to city and from country to country. In particular, the quality variation gap between most of the cities in some developing nations and their counterparts in advanced nations is very wide. This is due to the lack in developing nations of an adequate IT infrastructure, which is taken for granted in developed nations. Planning an enterprise network in a developing nation is almost like planning it in the middle of a desert. This paper briefly discusses the architecture of an enterprise network. It examines the barriers to planning, designing and implementing an enterprise network in some developing nations. This paper also compares the services between a typical city in a developing nation and that in an advanced nation and offers some recommendations for creating an enabling environment for improvement.

Keywords: enterprise networking; network quality; virtual private networks; VPN; MAN links; infrastructure barriers; enterprise network planning; enterprise network design; enterprise network implementation; developing countries; Nigeria; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2008.018783

International Journal of Enterprise Network Management, 2008 Vol.2 No.3, pp.301 - 317

Published online: 18 Jun 2008 *

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