Meeting Your Bandwidth Requirements For Supply Chain Management Applications

In today's business world it is critical for companies to deploy supply-chain management (SCM) systems to enhance efficiency across the product lifecycle by streamlining procurement, production, fulfillment, and distribution processes. Deploying an SCM solution that provides the intended return on investment requires that the applications, servers, and enterprise network infrastructure work together seamlessly. This is easier said than done and will necessitate a thorough evaluation of your bandwidth needs to meet the demand.

SCM solutions require integration of applications and data across multiple geographically dispersed supply chain partners, as well as internal integration with legacy systems. To ensure success, your organization must deploy robust, end-to-end dedicated bandwidth that delivers highly reliable and strictly monitored QoS (Quality of Service).

An SCM solution is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Access to SCM applications and data must be guaranteed for all of your users, inside and outside the enterprise. Your company must provide sufficient bandwidth to support constant data flow between desktops and servers at the company headquarters, geographically dispersed suppliers and partners, manufacturers, distributors, customer service call centers, and for mobile users and teleworkers. Connections between servers and desktops must provide the necessary bandwidth to deliver resource-intensive services, real-time application data to all users, and enable integration of disparate data sources.

At your headquarters office, where corporate Web, application, and database servers reside and WAN links converge, availability and security are key. A redundant backbone switching architecture with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to servers and access switches is often indicated, along with a modular, enterprise-class routing platform that supports advanced security features and WAN bandwidth management.

In order to ensure availability over time, a successful SCM solution should be built on an application design, server architecture, and network infrastructure that can grow easily as your business grows. This is called scalability. The solution must provide the ability to easily provision more WAN bandwidth to meet peak needs, to scale with fluctuating traffic between vendors and partners, and to adapt quickly as supply chain partners are added or replaced. To accomplish this, the solution should readily accommodate new server connections, partners, and locations. Network routers should provide enough capacity to easily and economically provision additional bandwidth as traffic increases, or to add new locations as the geographic reach of the supply chain expands.

Each location involved in your SCM infrastructure will require dedicated bandwidth to meet the functions conducted at that location. This likely will involve some combination of the following choices and is dependent on the complexity of the deployed SCM system and the size of your organization:

- DS3 bandwidth, also known as a T3, is the reliable, all-purpose, digital connection for extremely high-volume requirements. Operating at 45 Mbps (equivalent to 28 DS1 circuits, or 672 DS0 channels), DS3 can provide a cost-effective solution for smaller locations in the SCM network. With DS3, you can link your high-volume host computers for resource sharing and load balancing.

- OC3 bandwidth is a fiber optic line delivering 155 Mbps (equivalent to 3 DS3 circuits) designed for those who expect constant, high bandwidth requirements. For a mid to large size business implementing a SCM system....this will likely be your choice for infrastructure backbone (e.g. headquarters) bandwidth.

- Gigabit Ethernet is a version of Ethernet, which supports data transfer rates of 1 Gigabit (1,000 megabits) per second. Large scale deployment of SCM systems and larger organizations will likely consider this solution.

The process to determine and than find the appropriate bandwidth solution for your SCM application can be a daunting task. Use of an unbiased professional bandwidth broker will save your IT staff countless hours of effort and headaches while guiding them through the technology minefields towards the best choice for system reliability and cost. I strongly suggest you take advantage of their expertise.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

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Challenges And Solutions For Medical Imaging Bandwidth Requirements

A Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) is integral to the smooth, timely, and quality delivery of health care in every medical setting today. Not only are they integral but they are crucial to the clinical and business aspects of radiology practice as we know it. However, PACS have long faced challenges in delivering this digital imaging support to such diagnostic modalities as X-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Teleradiology. The main issue has always been the availability of sufficient bandwidth (load and speed).....at a reasonable cost.....to support the growing demand for quick easy web-based access by medical providers. As Medical Imagery becomes more and more digitalized....with bandwidth improvements, communication will be faster and easier, and it will be possible to transmit heavier studies in less time and with high quality.

An internal (facility owned) PACS leverages a common infrastructure for all the digital imaging modalities and provides image storage and archiving....with recall as needed....for an entire medical facility or campus. By instituting a web enabled distribution system a facility PACS is able to provide ready image access to the immediate radiology department as well as the full range of clinicians and specialists, especially surgeons and referring physicians. To ensure functionality at the high level required means facing the heavy bandwidth appetite of the modalities supported.

Even an Application Service Provider (ASP) company that hosts applications, manages them and rents access to images from a centrally managed facility is not immune to the bandwidth concern. ASP providers allow an institution to outsource information technology applications infrastructure, management, support and maintenance. As defined by the ASP Industry Consortium, ASP service is designed to deliver and manage applications and computer services from remote data centres to multiple users via the Internet or a private network.? therein lies they're challenge....a high bandwidth requirement delivered over often a subtantial difference on an on-demand basis.

PACS manufacturers have developed numerous solutions to get around the bandwidth problem. They've compressed images, supported standard network interfaces and protocols such as Ethernet and TCP/IP, and deployed local area networks (LANs) with high bandwidths to link hospitals or referring physicians in a contained environment. But how do they handle bandwidth when institutions are separated by tens or hundreds of miles, especially since images have become larger and more complicated?

Some PACS vendors rely on the communications infrastructure in an area, which varies with the bandwidth that is available from the local telephone company and the price a hospital is willing to pay, said Frederick Wagner, manager of PACS for Toshiba. Other PACS providers offer streaming technology that transports high-quality images in real time over any bandwidth, including telephone lines and enterprise-wide LANs.

Another contributing solution is a technology called Pixels-on-Demand by Real Time Media. This technology speeds processing by capturing images from archives or PACS storage without waiting for preprocessing, immediately streams data from selected regions of interest, and delivers the most visually important features of an image to the viewer first.

The underlying solution to the bandwidth issue goes beyond even system technologies, network interfaces, image compression, and infrastructure protocols. It lies with the provision of the appropriate bandwidth capacity (circuits)....at a reasonable cost....via leveraging the fiber-optic infrastructure available throughout the United States. Enabling direct fiber-optic connectivity internally, or between hospitals and distant data centers, is the most cost-effective application of bandwidth. Use of Optical Carrier (Sonet Ring) bandwidth (likely OC3 or OC48) or Gigabit Ethernet allows a medical facility to optimize it's Local Area Network (LAN). While ASP organizations can scale their application service provider (ASP) service to small imaging centers as well as large, far-flung health systems.

To find a fiber optic infrastructure provider which can deliver the right bandwidth solution for your medical imaging application.....I strongly recommend that you take advantage of the free consultation available from an independent bandwidth broker such as DS3-Bandwidth.com.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

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