Terra Flora, a retail floral corporation, began selling flowers in the 1970s. Over the next 25 years, Terra Flora expanded to include a nursery business and a terra cotta manufacturing plant that produces pots and vases for the retail outlets. Now, in the mid-1990s, these three semiautonomous businesses employ more than 40,000 employees in eight locations, as shown in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1 Terra Flora organization
Terra Flora recently physically combined the networks of all divisions, resulting in the network shown in the diagram on the inside back cover of this book.
This diagram represents the significant elements that are present in the Terra Flora network. The size and complexity of a multinational corporate network cannot be represented in a single diagram. References in this book use the computer names on this diagram to provide the network context of a particular scenario. In some scenarios, the actual computer shown in the diagram is used, such as domain controllers or DNS servers. Other scenarios include references to computers that are not illustrated in the diagram; however, the computer's relative position in the network is shown.
Within this network, each of Terra Flora's three divisions has its own autonomous network and information sources, as shown in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Terra Flora Systems
Information stored | Format | Computer system | |
Retail Division | |||
Retail order database, Accounting database, Employee database | ORACLE database | Sun® Solaris | |
Corporate and employee information | Word and other documents | Intel-based servers running Windows NT and NetWare | |
Manufacturing Division | |||
Parts and price lists | Microsoft Excel worksheets | Intel-based servers running Windows NT and NetWare | |
Raw materials tracking database | DB2 database | AS/400 running VMS | |
Wholesale terra cotta gifts catalog | Microsoft Publisher | Intel-based computers running Windows NT Workstation | |
Nursery Division | |||
Inventory and wholesale order database | RPG/400 | DECpc150 running DEC PATHWORKS | |
Wholesale flower catalog | ORACLE database | Sun Solaris | |
The network was made to interoperate by using Windows NT as the integrating platform. Additionally, Terra Flora centralized administration tasks at corporate headquarters in Sacramento, California.
Now that the entire corporation is interconnected, Terra Flora is faced with the challenge of making its information available on the network to everyone in the company—and to customers around the world.
Microsoft Internet Information Server has been selected as the tool to bring Terra Flora's information to its employees and customers. The scenarios in this book explain how Internet Information Server makes information accessible internally and to customers around the world.
You can find more information about the Terra Flora example, including extensive information about how Windows NT Server can be used to achieve networking interoperability, in the Windows NT Server Networking Guide.