Group Project Small part

To provide for network Business Continuity\Disaster Recovery and Security the Checkpoint firewall cluster at each site will provide the Application Control, Data Loss Prevention, URL filtering and a redundant firewall gateway in the event of a gateway failure (Application Control Software Blade, n.d.). Additionally, the Checkpoint 5100 firewall provides Next-Generation Threat Prevention using their SandBlast Zero Day technology, this is significant security function in that it detects and eliminates potential threats, signature based malware is unable to detect (SandBlast Network Security, n.d.).

To provide for Business Continuity\Disaster Recovery, each location will have two Windows Domain controllers, with DHCP and DNS configured (Roos, n.d.). This provides each site the ability to authenticate users and provide network services without utilizing the WAN links (Mathers, Poggeymyer, et al, 2017). Network performance is increased since users will have local access to needed network resources, without having to use the higher latency, lower bandwidth WAN links (Gottlieb, (2012). Internet connectivity is provided locally, and the local office Checkpoint firewall cluster can provide bandwidth restrictions so as to eliminate high-bandwidth, non-essential traffic (Application Control Software Blade, n.d.). Additionally, file servers that house home directories and department file shares will be configured to use Microsoft Distributed File System (Distributed File System (DFS) Functions, n.d.). This will ensure the home directories and shared data drives are available at each location; even in the event the site has no connectivity. Replicating the file server contents also eliminates the need for utilizing the WAN to access data for users travelling to other office locations. Backups can be run at local offices and since file shares are replicated there is no need to do across the WAN backups. Additionally, doing local backups provides multiple redundant backups, in the event one backup system is down or corrupt (Remote/branch offices backup and recovery, n.d.).

Application Control Software Blade | Check Point Software. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2018, from https://www.checkpoint.com/products/application-control-software-blade/

Mathers, B., Poggeymyer, L., Kumar, S., & Plett, C. (2017, May 17). Planning Domain Controller Placement. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/plan/planning-domain-controller-placement

Gottlieb, A. (2012, October 08). Addressing WAN latency issues in application performance. Retrieved from https://www.networkworld.com/article/2223275/cisco-subnet/addressing-wan-latency-issues-in-application-performance.html

SandBlast Network Security | Check Point Software. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2018, from https://www.checkpoint.com/products/sandblast-network-security/

Remote/branch offices backup and recovery - Veeam. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2018, from https://www.veeam.com/remote-branch-office-backup-recovery.html

Distributed File System (DFS) Functions. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2018, from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb524801(v=vs.85).aspx