QUESTION $4(15$ marks$)$

a$.$ What does IT infrastructure mean and why is it necessary to have an IT Infrastructure

diagram?

b$.$ Natural Growers is a new supermarket chain formed by a small group of farmers who

believe in growing organic foods. They have built $5$ supermarkets in key districts across

the country and have a centralized management office in country's business capital. You

have been contracted to design and implement the IT infrastructure for the company

including real$-$time transmission of transactions from the supermarkets to their Network

Operations Centre $($NOC$).$ Each supermarket has a Database Server, Web Server, an

Application Server and several workstations. The heads of the company want to minimize

the cost implementing the IT Infrastructure whilst maintaining a robust, fast network that

also allows employees to work from home if they have to$.$

Provide a diagram showing three $(3)$ possible infrastructure configurations for a

supermarket's network to communicate with the NOC thereby allowing Natural Growers

to make an informed choice. Clearly state which infrastructure is most secure and why,

showing on the diagram where their servers and workstations reside. Also state any

software or service$($s$)$ that needs to run within the infrastructure to meet the requirements.