VII: THE EVOLUTION OF NETWORK DESIGN AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO.

The Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago's computerization effort had its beginnings in the IBM mainframe technology. During the period 1990/1991 a Token Ring Local Area Network (LAN) was implemented in an attempt to satisfy a need by User Departments for flexibility to develop and possibly modify their own systems and massage their data using the various spreadsheet, word processing and database applications supported on the PC. This LAN consisted of an IBM server running the Novell Netware operating system, with PC and Mac clients. The LAN Design of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has been changing ever since. A LAN with a similar configuration was later introduced for training and testing purposes, and as the environment evolved, an NCR UNIX host and Sun Spare servers were added. This paper attempts to discuss the experiences of the Bank as it strives to set up an infrastructure to support Open Systems. The impact on the cabling infrastructure of the addition of workstations, printers and print servers are being reviewed. Network components, networking trends and emerging standards for hardware and software had to be re-evaluated. Network Management is another area which is being critically assessed. As these changes are being reviewed and implemented, we are eagerly anticipating an environment which is less stressful, more reliable and manageable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]