Architecture Analysis and Modeling for Banfield

Client: Banfield of Medical Management International, Inc., Portland, OR

Project Statement:
Banfield, a subsidiary of Medical Management International, Inc., has a requirement to conduct an analysis of its existing system architecture (system architecture is defined as the servers, clients, network, data, and applications components that make up the system). The existing architecture consists of dialup lines and local area networks that support the store Foxpro applications and the reporting to headquarters in Portland, OR. The analysis must identify key information to upgrade and evolve the architecture based on future plans with Pet-II and to share networking assets with PetSmart. Pet-II is the next generation of applications needed to better support current and future business plans with the Banfield information systems in the hospitals and headquarters.

CACI Services Involvement:
The objective of this engagement is for CACI to provide analysis and planning support to the Banfield architecture and application team to better determine the requirements the new architecture. The analysis will include support in identifying and validating possible choices and impacts of varying client/server application and data base architectures within the new Pet-II information system and any associated networking issues. Since the application and data base architectures of Pet-II may drive performance and bandwidth requirements on the networks and servers in the future, care must be taken in the planning for network upgrades to meet those capacity requirements.

Deliverables:
CACI provided Banfield with four COMNET III "What-If" simulation models, and a written report documenting findings from the model/personal research.

Results:
Performance results from the four "What-If" simulation models indicate planned infrastructure can support Pet II at a load level up to 3 times the expected average load.

Simulation models also indicated the 56 kbps V.90 modem uplink being heavily used in large hospitals (54%) during an average hour.