RECENT ASSIGNMENT

CIS3003 Assignment 2

Due date: 28 April 2014
Weighting: 15%

Part A: Mini Case Study (2 pages in total)
You are to provide a one page essay for the following mini case questions (total of two pages) from the textbook. The essay is to be a 1.5 line spacing response to the following mini case.
Pat’s Engineering Works (textbook edition 11 page 263)
(15 marks)
The essays do not require in text references or a list of references.

Part B Hands on
You are to go through the Hands on exercise 5A on page 187 of the textbook. You will need access to a networked computer with access to the PING, ARP and TRACEROUTE tool. For some of the activity if you have a restrictive firewall you will need to search for a looking glass type services and modify your report accordingly (Goolge looking glass tools). The exercise has a number of activities for you to perform but for the assignment we only need the output and discussion for the following activities. IF you are using non Windows machines the commands may be slightly different.
IPCONFIG: Finding your computer settings
PING: Finding other computers
ARP: Displaying Physical Address
TRACERT: Finding Routes through the Internet
Each of the activities listed include a number of deliverables that you will need to attach as part of your assignment submission. For the output of the commands use the screen capture capabilities. Under Windows use Cmd Alt Print Screen keys combinations to capture the current active window and then paste into word document. For Mac OS use Command-Shift-4, then space, and then click a window you want to capture
(15 marks)

Part C: Report (10 pages for body of the report)
Management has identified that in order to provide employees with mobile access a more flexible networking environment needs to be created. Since the organisation uses a typical client server network design, management feels that it would be a simple and reasonably inexpensive process to add extra connection capabilities to realise the mobile cloud based design benefits.
In order to proceeded with the planning and implementations of the solution you as the IT manager have been called in to provide a report on the type of changes that would need to be implemented and further research on the cloud solutions.
During your initial discussion with management you highlighted how your department has only just finished the process of modernise from the existing ad-hoc system to the new client server solution. The current new design, due to the processing needs of the applications utilised by the organisation the employee’s workstations had to be quite upscale and powerful systems in terms of CPU power, memory size, network speed and storage. The back end systems are used mainly as secure data access and storages.
The new mobile devices direction from management means that the network design needs a major rethink and redesign especially if portion or all of the services will be moved to the cloud. The organisation also plans to split into two separate offices to bring their operations closer to their main partners and customers in the future. It is believed that their proximity to major partners will help them better service the partner needs and grow the organisation.
As a result of the new direction you have been tasked to provide a report to address the following areas of concern and also provide more information to facilitate a better decision making process.
Note: When we say Mobile devices we mean devices that can be used by employees to access the data and services in a unstructured network environment as well as through other third party networks.
• The cloud solutions are not well formulated at the moment due to some misunderstanding of what the term actually means. Describe the type of cloud services available, the benefits and disadvantages of each solution.
• Nominate the cloud solution that would be best for the organisation as describe above with justifications for your selection. Also include any possible problems that the solution might pose in the future plans.
• Consider the overall impact that the introduction of new devices would have on the network functionality and availability. Identify possible problems and issues that the introduction of mobile computing could have on the network services.
• It is evident that the introduction or restructure can cause a major disruption to the employees with having to adjust to the new technology, new security and access restrictions and so on. Provide advice the management on the need for training and reskilling you think would be needed to maximise the adoption of new technology by the organisational employees.
(70 marks)

Please read the instructions very carefully.
Report Format for Assignment 2 Part C (10 pages body)
The report needs to be a standard business report and you must reference correctly in Harvard style.
Your report MUST follow the structure for a report as specified in the Faculty of Business Communications skills handbook, however, you will not be required to submit the following sections: Glossary or Appendices. You may want to consider the structure of the marking scheme when structuring the body of your report.
Please view this presentation is you need information regarding writing reports and report styles.
https://usqdirect.usq.edu.au/usq/items/13b1f190-857b-f83d-2df6-3a0860c381f4/0/
Your report must include references where you have used other sources (both in the body text and listed at the end of the report) as specified in the Communication Skills Handbook. For current reference style guide please refer to the online document at http://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing/harvard-agps-referencing-guide
• Marks will be deducted for submitted work with missing or incorrect references.
• Work submitted with no references in the body of the report will NOT be accepted.
• Your report must be printed with 1.5 line spacing; at least 12-point font size; and the body of the report should be no more than 10 pages of single-sided A4 paper.
• Penalty will apply for exceeding the page limit.
• Assignments not following the report style will be heavily penalised.