Network Support Technologies- CMT
3345
Case Study - Barcroft Media
Final Stage
Student Number:
i
Table of Contents
Network Support Technologies- CMT 3345 .................................................................. i
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Cost analyzes ................................................................................................................. 5
The SSITI of Strategic area can be discussed as follows............................................... 8
Physical ...................................................................................................................... 8
Logical ....................................................................................................................... 9
Human ...................................................................................................................... 10
The SSITI under Policies area can be discussed as follows. Further company policies
can be set up by considering the following areas. ....................................................... 11
Physical .................................................................................................................... 11
Logical ..................................................................................................................... 11
Human ...................................................................................................................... 12
The SSITI under Best Practices can be discussed as follows ...................................... 13
Physical .................................................................................................................... 13
Logical ..................................................................................................................... 13
Human ...................................................................................................................... 14
Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 19
i
Introduction
The technologies are rapidly developing day by day. Therefore to take competitive
advantages within the competitive market the company must has proper change
management process. As a part of this process the company should follow and apply
new and emerging technologies which are related to the business process in order to
improve their business since the company has been engaged with selling of Digital
Assets such as Text, Image, Videos & Audios, News articles, etc. to worldwide
market. In here company must concern about the cost of new technologies, positive
and negative impact of them for the company and the social, maximum return and
positive growth of the business, safety and security of the company, workflow
implementation, new marketing strategies, etc.
By introducing these technologies to the business process, the company will be able to
achieve set of goals and objectives in very effective and efficient manner. Some of
them are listed as follow.

Produce a high quality and valuable Digital Asset to market.

Cost minimization for overall production.

To keep maximum staff satisfaction within the company.

To earn higher profit from the business than other competitors.

Expand the market segment within the competitive market.

Provides high safety and security for over roll business activities.

To improve psychical behaviors of the employees
Presently company uses servers [ Web & Main ],Firewalls ,FTP, Apple Macs, Mobile
Phones, etc. in order to carry out the business process and using iChat, Skeype as
communication ways and also company uses cameras to take photos and videos for
captioning. Though the company uses these kind of technologies considering present
market situation, the time has become to migrate in to the newly technologies. While
migrating into latest technology the company has to be removed some existing
technologies and adapt into the new technologies. Due to this some resistance may be
occurred and the management should be tact full to overcome these kind of resistance
within the company. According to the present stage the company network architecture
can be displayed as follow.
1
UK Branch
Multifunction
device
PC
PC
PC
Mobile Phone
Wireless Access
point
Switch
Web Server
Main Server
USA Branch
ADSL Router
Firewall
Indian Branch
Multifunction
device
Switch
Firewall
Firewall
Switch
ADSL Router
ADSL Router
PC
PC
Multifunction
device
Wireless Access
point
PC
Wireless Access
point
PC
Mobile Phone
Main Server
Main Server
Mobile Phone
Figure 1.0 – Existing Network Diagram
As a consultant the new network architecture & technological approaches to the company can be describe as follows.
2
UK Branch
Multifunction
device
PC
PC
PC
IPad2
Wireless Access
point
Firewall
ADSL Router
USA Branch
Indian Branch
Proxy Server
Multifunction
device
Main + Mail Server
Firewall
Internet
Firewall
ISP
ADSL Router
PC
PC
VPN
Tunnels
VPN
Tunnels
Wireless Access
point
ADSL Router
Wireless Access
point
Dedicated Web
Server
PC
Proxy Server
Proxy Server
IPad2
Multifunction
device
VPN
Tunnels
PC
Main Server
Main Server
IPad2
Figure 2.0 – Proposed Network Diagram
3
Device Name
Availability
Availability in proposed
in Existing
Network
Reason for Change
Network
Apple iMac
Yes
Yes
Web Server
Yes
Yes(Dedicated Web Server
- Eliminate the following cost
http://iweb.com/dedicated/classicdeals?gclid=CLSy4IyipKoCFQhP
4QodEXPeMQ)
Main server
Yes
Yes
FTP Server
Yes
Yes
Mail Server
No
Yes (One mail server)




Administrative cost
Maintain cost
Operational cost
Security cost
Due to use of VPN and eliminate the
unnecessary hardware usage
Proxy Server
No
Yes
To increase the security & reduce the
bandwidth cost
Multi
Yes
Yes
ADSL Router
Yes
Yes
Switch
Yes
No
Functioning
Devises
In the future all the devises may be
used wireless technology therefore the
cost for the switch is an additional
expense for the company.
This
wireless connectivity go through the
fire wall and proxy
Wireless
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (Software firewall)
To gain the cost benefit
No
Introduce iPad2 by eliminate mobile
Access Point
Firewall
(Hardware
fire wall)
Mobile Phone
Yes
phones & cameras
iPad2
No
Yes
4
Cost analyzes
Device Name
Proposed Network cost
Apple iMac
N/A
Web Server
£82.5
Main Server
£32.0n
*
3
-refer
this
(http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386897,00.asp)
FTP Server
N/A
Mail Server
N/A (Inbuilt )
Proxy Server
£32.0n * 3 (Due to proxy server is running separately)
Multi Functioning Devises
N/A
ADSL Router
N/A
Switch
-£191(http://www.nextag.com/48-port-switch/compare-html)
Wireless Access Point
N/A
Firewall
-£235 *3 (http://www.nextag.com/firewall-hardware/shop-html)
+
£50.1
*3
http://www.macworld.com/article/135888/2008/10/firewalls.html
Mobile Phone
-£278*8
(http://www.slmpriceindex.com/show_phone.php?phone_id=128#)
iPad2
+£447*8
Total net cost
£ 880.80
According to the new proposal, the company can use separate VPN for their business
transactions. Through this VPN the company can be able to implement higher data
security, using of high bandwidth to improve working efficiency and the management
can create authorization limits within the network very easily. Using higher
bandwidth the company can be able to transfer high resolution images and videos
through the FTP and due to this, the fed-ex charges and processing time will be
minimized. Further qulitiness of the production will increase and the company can be
able sell them with higher price. The bandwidth cost may be managed from the
margin of the production selling. Further the approaches of external entities can be
filtered using fire walls and newly implemented proxy servers. The implementation
cost of VPN in much higher, but considering the long-lasting success of the company
that it will be given more benefits and generate more income in the future and it will
5
be a valuable assets for the company. The company can use OS X Lion Server as
their main server instead of their existing server. Through that, they can configure
their own email server for their mail functions and using that server the company can
be able to increase the security of data than third party’s servers such as Gmail, yahoo
mail, etc. company can be customized the mail server according their working
environment. In here though the company has to expense higher cost for purchasing
of mail server, considering the risk impact for internal data that can be justifiable,
because the main business of the company is selling digital assets. The company can
provide iPad2 to the employees by eliminating the usage of Mobile Phones &
Cameras from the business process. Through this, the company can gain a reasonable
cost benefit. iPad2 is contained with Wi-Fi and 3G facility therefore staff can be
communicate between each other very easily and also it can be connected with VPN
also. Therefore the additional time wasting for data sharing such as Images and
Videos will be reduced and the reduced time can uses for business in effectively.
Since the company uses Apple Macs the configuration of both devises can be done in
very easily. By giving iPad2 to employees, that satisfaction, motivation and working
efficiency of them will be increased. It will be given intangible cost benefit to the
company. Further Company can use iPad2 as marketing strategy. Apart of that the
company can use social network and web 2 applications such as Face Book, Blogs,
Wikis, etc for marketing process. The creating FAN pages for business purposes are
unethical thing since the social network is unable to use for business purposes. But by
paying for the social network or web 2 applications the company advertisement can
display within the relevant site. Though the advertising cost is higher, due to the
popularity of the socials networking sites and web 2 applications, the company can be
able to deal with the new business clients throughout the world. In addition the
company can develop a payment service through the PayPal in addition to main
payment service. According to the company view, the web is too old. Therefore the
upgrading of the WEB is given competitive marketing benefit to the company. The
Skype will be removed from the communication process and have to use iChat for
communication since the Skype has been purchased by the Microsoft. If the company
uses Skype furthermore the company may has to pay some subscription for the
service in near future. Therefore away from the Skype in this stage is given cost
benefits to the company since the resistance from the employees can be manage
during few days.
Further company can use yahoo messenger also their
6
communications as alternative product and I proposed the Google could service to the
company in order to increase their workflow management. Free vector graphics editor
applications such as Inkspace and Video editing applications such s HyperEngine-AV
will be introduced to the company as a cost effective methods and all existing
application remove from the company. These applications can be run within the MAC
O/S in and it will be given cost benefit to the company since the purchasing and
updating can be done by freely. In here the company has to conduct some awareness
programs about the new software and it will be an intangible cost for the company.
The apple Macs are not being changed due the company main goal is produce a high
quality and valuable Digital Asset to market. Through the Mac, the graphic designing
works can be done in very quality way.
The Safety and Security of IT Infrastructure [SSITI] is very important to the company
since the company is dealing with valuable digital assets. The proposed structure of
SSITI can be displayed as follows.
Figure 3.0
Presently company uses Fire Walls, Password Protections Processors, etc. as security
methods for IT infrastructure. Considering the new proposal company must has
developed proper SSITI within the company to achieved better business environment.
The company can implement SSITI using the physical, logical & human ways within
the company by considering Company Strategies, Polices and Best Practices.
7
The SSITI of Strategic area can be discussed as follows
Physical

Located server backups in separate geographical area as a Disaster Recovery
Plan.
According to the company views The Company cannot be down for even 10
minutes, therefore proper backup system must be implemented. The backup
server must be updated within every 5min. The Network Attached Storage
[NAS] system which is consider as file-level computer data storage, connected
to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients, can be
also use to backup the data within the network addition to the backup server.

Setup servers in the server room about one feat height from the ground flow
level to protect from the small floods and other natural perils.

Company must develop a proper disaster alarming process to protection of the
company. The company can use smoke detectors, fire alarms, fire doors, flood
detectors, etc. And also to prevent from the hardware and software failures the
company can use following methods

Fault Tolerance – this allows hardware to continue to operate even if
some components fail

Backup & Checkpoints – this allows programs and data to be
recovered to their state before the failure took please. Taking a back up
involves copying data and programs to removable storage medium
such as magnetic tapes, magnetic dicks or optical dick .the choice of
backup medium depends on number factors and must concern about
cost , robustness and volume.

Contingency and recovery planning is also very important to plan what to do
when things go wrong. In here the business continuity planning is important
and company must consider about the following areas when going to be
implement this continuity plan.

Responsibilities

Proprieties

Communication with staff

Backup and standby arrangements
8

Public relations

Risk assessment
In overall the company must has to expense additional cost for implement these
strategies for SSITI .when comparing the assets value and the longstanding stability
of the company with the implementation cost, the cost cannot be considered as
unusual cost since it create better future to company.
Logical

Use Firewalls & Proxy server for the network to deny of unauthorized access.
The company already uses firewalls and by using proposed proxy server the
company can limit the internet access and downloading .A proxy is more
sophisticated. Instead of allowing data through the proxy ‘pretends’ to be the
organization’s systems to anyone trying to access them externally and pretends
to be the external network to anyone trying to access it from inside the
organization. And also the company can be able to use maximum of the
bandwidth and it will be increased the productivity of the company. Though
the company has spend money for the installation of the proxy server that cost
will be manage by reducing the cost for the network using.

Use Intrusion Detection System & Intrusion Prevention Systems [IDP/IPS] to
protect the system from malicious activities and improve the network
security. The main functions of intrusion prevention systems are to identify
malicious activity, log information about said activity, attempt to block/stop
activity, and report activity. Through this application the company will be able
to protect their digital assets from the malicious activities. The intangible
value of the digital assets is much higher than the tangible cost of above
systems.

Use cryptographic protocols such as Security Socket Layer [SSL] through the
network to communicate in very safety manner. A protocol describes how
the algorithms should be used to data transitions. SSL a protocol developed
by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses
a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data. A public key
known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of
9
the message. By implementing these kinds of security menthods the digital
assets can be transfer through the VPN in very safety manner.
Human
 The company can conduct IT awareness programs to the staff about new trends
of IT. Through this, company built knowledgeable workers within the company
and it will help to company since they work 24/7.Further there is no full time
IT person or department, therefore the IT literate staff is a valuable assets for
the company. Though the reasonable cost has to spend for the training
programs, the intangible cost benefit which is generated through the
knowledgeable staff is given cost advantage to the company. The trainings can
be launched as


Compute based training (CBT)

One to one training

Videos

Books and Manuals

Circulars
The company can provide a system in order gather employee’s suggestions
and innovation about the SSITI. Through that company can rectify the lapses
and improve Safety and Security of company. The company can issue
commendation letter or any kind of reward to the employee who suggests the
best innovation idea. It helps to improve employee satisfaction and other
employees are motivated through this process. Due to this the lapses area of
the company can be easily rectified. Though the company has to spend money
for the recognition process the intangible value of the innovations and
suggestion is given cost benefit to the company.
10
The SSITI under Policies area can be discussed as follows.
Further company policies can be set up by considering the
following areas.
Physical

Restrictions can be established by avoiding the use of external storage devices
such as memory sticks, portable hard disks, etc. The harm fills malwares,
spywares, virus can be spread out within company system due the use of these
kinds of devises and the digital assets can be dammed through this. By
established a policy the company can take disciplinary actions against the
employee who violates the policy. This is very cost effective method to
prevent the system from the outside threats.

Company can provide external storages which are configured with security.
However the usage of external memory device is important to employees to
take valuable data for their official usage. Therefore company can provide
security configured devices to carry out the data. Though the cost for the
devices is much higher the intangible cost benefit through this process is
valuable factor to the company.
Logical

Implementing Password policy , E-Mail policy , etc. within the organization
The company must have implemented these kids of policies within the
working environment to reduce misbehaviors of the employees. And the
employees must known about content of these policies and it will be help to
create better working environment within the company. The policies brief how
to use the system applications and what are the limitations of them.

Set up user level accesses into the system according to grade of the employee.
Most of the companies are doing this user level authentication system and this
can apply to the company. Due to these authentications the management can
11
be easily allocate the job functions for each employee and monitor hire
working.

Can be implemented Data Protection act [1998] as a policy within the
organization.
The internal staff may use customers’ data to their personal usage and
sometime they deliver or sell the data to third parties. According to the Data
protection act the personal data shall be obtained only for one or more
specified and lawful purposes, personal data shall be processed in accordance
with the right of data subject under the Act & Data must not be disclosed to
other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about. Therefore
the privacy of the data is very important and if some company violates this
privacy, the customer can go in front of the law with Data Protection act and
consumer protection act. In here also the digital media is valuable evidence if
it is accepted by the court as evidence. Therefore by implementing this act as a
policy of the company the difficulties which can be happened in the future can
be minimized. The financial loss which can be raised due to violation of act
can be controlled by implanting this.

Allocation of bandwidth can be managed in accordance with the user work
class.
According to the company views the expenses for bandwidth is one of the
major issues. Therefore by using router the company can manage the
bandwidth according to the user work classes. It will be help to the overcome
the bandwidth issue for some extend. Further by using VPN this bandwidth
expenses may reduce.
Human

Separate medical treatment policy can be established within the company to
get treatments for deceases which are raised due to electronic impact.
Employee satisfaction & motivation will be improved through this.
The
following health issues can happen while working with computers.

Repetitive Strain injury (RSI)

Back and neck problems

Radiation from screens

Danger from trailing cables
12


Risk of electric shocks
Introduce a digital identification tags for employees.
Wearing of tag can be considered as compulsory rule and it can be established
as a policy. Employee recognition will be improved due to this and by
spending low cost the high intangible cost benefit can be gain through the staff
satisfaction.
The SSITI under Best Practices can be discussed as follows
Physical

Not to use unauthorized devises within the company
The management must take action to develop the employees self behaviors
within the organization. Through this the loyalty for the company will be
automatically raised among the employees. According to that the management
can convey the message to not to use unauthorized devises with the
organization.

Not to use company devises, hard or soft medias [printed medias], for personal
usage.
The internal Medias are intellectual’s property of the company. The
management must give proper awareness to employee about the value of the
intellectual properties and the legal background which is bond with intellectual
property act.
Logical

Log off the system when the relevant work is over.
It will be help to reduce bandwidth cost of the company and increases the
productivity of the company.
13

Prevention from unnecessary downloads such as films, songs, stories,
software, etc.
By implementing proxy server these kind of activities can be control and it
also help to the reduce the bandwidth cost and increase the data transition
speed through the VPN

Not to use unauthorized software within the company network.
By implementing windows group policies theses kind of activities can be
eliminated.
Human

Use Ergonomics theories while working with computes and other electronic
devises. The way how it will be applied within the company can be displayed
from the following pictures
Figure 4.0- Keyboard Handling
14
Figure 5.0- Mouse Handling
Figure 6.0 - Proper way to Sit
15
Figure 7.0 - Proper way to Sit
16
Figure 8.0 - Proper way to Sit
17
Figure 9.0 - Proper way to Adjust the Seat
Figure 9.0 - Proper way to arrange working Zone
Considering the previous IT approaches of company and by implementing proposed
IT solutions for company, the company goals can be achieved in very effective and
efficient way with cost effective manner.
18
Appendix
19