ISM 4133 UBC Zoom Video Communications Technology Analytical Review I included the file with the instruction and a sample. This is an individual research
ISM 4133 UBC Zoom Video Communications Technology Analytical Review I included the file with the instruction and a sample.
This is an individual research assignment in which you develop an analysis of the Technological Needs within the company that you have selected. You may select the company for which you are currently doing the Project however the technological need has to be something different than the Project focus. This is something you are identifying so it does not have to be anything the company liaison told you about.
Process:
1.Identify and select a company in an Industry you are interested in researching.
2.Use business and information systems research databases that are available via Organization and technology websites to obtain information on Industry Standards and Best Practices.
3.Utilize publicly available company reports and company websites to identify specific technology implementations within the company you selected.
4.Follow the structure given below for analysis.
Write and submit a research report with appropriate charts and tables. This should be a minimum length of 4 pages single spaced excluding charts and tables. SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
ISM 4133: ADVANCED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN:
This is an individual research assignment in which you develop an analysis of the
Technological Needs within the company that you have selected. You may select the
company for which you are currently doing the Project however the technological need
has to be something different than the Project focus. This is something you are
identifying so it does not have to be anything the company liaison told you about.
Process:
1. Identify and select a company in an Industry you are interested in researching.
2. Use business and information systems research databases that are available via
Organization and technology websites to obtain information on Industry
Standards and Best Practices.
3. Utilize publicly available company reports and company websites to identify
specific technology implementations within the company you selected.
4. Follow the structure given below for analysis.
5. Write and submit a research report with appropriate charts and tables. This
should be a minimum length of 4 pages single spaced excluding charts and
tables. Submit the report to Safe Assign or Turnitin on Canvas.
The research report must be structured as follows:
1. Introduction: Discuss the background of the Company including Industry and
organizational characteristics.
2. Needs Assessment: Identify Technology needs of the Company against Industry
Standards in ONE of the following areas:
a. Networks and Internet This includes mainframe computers, network
servers, desktops, laptops, web-based services, portals, intranets,
extranets and cloud computing.
b. Mobile and Wireless Technologies This includes mobile applications and
wireless devices.
c. Collaborative Technologies This includes collaboration and groupware
technology such as google docs etc.
d. Enterprise Applications This includes Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) applications, Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems and
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
3. Gap Analysis: Identify the specific Area of Need and do a comparative analysis
of what the company has versus the Benchmark standards obtained from the
Industry.
4. Results: Using a Likert item, how successful has the company been in the efforts
to implement these technologies within the organization?
5. Bibliography: Include all references you used in doing this research. Utilize APA
6th edition format.
Remember: The primary focus is technological needs. Any other issues are secondary.
Technology Needs Analysis for 4 IT Inc.
Student Name
ISM 4133 Advanced Systems Analysis & Design Spring 2017
Instructor: Dr. Pauline Chin
Introduction
4IT is a Managed Service Provider located in the greater Miami area. 4IT has two main
offices. The first office is in Kendall a suburb of Miami proper and the second office is in
Fort Lauderdale. The company also has a local data center located in Palmetto Bay, FL
and an offsite backup in Boston, MA. Managed Services can cover a wide variety of
topics. 4IT does monitoring, repairing, installation, rewiring, and security of clients IT
infrastructures. The most important thing is that we secure and protect our clients data.
The company has a help desk with three layers of team members, Tech I, II, and III,
which are assigned based on technical knowledge. There is also an NOC Manager and
a Help Desk Manager that oversee the helpdesk network operations. Above Vladimir
and Mark is our CIO, Alex Freund. Alex Freund works mainly from the Miami office and
Palmetto Bay. Raymond Mobayed is the CEO of 4IT. 4IT directly use all the services
we provide to clients, such as AWS for its internal business needs and our clients will
need AWS to move away from their on-premise servers.
Needs Assessment
Next to the human capital, data and information may be the next most import piece of
business. Companies may have several vendors to choose from, but the decision has
two choices, premise or cloud servers. There are many types of cloud services
available. 4IT currently uses Microsoft’s Azure or Rackspace to back up client’s critical
data. In addition to backing up, the data 4IT will also use VEEAM to act as a controller
for client’s virtual machines. The virtual machines can be spooled up in a few minutes
and can have several configurations depending on the client’s needs for the project.
Having a virtual machine makes some tasks much more efficient and secure. If a
computer is infected or has been penetrated it is relatively easy to isolate the computer,
delete it, and then create the configuration again from the most recent backup.
Based on the information, the above sounds like a great process, and it is. The only
issue is that some software does not work well together. The process is not always as
seamless as 4IT would like it, since some clients have backups that take hours to load
instead of minutes because of their selected technology. The technology may be dated
and support is no longer available. The firmware or software operating versions may be
different creating an issue in converting the data from the backup to the new virtualized
computer. If the engineers are unable to solve a problem, the issues get escalated to
Alex and Raymond both. They must solve the problem because there is no choice, they
are the last stop in the escalation line. There are times when the tech team will have to
call the vendors of the software directly to resolve the issue. Without intention, a lot of
vendors with a lot of programming languages can inherently create compatibility issues.
Although 4IT is the MSP and their job is to monitor and repair the network, and time is
still money. When a computer issue arises, and team members are reallocated to a
simple” issue can become very costly, very quickly. Having everything on one
compatible system will make the business model more streamlined.
4IT utilizes several vendors to create a complete solution for clients. 4IT will implement
our Barracuda backup service for clients to retrieve email content. It is a cost-effective
way for a client to implement a retrieval system for their email and archives without
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spending a fortune on local premium storage. For the client, this becomes a cloudbased solution which make them more dependent on their internet to use the resource.
With our data center in Palmetto Bay clients use our servers for their virtualization and
backup. One way to reduce the lost production time is to have everything on the same
platform. It is widely known software and hardware companies do not work well
together. Every business wants to have their proprietary software and hardware. So,
although cloud services are not new, it is a concept that is becoming more adopted.
During my experience, peoples understanding of cloud vary from person to person.
Amazon, as it is generally known, started from an online bookstore. Amazon is no
longer just an online bookstore they are an online everything store. Turn on the news
and guaranteed there would be technology news clip about Facebook, Google, Apple,
or Amazon.
The purpose of this paper was to discuss technology needs of the company versus the
technology standards. Unfortunately, as quickly as technology changes, just getting to
the industry standard will mean you are out of business. To stay competitive and ahead
you must project, analyze, and adapt quickly. Amazon may not be the norm today, but
it soon will be. Amazon offers a variety of cloud products.
Note: Image taken from Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Cloud Computing Services. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from
https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg
Each one of the major categories has several subcategories as seen below.
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Note: Image taken from Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Cloud Computing Services. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2017, from
https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg
So, if the need for the client or business is to have all the technology in a safe, secure,
and cost-effective solution, then AWS is a viable option.
Gap Analysis
With everything from load balancing, security, development tools, and analytics
speaking the same language there is an infinitesimal chance of software not working
with each other because of issues or software versions. Several industry experts had
agreed that going with AWS is a better if not best solution. According to tothenew.com
the top ten reasons a user would switch are as follows; Zero CapEx, No-Commitment,
Get Rid of Negotiations, Procurement, Pay Per Use, Security, Flexibility, Global Leader,
Best-in-class PaaS Offerings, API.
(Aggarwal, A.)
What is most interesting, but not surprising, is how security is a focus and has several
bullets points unto itself.
Security:
Data centers are staffed 24×7 by trained security guards, and access is authorized
strictly on a least privileged basis
Multiple geographic regions and Availability Zones allow you to remain resilient in
the face of most failure modes, including natural disasters or system failures
Ability to configure built-in firewall rules from entirely public to completely private or
somewhere in between to control access to instances.
Leverage Identity & Access Management (IAM) & CloudTrail to keep track of all
activities done by different users.
(Aggarwal, A.)
Some types of security might not seem important, so let’s take a closer look at cloud vs.
onsite server security. It is well known that most businesses turn out their light and lock
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the doors at night in which the building may or may not have a security guard. Having
to hire and maintain a security guard(s) on premise is not only expensive, but it is also
presents a liability. AWS sites are secured by creating private cloud that limits the
access to a specific organization server and protects their clients identity. A concern
anyone would have if someone wanted to tamper with their physical on premise
infrastructure, such as: powering off the server, unplugs a wire, or worse inserts
software direct into the device.
Multiple geographic locations are important in failsafe. In Florida, we have the
possibilities of hurricanes or flooding. If the backup site were in the same area, you
would lose everything. In reading AWS website, Amazon offers multiple backups in
multiple regions. You will have a minimum of three but can pay to have more. The
more data and the more geographic locations there are, the more it will cost. At a
recent presentation at FAU by NCCI, their company has all their servers onsite at their
Boca Raton Headquarters and their backup is in Colorado.
AWS also has secure logins and VPNs that can be accessed anywhere. The IAM also
helps keep secure tabs on who is doing what. I am going to tell you a story of
something that recently happened that will put both the last items in perspective and
explain why it is important. 4IT monitors several clients servers and we have protocol
that we are supposed to be notified before any software is installed to ensure
compatibility and serviceability. We had a client that installed and update to a main line
of business application that caused a crash of one of the servers. The employee, being
one of their network administrators, went back and erased all the security logs on who
and when users were on the server. Their system was down for several hours as the
engineers worked on resolving the issue and performing a root cause analysis to
understand how and what had happened. The first step is to review the logs, but they
were gone. A backup from an older system had to be started. The client had not
moved to AWS or any similar service, and due to the size of the restore the backup took
a whole weekend. The employee would not have been identified had the client not
installed security cameras around their offices. Although crashing the server was not
malicious, erasing the logs was, and that’s why CloudTrail is a crucial feature.
There is no set industry standard when it comes to enterprise servers but, the industry
is somewhat resistant to going to a complete cloud solution. There are however,
several guidelines that clients must consider. The most important piece is a price.
(Lynn, S) A quick google search will confirm that most servers are around $10,000.
Most companies require more than one server. The servers themselves are not only
expensive, but they must have a secured and well-cooled room. Servers have a set
lifespan, and if they get too hot they will shut off, and prolonged heating will shorten
their lifespan. According to sherweb.com the average cost for on premise servers is
approximate $1500 per month while a cloud-based solution is approximate $300 per
month. From just an accounting standpoint the cost will save a company over
thousands of dollars during a year. The larger the business, the more money will be
saved.
Does the server meet the needs of your business? Are the servers scalable? As your
business grows, the storage needs increase. In a retail business, every location that
gets added adds another server to more cost. (Lynn, S) Virtualization is next. Can the
current configuration adjust as technology grows? The first thing you learn about
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technology is how the growth is exponential. The advantage of being able to virtualize
is a client can create a workstation with any configuration it needs within the confines of
the server and hardware. Where a local company may spend $50,000 in a server room,
Amazon has spent billions and is for all legitimate purposes, unlimited.
Next is Data Redundancy and Fault Tolerance. (Lynn, S) Companies cannot afford to
have their systems be down. Every minute the server is down it costs the company
money. Servers must be configured with RAID to back up their information. Does the
server support the RAID or will a costly upgrade to a server await the business? AWS
provides the service on a cost per need basis. You pay for what you use. Once a
physical server is purchased, if a company does or does not use the capabilities the
money has already been spent. AWS can adjust as the business demands change.
Space is a consideration based on the size and needs of the firm. (Lynn, S) The larger
the company, the greater the needs. As mentioned before, the cost to increase your
servers and storage can start to mount. A successful business will have a database of
their information. Each new customer added to the database will take up more storage.
Each on premise server will have a finite storage capacity before needing an upgrade.
With AWS you can increase the storage at a moment’s notice and more importantly you
can decrease to ensure money is not wasted as well. (Amazon)
To conclude the gap analysis, the industry may like having their data in their building,
but do they like it enough to throw away money?
Table 1
Seven Year Cost Savings
Note: Adapted from BOISVERT, G. (2016, November 21). Total cost of ownership of servers. Retrieved April 09, 2017, from
http://www.sherweb.com/blog/total-cost-of-ownership-of-servers-iaas-vs-on-premise/
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Results
As technology changes so does the company and 4IT is no different. In the past 4IT
has implemented several different software and hardware solutions. Using a Likert
chart to determine the success of prior launches will help predict the launch of AWS
across the network and for their clients.
This survey although five questions, was sent to 10 employees that were Tech 2 or
above. Most received responses were Somewhat Successful for question one. I
asked two of the employees why they thought it was Somewhat Successful. The Techs
explained that there were not enough people certified at the time of launch. There were
several employees that were certified, but non-certified employees were answering calls
for the clients as well. Not having all the employees on the same page lead to
confusion and client dissatisfaction.
The company uses a Confluence page for training. It is imperative that to be Quite
Successful that many, if not all employees, should be certified at once. In addition to
certification, as employees learn about the tips and tricks a Confluence training page
will keep track of the documentation. 4IT will also want to use a SmartSheet to track the
progress of employees as the complete the trainings and certifications. As clear as it is
that the future of cloud servers is with AWS, the success of 4ITs transition to AWS is
with training.
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References
Aggarwal, A. (2014, February 28). Top 10 benefits of using AWS. Retrieved April 09,
2017, from http://www.tothenew.com/blog/top-10-benefits-of-using-aws/
Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Cloud Computing Services. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09,
2017, from https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg
Boisvert, G. (2016, November 21). Total cost of ownership of servers. Retrieved April
09, 2017, from http://www.sherweb.com/blog/total-cost-of-ownership-of-serversiaas-vs-on-premise/
Lynn, S. (2011, October 12). How to Buy a Server. Retrieved April 09, 2017, from
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394484,00.asp
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