Part A

Mobile Systems, Virtualization and Clouds

Management deliberation of the first report commissioned, it was decided that the best options for the organisation would be to either build a private cloud infrastructure or utilise a public solution. After closer review of the information provided, the management conclusion was that the public solution with the possibility of being locked into a provider, possible loss of control of data, and the possibility of having to modify the business process to be in line with the provider, was to restrictive for the organisations future plans. While the initial cost of building a private solution is high it is felt that this option would provide the flexibility needed for future direction.
It was also noted that the report focused a lot on the issues of security and controlling access to the information stored in the cloud. Most of the solution regarding security focused on the connections between the client and the cloud services with the use of Transport Layer Security, VPNs or IPSec. This was useful information but the best practice and advantages over each of the solutions was not clear from the report and therefore needs further investigation.

Reading the last report also discussed peripherally virtualisation and using virtual servers in the cloud. As the organisation has for a long time been a traditional IT shop with physical servers the idea of being able to create virtual servers on demand has a lot of promise especially with the possible organisational future plans.

The organisation grew up at a fairly fast rate and has moved through a number of IT solutions over the years. All the solutions have been home grown and designed in house to meet the known challenges. As a result the solutions tended to be only short lived forcing a redesign in a shorter period than originally planned. It is evident that most of the IT personal in the organisation would not have the skills to take on the task of such a complicated and time consuming build. Therefore we will have to have a solution designed and built to the organisational needs by going through a tender process.

With the frequent changes to the computer systems, the IT department has implemented a traditional centralised Help Desk to deal with user's queries and problems in using the systems. Over the years the number of reported Help Desk requests have decreased while the number of incidents where files or services had to be rebuilt or rolled back from archive has increased. Recent internal survey suggests that the users are more likely to ask other employees then approach the Help Desk when facing technical problems.

You have been tasked to write a report to explain and explore the following technology and services:

a) The proposed change in the IT infrastructure is a major commitment of resources and we need to make sure that it has the best opportunity of being a success. In order to make this a success we need to start building the users skill base through training and education. It is felt that the current IT support mechanism by the use of Help Desk and instructions on web pages is not efficient. Research and report on alternative strategies for providing help services to users that could help with the adoption of the new design.

b) Research and describe the operation of Transport Layer Security (TLS), VPNs and IPSec. With the possible options describe the benefits and limitations of the solutions and provide a recommendation for which security mechanism to implement.

c) Building a private cloud storage and virtual service type solution provides the best of both world. Research and report on the type of virtualisation available and the advantages and disadvantages in building and using virtualised service type solutions.

d) Up to now the organisations IT department has been able to meet the challenges of designing and implementing the necessary communication networks for the organisation. However with the new design (private or public cloud) the IT department is venturing into areas where they lack experience. As possible solution the idea of tendering the build through Request for Proposal process has been raised. You have been asked to do brief analyses of the Request for Proposal process and highlight the benefits and the pitfalls of the process. The management is especially interested in what they need to get right in order to have the best guarantee for success.

Part B

Presentation of the Report Power Point Voice Over

You are to prepare and present the major finding of the report to the management. The presentation will consist of a Power Point presentation with voice over on the slides highlighting the reports major findings for the research areas in Part A. The report is not to be of more than 12 minutes in duration. Because of the time constraint you will have to make sure you focus only on the major issues and information recorded on the report.