Windows Network Services Proposal

Overview

Each student will create a detailed, organized, unified technical solution given the scenario described below. The submission will be in a written format, with at least one diagram, and may include additional diagrams, charts or tables. The assignment is meant for students to enhance their mastery of the material and to provide a creative and realistic way in which to apply knowledge from this course.

Scenario

Worldwide Advertising, Inc. (referred to as "WAI") has hired you as an IT consultant for their Windows network services infrastructure. WAI is a new advertising firm, and they have hired staff, are established in two locations, and have a need to get their internal IT services configured. They have an IT staff, but they do not have the in-house expertise to address their current infrastructure needs.

You are required to supply WAI with a solution which addresses the integration and configuration of their Active Directory updates. Cost is not a significant concern - WAI wishes to implement the "right" solution to address their acquisition of a new company and its Active Directory forest which is comprised of a single domain. More specifically, WAI is based out of Houston, TX and they have a Windows Server 2012 domain that is operating at the Windows Server 2012 functional level. They recently acquired Media Guru Group which is based out of Richmond, VA, which has a domain (running Windows Server 2008 domain controllers) operating at the Windows Server 2003 functional level.

There are several details about WAI which will have an impact on your proposal:

WAI has restructured their organization they have a total of 110 employees in their Houston and Richmond sites. Each location the following departments:

WAI will have two sites, one in Houston, TX, and one in Richmond, VA.

Executives (9 total with 5 in Houston, 4 in Richmond) - manage and run the company

Accounts and Sales Department (30 employees with 15 in Houston and 15 in Richmond) - perform market research and maintain accounts

Creative, Media and Production Department (49 employees in Houston) - advertising

Human Resources and Finances (12 employees in Houston) - perform HR and financial duties

IT (10 employees with 5 in Houston and 5 in Richmond) - manage IT for the company

Networking equipment is already in place for both sites, which are separate Active Directory Domains.

Security mechanisms (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection) will be handled separately, and there is no need to describe them.

Some departments will want their data to remain private from other departments (e.g., Finances personnel will not want Production staff to see the company's financial details). Your team may make assumptions about how data should be shared or kept private.

Assumptions can be made regarding any information not included here; all assumptions should be identified, however.

Assignment Requirements

There are specific requirements for the assignment: The final submission should contain at least 8 pages' worth of text written by the student (not counting title page, images, diagrams, tables, or quotations), but may be longer, not to exceed approximately 12 pages' worth of student-supplied text. (With the required diagram, and other images, title page, etc., the final submission may end up being more than 12 pages in length.) It must be double-spaced, have 1-inch margins, and use 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial/Helvetica font. A title page is required.

At least one diagram must be included (not counted towards the minimum length described above); this could be a diagram describing Active Directory components, DHCP/DNS design, or anything else that is worth displaying graphically to enhance the reader's understanding of the proposal. Additional diagrams, images, or tables are welcome.

The submission must cover all of the major topics outlined in the Topics to Cover section. Each choice should be explained with technical and business reasoning. The solution should be reasonably detailed. Additional topics may be covered as desired.

The structure of the final submission is flexible; however, it should be organized logically and represent a single, unified solution. It is likely that the format will include separate sections for each of the topics required, as well as a summary.

At least two non-textbook, non-LabSim, non-Wikipedia reference is required; preferably, this would be a "best practice" guide or similar content from Microsoft or an experienced provider of Microsoft solutions.

Be sure to properly quote or cite any sources used. APA format is required for in-text citations and the list of works cited at the end. In its simplest form, if you are using text from a source, you must cite and/or quote it. If plagiarism is found, then there will be a penalty to the grade.

Topics to Cover

Your document should cover the content presented in the course. The outline below contains recommended points to cover. You are free to add other related information.

Describe the technical and business reasons for each choice, citing other resources as appropriate. The Windows Server 2012 operating system should be used for all aspects of the solution.

The topics include:

Active Directory Infrastructure

Describe features of Windows Server 2012 that will allow WAI to integrate the newly acquired company's domain into their existing forest.

How will Forest Functional Levels be implemented?

How will cross-forest trusts be implemented?

How will replication be handled?

Read-Only Domain Controllers - how will they be used?

File and Storage Solutions

Will BranchCache be used? Why/Why not?

How can Dynamic Access Control benefit the organization?

What about storage optimization?

Disaster Recovery

How can Windows Server Backup be utilized?

Will the organization use Volume Shadow Copies?

DNS and DHCP

How had DHCP installation and authorization been implemented?

DHCP scope design (e.g., lease times, number of scopes, address range)

Will a form of DHCP fault tolerance be implemented?

Will DHCP reservations be used for servers?

How can IPAM be utilized?

How will IPv6 be utilized?

How will DNS be implemented?

DNS Security

How will DNS be handled for the second site?

High Availability

Active Directory Rights Management Services

What use of AD Rights Management Services can be implemented?

Active Directory Federation Services

AD Federation Services

What implementation of Hyper-V would benefit WAI?

Network Load Balancing

Failover Clustering

Active Directory Certificate Services

Will AD Certificate Services used in both domains need to be modified?

Be sure to properly quote or cite any sources used. APA format is required for in-text citations and the list of works cited at the end. It is expected that you are already familiar with UMUC's "Policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism." It is available in the Academic Policies section of the Syllabus; there are also links in the Webliography. In its simplest form, if you are using text from a source, you must cite and/or quote it. If plagiarism is found, then there will be a penalty to the grade.