IT Resource Analysis And Proposal For Color Ability Corporation
Goals and objectives of the Proposal
This proposal comes as a response to Color Ability Corporation, which is a small marketing and advertisement firm that currently has five departments four in Brisbane and one in Sydney, It currently employs eighty people, to examine and analyze their current IT resources and suggest a proposition of how they would use their IT resources to capitalize on making more profits for the business. The report consists of activities one to eight that illustrate the proposal. Activity one is making a computer planning system form, activity two is selecting a high speed color copier printer for CAC, activity three is demonstrating a network design for CAC, activity four is planning the internet connectivity, activity five is to determine which internal services will be offered by CAC, activity six is to complete a network form, activity seven revolves around planning of the network installation and activity eight addresses the network security measures. There is also a conclusion and recommendation to the management of CAC.
Colour Ability Corporation is in need of an efficient operating system to accommodate their needs of video development which cannot run on Windows 7 operating system that they are currently using
CAC needs computers that can be able to run the video development software
CAC requires computers that have enough memory capacity and supports graphics of high resolution for film recording and production.
CAC needs a network design for their departments in their new four story building.
CAC wants wireless internet access to be available in all the five departments.
CAC wants its employees to have emails for use when in the office or working.
CAC wants color printers in each of the five departments for share printing.
Goals and objectives of the Proposal
To analyze the various computing activities in CAC and recommend and appropriate operating system that will help with the activities especially the video development software.
To propose the specifications of the computers necessary for CAC to efficiently and effectively perform its business processes like film editing and photography,
To propose an effective network design for CAC in its new offices in Brisbane and the one in Sydney
To propose the best way to implement the wireless network in the each of the five departments in CAC
To suggest the internet service providers that are economically friendly to CAC and provide quality services like the work emails for CAC employees
To propose the best color printer that can be bought and installed in the five departments of CAC and propose how printing will be done in the various departments of CAC.
Timetabling
The proposal information and gathering and analysis was done in activities from activity one to activity eight. Activity one is making a computer planning system form, activity two is selecting a high speed color copier printer for CAC, activity three is demonstrating a network design for CAC, activity four is planning the internet connectivity, activity five is to determine which internal services will be offered by CAC, activity six is to complete a network form, activity seven revolves around planning of the network installation and activity eight addresses the network security measures
Timetabling
|
Activity |
Time allocated |
|
Activity 1 |
Three days |
|
Activity 2 |
One day |
|
Activity 3 |
Two days |
|
Activity 4 |
One day |
|
Activity 5 |
One day |
|
Activity 6 |
Four days |
|
Activity 7 |
One day |
|
Activity 8 |
One day |
|
Total |
14 days |
|
Department: HR & Accounting |
|
|
Location: Brisbane, 4th floor |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i3-5157U, 2.50GHz |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 4GB |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® HD Graphics 3000, 2GB |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1440 x 1080, 120Hz |
|
Printer: |
Epson Workforce Pro WF-4740, 24ppm |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
Department: Design and Photography |
|
|
Location: Brisbane, 3rd floor |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i7-8700T, 2.50GHz |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 16GB |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® UHD Graphics 630, 4GB |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1920 x 1080, 240Hz |
|
Printer: |
Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer, 32ppm |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
Department: Advertising |
||
|
Location: Brisbane, 2nd floor |
||
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i7-8700T, 2.50GHz |
|
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 16GB |
|
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
|
Video Card: |
Intel® UHD Graphics 630, 4GB |
|
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
|
Modem: |
None |
|
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1920 x 1080, 240Hz |
|
|
Printer: |
Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer, 32ppm |
|
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
|
Department: Marketing |
||
|
Location: Brisbane, 1st floor |
||
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i3-5157U, 2.50GHz |
|
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 4GB |
|
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
|
Video Card: |
Intel® HD Graphics 3000, 2GB |
|
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
|
Modem: |
None |
|
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1440 x 1080, 120Hz |
|
|
Printer: |
Epson Workforce Pro WF-4740, 24ppm |
|
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
Department: Film production editor |
|
|
Location: Sydney |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i7-8700T, 2.50GHz To enhance the processing speed because of the tight deadlines. |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 16GB because of the editing software that requires high resolution graphics. |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® UHD Graphics 630, 4GB to support high resolution video |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) because of the editing software that requires high resolution graphics. |
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1920 x 1080, 240Hz |
|
Printer: |
Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer, 32ppm |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
Department: Film Crew |
|
|
Location: Sydney |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i3-5157U, 2.50GHz |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 4GB |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
4 |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® HD Graphics 3000, 2GB For high resolution videos |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio For high definition graphics. |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
Monitor: |
13”, 1440 x 720, 120Hz |
|
Printer: |
None. They don’t need to print nothing |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet and Wireless connection. Because they are always out of the office. In a week they can be in the office for two days. |
Shared resources
The shared resources in every department are; router, switch, printer and the wireless access points.
Selection of a high speed color copier printer
Colour Ability Corporation should consider using Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer.
The printer duplex, USB, Ethernet and wireless printing therefore, supporting network printing in the various departments.
It has a maximum duty of 75000 pages
It has an input capacity of 900 sheets of papers
It is a two sided printer.
Its power consumption is sufficient and has low noise level when operational reducing the power consumption cost for CAC.
It is compatible to windows 10 operating system.
Network layout for CAC (Srivastava 2008)
|
Telstra |
Optus |
TPG |
|
|
Technical support |
Average |
Average |
Good |
|
Uptime |
99% |
99% |
99% |
|
Cost |
$69 – $99 per month |
$75 – $105 per month |
$49 – $69 per month |
|
DNS |
Has DNS |
Has DNS |
Has DNS |
|
Webmail |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Speeds |
Fast |
Average |
Fast |
CAC management should consider choosing TPG internet service providers because they are cheap their prices range from $49 to $69 per month and their services are good. They provide web mail access, DNS services and their technical support is good.
Internal services offered by CAC
Amassment of packets from the local area network and directing them to the internet, the router is the device responsible for this ( Chabarek et.al 2008, April).
Integrated Service Digital Network, abbreviated as ISDN, ensures that the information sent through a telephone line reaches the destination as a whole. It reduces noise and information loss as information travels.
Connection of the various subnets to the main network, this is done by the use of bridges.
Dial up Internet Access, CAC is responsible for providing dial up internet access through the use of modems. The modems work under modulation and demodulation of digital computer signals and analog telephone signals (Son, Her and Kim 2011).
Wireless networks famously known as WI-FI. This is where computers are able to access the internet wirelessly through the use of D-Links which are in turn connected to switches (Kim, Lee, Kwon and Yuh 2011).
Amplification of signal during transit from the server to the client, this is done using repeaters installed by CAC.
Shared resources
Wireless Broadband, abbreviated as WiBB, it uses microwave technology to avail internet access for a wide range of area.
|
Are wired connection required? |
Yes. Many wired network connections are required especially in each department to facilitate transfer of large file especially to the server. |
|
Are wireless connections required? |
Yes. Because of the wireless printing by computers in the wireless network in each department. |
|
Wireless standard? |
IEEE 802.11a |
|
Firewall Required? |
Yes |
|
ISP connectivity required? |
Yes |
|
Type of ISP connectivity? |
Choice of Digital Subscriber Line |
|
Internal or external modem required? |
Yes, wireless modem |
|
Cable Required? |
Yes. Ethernet cables of type CAT 6 should be used for cabling or devices connections |
|
Battery Backup Required? |
No. Each computer should be allocated a Universal Power Supply system. The most appropriate solution in case of black outs and brown outs is a backup automatic generator that will supply power to the whole building. |
The diagram below shows the plan for the implementation of the office network connectivity in each of the floors in Brisbane’s story building.
|
Subnet |
Network Address |
Slash Notation |
First usable ip address |
Last usable ip address |
Broadcasting Address |
|
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0 |
/24 |
192.168.0.3 |
194.168.64.64 |
192.0.0.0 |
|
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0 |
/24 |
192.168.66.66 |
194.168.122.122 |
192.0.0.0 |
|
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0 |
/24 |
192.168.124.124 |
192.168.144.144 |
192.0.0.0 |
|
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0 |
/24 |
192.168.146.146 |
192.168.154.154 |
192.0.0.0 |
|
255.255.255.0 |
194.32.0.0 |
/28 |
194.32.0.3 |
194.32.254.254 |
194.0.0.0 |
|
Device |
Interface |
IP address |
Subnet Mask |
Default Gateway |
|
Router |
WAN |
192.168.0.1/24 |
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0/24 |
|
Switch |
LAN |
192.168.0.2/24 |
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0/24 |
|
Switch |
LAN |
192.168.0.12/24 |
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0/24 |
|
Switch |
LAN |
192.168.0.24/24 |
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0/24 |
|
Access Point |
Wireless |
192.168.0.1/24 |
255.255.255.0 |
192.168.0.0/24 |
Private Ip addresses can be identical but in different networks whereas public ip addresses are unique, allocated to each of the devices in the five departments. Private Ip addresses are usually blocked when it comes to internet access or access to other networks they are not allocated for. This enhances the access levels authentication in the various departments. Public ip addresses are either static or dynamic (Ramachandran et.al 2013, September). The static addresses are not shared or changed when surfing the internet, this helps in preventing network attacks to Colour Ability Corporation. The dynamic public ip addresses transforms when one is surfing the internet. This helps in preventing network attacks.
Use of firewalls (Khoumsi, Krombi and Erradi 2014, November), installation of firewalls to filter the intranet or the local area network in the organization and to filter packets during internet access . Firewalls will be able to alert CAC of the anomalies experienced in the network before an attack appears (Wang, Butnariu and Rexford 2011).
The only ip addresses that should be allowed to pass through the firewall are the ones allocated to the various devices in the network design.
|
Item and Department |
Cost |
|
Computers Marketing department |
$3000 |
|
Computers Advertisement department |
$3000 |
|
Computers Design and photography department |
$3000 |
|
Computers Human resource and Accounting |
$3000 |
|
5 Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer |
$3245 |
|
Network design |
$5000 |
|
ISP |
$89 |
|
Installation of windows 10 operating system |
$200 |
|
Experts to implement the network |
$10000 |
|
Total |
$30534 |
CAC wants to increase the number of employees in the Sydney office. The employees title and responsibility will include; a department manager who will be responsible for scheduling jobs, contracting part-time workers, administering weekly payrolls and tracking of project progress, a film production editor who will work on tight schedules and deadlines to develop and edit films and a film crew which most of the time won’t be in the office. The film crew consists of two production assistants, two camera people, a production manager, and a film director. They will only spend two days in a week in the Sydney office.
The following is the specifications form for the devices these employees will require
|
Department: Film production editor |
|
|
Location: Sydney |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i7-8700T, 2.50GHz To enhance the processing speed because of the tight deadlines. |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 16GB because of the editing software that requires high resolution graphics. |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
2(front), 4 (back) |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® UHD Graphics 630, 4GB to support high resolution video |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) because of the editing software that requires high resolution graphics. |
|
Monitor: |
17”, 1920 x 1080, 240Hz |
|
Printer: |
Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer, 32ppm |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet, Wireless |
|
Department: Film Crew |
|
|
Location: Sydney |
|
|
Component |
Recommendation |
|
Processor: |
Intel® Core™ i3-5157U, 2.50GHz |
|
Memory: |
DDR3, 4GB |
|
Hard Drive: |
SATA, 500GB |
|
CD-ROM/DVD: |
Read, 16x |
|
USB Ports: |
4 |
|
Video Card: |
Intel® HD Graphics 3000, 2GB For high resolution videos |
|
Sound Card: |
Intel® High Definition Audio For high definition graphics. |
|
Modem: |
None |
|
Network Card(s): |
100MBPs, 802.11ah |
|
Operating System: |
Microsoft Windows 10 (requires 1GB RAM, 1GHz processor, 16GB HDD) |
|
Monitor: |
13”, 1440 x 720, 120Hz |
|
Printer: |
None. They don’t need to print nothing |
|
Speakers: |
Inbuilt |
|
Internet Connection: |
Ethernet and Wireless connection. Because they are always out of the office. In a week they can be in the office for two days. |
Budget for the new offices
|
Item and department |
Cost |
|
Computer Film Editor |
$300 |
|
Computer Film crew |
$1800 |
The management should upgrade the operating systems from windows 7 to windows 10. Windows 10 is more suitable for the requirements needed by Film crew and photography department. The management should consider implementation of wireless networks in the five departments and installation of high speed color laser printers that support wireless printing within the departmentsColour Ability Corporation should consider using Lexmark CS410dtn Color Laser Printer. The printer duplex, USB, Ethernet and wireless printing therefore, supporting network printing in the various departments. It has a maximum duty of 75000 pages, has an input capacity of 900 sheets of papers it is a two sided printer, its power consumption is sufficient and has low noise level when operational reducing the power consumption cost for CAC and is compatible to windows 10 operating system.
CAC management should consider choosing TPG internet service providers because they are cheap their prices range from $49 to $69 per month and their services are good. They provide web mail access, DNS services and their technical support is good.
Chabarek, J., Sommers, J., Barford, P., Estan, C., Tsiang, D. and Wright, S., 2008, April. Power awareness in network design and routing.[online]. In INFOCOM 2008. The 27th Conference on Computer Communications. IEEE (pp. 457-465). Phoenix. IEEE. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4509688 [Accessed 02 October 2018]
Kim, D.S., Lee, J.M., Kwon, W.H. and Yuh, I.K., 2011. Design and implementation of home network systems using UPnP middleware for networked appliances. [online]. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 48(4), pp.963-972. Phoenix. IEEEE. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4509688 [Accessed 02 October 2018]
Khoumsi, A., Krombi, W. and Erradi, M., 2014, November. A formal approach to verify completeness and detect anomalies in firewall security policies. In International Symposium on Foundations and Practice of Security (pp. 221-236). Springer. Cham.
Son, B., Her, Y.S. and Kim, J.G., 2011. A design and implementation of forest-fires surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks for South Korea mountains. International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security (IJCSNS), 6(9), pp.124-130. South Korea. Researchgate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Byungrak_Son/publication/254955570_A_Design_and_Implementation_of_Forest-Fires_Surveillance_System_based_on_Wireless_Sensor_Networks_for_South_Korea_Mountains/links/55a395ca08aeaefdb97bc9b8.pdf [Accessed 02 October 2018]
Srivastava, S.K., 2008. Network design for reverse logistics. Omega, 36(4), pp.535-548. Lucknow. Indian Institute of Management. Available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048307000813 [Accessed 02 October 2018]
Ramachandran, K., Buddhikot, M., Chandranmenon, G., Miller, S., Belding-Royer, E. and Almeroth, K., 2013, September. On the design and implementation of infrastructure mesh networks. In Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Wireless Mesh Networks (WiMesh) (pp. 4-15). Phoenix. IEEE Press. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4509688 [Accessed 02 October 2018]
Wang, R., Butnariu, D. and Rexford, J., 2011. OpenFlow-Based Server Load Balancing Gone Wild.[online] Hot-ICE, 11, pp.12-12. Princeton. Princeton University. Available from: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/hotice11/tech/full_papers/Wang_Richard.pdf [Accessed 02 October 2018]