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CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 1

Colorado Technical University Online

IT401-1303A-1: Information Technology Architectures

Consultant’s Analysis Report on Enterprise Systems

Jeffrey Huffman

10 August 2013

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 2

Table of Contents

Project Outline ............................................................................................................................................ 2

Organization Overview ............................................................................................................................. 2

Current Systems ........................................................................................................................................ 3

System Requirements ................................................................................................................................. 5

System Functions ...................................................................................................................................... 5

Method of Delivery ................................................................................................................................... 6

Target Users .............................................................................................................................................. 6

Architecture Selection ................................................................................................................................ 7

System Architectures ................................................................................................................................ 7

Centralized Architecture ....................................................................................................................... 7

Cloud Computing .................................................................................................................................. 8

Hybrid Architecture .............................................................................................................................. 9

Selected Architecture ................................................................................................................................ 9

Architecture Summary ............................................................................................................................ 10

Resources and Timelines .......................................................................................................................... 12

Resources Required ................................................................................................................................ 12

Hardware ............................................................................................................................................. 12

Software .............................................................................................................................................. 14

Personnel ............................................................................................................................................. 15

Timelines ................................................................................................................................................ 16

References .................................................................................................................................................. 19

Project Outline

Organization Overview

Interconnect Raleigh Inc. is an internet service provider that currently offers basic email,

and website hosting services. This organization is not real, but there are many organizations that

are similar to this fictional organization. The organization is undergoing major changes to its

operations because of a recent increase in demand for its website hosting services. The demand

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 3

is for ecommerce websites. Interconnect Raleigh would like to realign their strategic goals with

their current information technology systems to meet existing and future demands of its

customers, while simultaneously making the services more efficient and effective.

The organization is located centrally in the city of Raleigh, which is the capital of North

Carolina. There are currently 45 employees working at Interconnect Raleigh. All of the

organization’s equipment, departments, and employees are co-located in a small business

complex consisting of five buildings. The organization’s success comes mostly from hosting

websites on the internet. They also provide email services, manage customers’ registration of

domain names, and subcontract customers that need website development. The current systems

that Interconnect Raleigh uses to provide their services are not very flexible and not going to

meet future demands in ecommerce website hosting.

Current Systems

Interconnect Raleigh currently provides website hosting services on 50 internet servers.

They own 254 public IP addresses that contribute to their web and email hosting services. One

server is assigned to each customer and the customer can request more servers or they can have

multiple virtual sites on a single server. The customers upload their websites using FTP client

software to their server. This method is not very secure. The server can also host email services

for the customer. A typical customer has one physical server with multiple virtual websites and

email services running on it. This system needs to be upgraded to a more secure system that can

be managed more easily using newer technologies and a web application.

Interconnect Raleigh is responsible for maintaining the servers’ hardware, availability of

services, and configuring and managing the services that its customers pay for. The customers

are responsible for the development of their websites. The current system has a high risk of

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 4

server downtime, little room for flexibility or growth, no fail-over systems, and no secure

ecommerce website hosting capabilities. Interconnect Raleigh would like to bring in more

customers that require database integration with their website services providing secure

ecommerce website hosting services using a centralized web interface.

This consultant’s report was requested by Interconnect Raleigh to meet new customers’

demands, increase capacity and capabilities, minimize costs, and increase efficiencies in their

current system. The organization is pursuing a web application that its customers can use to

manage their services securely. There are five main categories that will be concentrated in the

report. The system requirements for the proposed system that will be implemented will be

provided first. Next, the type of architecture that will be utilized to make the system most

efficient and effective will be recommended. The third category involves the resources that will

be needed along with the proposed timeline. Securing the system will be fourth category. The

last category covers the final analysis and any recommendations that remain.

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 5

System Requirements

Specific requirements need to be defined for the system to operate as Interconnect

Raleigh intends. The requirements will assist in the design of the system. Three sections are

listed to describe the system requirements; system functions, method of delivery, and target

users. The proposed functions of the system are listed first and clarify what the system will

require to operate.

System Functions

 Interconnect Raleigh requires a web application that allows its customers to login into

their account to manage ecommerce website hosting and database storage capabilities.

 The web application must have continuously secure communications and the ability to

transfer files securely.

 The web application will have several layers of transparency built into it.

o Location transparency; the user will not know exactly where the files are located

on a webserver, what physical server it is on, or what partition. The user will be

able to see the files that they have uploaded on the web application

o Migration transparency; the user will not know if there files have been moved to

another server. The web application only displays the files and folders that the

user owns, no matter what physical server or partition the information is on. This

will allow Interconnect Raleigh the ability to perform routine maintenance on

server hardware without website downtime, increasing reliability.

o Relocation transparency; a live backup of users files will assist with failure

transparency and prevent data loss.

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 6

o Failure transparency; in the event of a server crash or failure, a seamless transition

will be un-noticed by users.

o Concurrency transparency; multiple customers can share a single physical

resource without knowing that they are. This will allow the organization to use its

servers more efficiently.

 Interconnect Raleigh requires the system to be scalable. Allowing the system to be easily

altered to satisfy a rapid increase in users and resources. The web server application must

be easily scaled across several servers to manage an increase in load (Tanenbaum & Van

Steen, 2007, pp. 4-7).

Method of Delivery

The website hosting and database storage services will be delivered through a web

application. The user will login to their account, manage the services that they purchased,

purchase new or additional services, and transfer files to and from their data storage securely.

The biggest change will be the utilization of virtual servers. With virtualization, the organization

can divide up the resources of one physical server to multiple customers, increasing efficiency.

Virtualization will also create redundancy. In the case of a virtual server failing, a backup virtual

server can immediately start hosting the same services without the user noticing a problem

(Strickland, 2008).

Target Users

The users that will be accessing the web hosting application are familiar with computers

and websites. The target customer is one that is publishing and maintaining ecommerce websites

available on the internet to sell products or services. These users are also well versed in internet

technologies and how website hosting operates.

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 7

Architecture Selection

There are many different types of distributed system architectures. Interconnect Raleigh

requires an architecture that fits their strategy to host several secure ecommerce services to its

customers. The architecture needs to be flexible, scalable, reliable and competitive. During this

architecture selection, three suitable architectures will be considered, compared, and analyzed.

The most appropriate architecture will be selected out of the three. The analysis results from the

selected architecture will be justified and summarized. The three architectures that will be

considered for Interconnect Raleigh are centralized architecture, cloud computing architecture

and hybrid architecture.

System Architectures

The first architecture considered for Interconnect Raleigh is the centralized architecture.

Centralized architecture utilizes simple client-to-server connections to provide network services.

In this architecture a client requests services utilizing a reliable transfer control protocol (TCP)

from a server and the server responds with the data that the client requested. This architecture

can also contain multiple levels to provide services. A client that is requesting data about a

product that an ecommerce web site is selling has to go through multiple levels to receive the

information. A client will request data for a product to the web server. The web server will then

request data from an internal database server that stores the information about the products. The

internal database server will return the data to the web server and the web server will give the

results to the client (Tanenbaum & Van Steen, 2007, pp. 36-42).

Centralized Architecture

Centralized architecture has some disadvantages that can be detrimental to Interconnect

Raleigh’s system. The first disadvantage is reliability. In a centralized system, the server that is

providing the service to the client cannot stop running. Any stop in the server will result in a

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 8

total loss of the services. Also, a centralized server must handle all of the connection requests

from the clients. Too many connections can cause a failure in the server providing services. An

advantage of a client-server centralized architecture is its simplicity and easy of management

(D., 2013). The next type of architecture that Interconnect Raleigh is considering is cloud

computing architecture.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing architecture allows clients to utilize services and/or applications that

reside on a cloud system, instead of running the application on the clients’ computer. There are

several advantages to this architecture. The client will have access to the cloud application on

any computer that is on the internet, eliminating the installation of an application on any

computer. This architecture also reduces cost to the customer by eliminating software licenses,

reducing hardware costs, and the customer only pays for the resources that it uses. This makes

cloud computing a valuable service. There are also some disadvantages to cloud computing

(Strickland, 2013).

Breach of security and privacy are the major reasons why customers are apprehensive to

moving their services to the cloud. In this architecture, the customers will be giving Interconnect

Raleigh databases of all of their customers and products. The customers must be reassured that

there will be tight security on the system and that their data will not be compromised by its

competitors or other malicious ways. The flexibility, availability, and scalability of a cloud

computing system has tremendous advantages. This architecture is an ideal platform for Raleigh

Interconnect to provide its customers with an application that can access their data storage and

ecommerce website management (Strickland, 2013). The last architecture that Interconnect

Raleigh is considering is the hybrid architecture.

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 9

Hybrid Architecture

A hybrid architecture is simply combining architectures to create a unique system that is

designed to meet the goals of an organization. Interconnect Raleigh would like to have a client-

server architecture and a cloud computing architecture. Combining these two architecture

creates a unique hybrid architecture. This type of architecture can utilize the advantages of each

type of architecture to meet the demands of its customers. Interconnect Raleigh will be choosing

this architecture as its means to providing services to its customers (Tanenbaum & Van Steen,

2007, pp. 52-54).

Selected Architecture

Interconnect Raleigh has chosen the hybrid architecture by combining the client-server

architecture and the cloud computing architecture. The client-server architecture will be

specifically for authentication of its customers. The cloud computing architecture will be used to

provide an application services, database storage and web services. Figure 1 illustrates how this

architecture will be applied.

Figure 1 – Proposed Interconnect Hybrid Architecture

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 10

All connections to the servers will be secure, reliable protocol sockets. The client-server

connection will be to an authentication server that has a database containing customers profile

information. The web servers will host ecommerce websites that web users can access securely

to purchase products from Interconnect Raleigh’s customers. The application servers will host

an application that the customers can utilize to maintain the databases of data and their

ecommerce websites. This hybrid architecture will create a reliable, secure, scalable, and

flexible distributed system that will meet the demands of the customers.

Architecture Summary

In conclusion, the proposed hybrid architecture gets the most out of the centralized and

cloud computing architecture while simultaneously minimizing the weaknesses. The client-

server architecture will be used for customer authentication. As stated before, this design is

prone to failure if the server unexpectedly stops functioning. Virtual servers will build

redundancy in the system and they will be utilized to prevent the failure of authentication

services by having multiple spare servers online. This setup will allow Interconnect Raleigh to

easily manage its customers’ accounts in a centralized fashion (Strickland, 2008). The

organization will also take advantage of the cloud computing architecture to efficiently and

effectively service their customers and the customers’ users.

The cloud computing is broken up into four parts; the load balancer, web services,

database services and application server. The load balancer will be utilized to handle incoming

requests to the web servers and application servers. It will have multiple computers available to

take requests from users and it will seem to the user as one system. This will create a higher

availability of network services, decrease the time it takes to process a client’s request and it will

also increase the ability to scale up the network as customer demands increase (Microsoft, 2013).

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 11

The web servers will be configured in a virtual environment to allow efficient use of server

hardware and resources.

Interconnect Raleigh customers will be paying only for the resources that they need to

operate their ecommerce websites. This is accomplished with virtualization technology. Not

only can virtual servers be used for redundancy, the resources of the physical server can be easily

managed. When creating a virtual server, the resources on the physical server can be divided up

into multiple virtual servers. For example if a physical server has 8 processors, each processor

can be assigned to 8 different virtual machines or a virtual machine can have two processors

dedicated to it. This is true for the RAM, storage and other resources on the physical machine.

The customers will be paying only for the resources that they need to run their web services and

database storage. This will allow efficient use of the servers; reducing cost, physical space, and

power requirements (Strickland, 2008). The last part of the cloud computing architecture is the

application server.

The application server will also be tied to the load balancer and virtualization technology

to ensure availability, scalability, and redundancy of application services. This type of

technology is known as Software as a Service (SaaS). Interconnect Raleigh will be providing

SaaS to its customers by hosting an application accessible on the internet. The application will

allow the customers access to their databases that contain the information for their ecommerce

websites. The application will also allow the customers access to their web hosting servers to

publish their websites. SaaS will allow Interconnect Raleigh’s customers an easy way to manage

the services that they pay for while simultaneously allowing access to it from anywhere there is

an internet connection (Rouse, 2012).

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 12

Resources and Timelines

Interconnect Raleigh Inc. has outlined their current system along with the requirements,

functionality, and proposed architecture for a new system that will meet the growing demands

for its services more efficiently and effectively. The next step for the organization is to identify

the resources that are needed to develop the new system. The resources will include the

personnel, hardware, and software required to develop the system. The estimated cost of the

resources will also be included in the resource list. A realistic timeline will then be constructed

to identify the tasks and milestones of the project. The timeline will identify the time it takes to

complete each specific task, and the tasks that are required to reach each milestone. Before any

of this happens, the resources required for the project must be identified.

Resources Required

In order to develop the new system, specific hardware, software and personnel resources

must be acquired. The costs associated with each resource will be estimated to provide a

complete cost estimation of the development of the new system. The first resources that

Interconnect Raleigh must acquire are hardware. The software will be tested and validated on

the new hardware resources.

Hardware

The organization has chosen the Dell PowerEdge Server Family as its choice for server

hardware. Dell has a great reputation in customer service, offers the hardware needed to fulfill

the requirements and it has competitive pricing (Dell, 2013).

Other hardware that is required to complete the new system is the cabling infrastructure

to interconnect the servers. The cabling that will be used in the server room will mostly be

Category 6 Augmented. This cabling will last ten to fifteen years before it will need upgrading.

The cost for each port on a server is around $300, this cost includes the equipment and physical

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 13

cabling to connect the server to the network. There are 57 servers, with a cost of $300 per server

is an estimated infrastructure cost of $17,100 (Higbie, 2013). Table 1 identifies the hardware

resources required for the new system along with their associated costs.

Table 1 – Hardware Resources

Servers Type Qty

Price

Each

Total

Price

Authentication Servers Dell PowerEdge R320 Enhanced 4 $1,159 $4,636

Web Servers Dell PowerEdge R720 Enhanced 40 $1,929 $77,160

Application Servers Dell PowerEdge R720 Enhanced 5 $1,929 $9,645

Data Servers

Dell PowerVault MD3600f - with 48 TB

of storage per server 5 $13,340 $66,700

Load Balancer

Kemp Technologies LoadMaster LM-

R320 3 $16,617 $49,851

Infrastructure

Qty

Price

Each

Total

Price

Fibre Channel Cable 10 $97.90 $979

Infrastructure $17,100 $17,100

Total Estimated Cost

for Hardware

$226,071

The hardware listed in Table 1 will satisfy the requirements for the new system and allow

for flexibility and growth.

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 14

Software

The next resource that will be required is software. Interconnect Raleigh will be using

the Red Hat operating system on all of its servers. They will be outsourcing a software

development company to assist in the development of the software application that Interconnect

Raleigh’s customers will use to access their services. It is very difficult to estimate the cost of

developing software. The outsourced company’s cost is associated with how many effective

lines of code it takes to develop the software (Nevzorov, 2011).

There are a few factors that must be considered when developing new software; size and

complexity. These two factors are important when estimating the cost and time it takes to

develop a software application. The size is referencing the number of lines of code that must be

developed. The estimated number of source lines of code (SLOC) that will be required to

complete this project is approximately 10,000. The application will be developed using the J2EE

environment with an estimate of about $50 per source line of code. This cost per SLOC is based

on the complexity level not being very high compared to developing more complex software

(Nevzorov, 2011). Table 2 illustrates the software resources needed to complete the

development of the system.

Table 2 – Software Resources

Operating Systems Qty Price Total

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - 2 socket

unlimited virtual guests with premium

Subscription 57 $3,249.00 $185,193.00

Application Software SLOC

Cost per

SLOC Total

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 15

Web Application Software 10,000 $50.00 $500,000.00

Total Estimated Cost for Software

$685,193.00

Personnel

The last resource is the personnel required to oversee the project throughout its

development and implementation. Interconnect Raleigh is outsourcing its software development

and server room cabling infrastructure to outside organizations. Four Interconnect Raleigh

employees will be managing and leading the tasks associated with developing the system are; the

Information Systems Manager, Computer Systems Analyst, Information Security Analyst, and

Computer Network Architect. The Information Systems Manager will ultimately be responsible

for the success of the new system. This individual will keep the project on schedule, organize all

activities with the outsourced organizations and lead the 3 other employees (United States

Department of Labor, 2013).

A Computer Systems Analyst will ensure the new computer system will meet the

requirements, have the capabilities to handle the processing and storage, and project the amount

of data that will accessed. The Information Security Analysts will address all security processes,

make certain proper security methods are being used to protect data, servers, virtual servers, etc.

and create security policies and procedures. The Computer Network Architect will configure the

enterprise network to handle the network traffic. This individual will also configure, test and

analyze the network, implement security devices, and document the network design. These

individuals are permanent employees of Interconnect Raleigh. Table 3 displays their project

starting annual salaries (United States Department of Labor, 2013).

Table 3 – Personnel Resources

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 16

Job Salary

Computer Systems Analyst $120,000.00

Information Security Analyst $120,000.00

Computer Network Architect $120,000.00

Information System Manager $170,000.00

Totals $530,000

Timelines

The development of the new system at Interconnect Raleigh will have specific tasks and

milestones. The tasks and milestones must be met within the timeframes to keep the costs of the

project aligned. There are thirteen tasks and three milestones, Table 4 is a Gantt chart that

illustrates the tasks and milestones for the entire development of the system. The goal for

designing, developing, testing and validating the system is nine months. The first month is the

busiest. The equipment and cabling will be installed, tested and certified by an outsourced

organization. The equipment and cabling will be validated by the Computer Network Architect

and Computer Systems Analyst. The Information System Manager will be coordinating all the

initial efforts with the organization outsourced to develop the software. The requirements for the

new system and the requirements for the software will be provided to the software development

organization. The next two months will finalize the design milestone (University of Washington,

2011).

The organization outsourced to design the software will provide its initial software design

for validation. The initial software design will be the proposed design of the user interface and

how the software application will operate. The initial software design will be validated and

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 17

accepted by Interconnect Raleigh no later than the end of month two. The third month is a more

comprehensive design of how the software application will look, feel, and operate. The

validation and acceptance of the comprehensive software design is scheduled for the end of the

third month and marks the end of the first milestone (University of Washington, 2011). The

development phase is now underway.

The next two months will be the software development. All of the four employees will

be working side-by-side with the software development organization to ensure all requirements

are being met. The sixth month is for software debugging. Any last minute bugs or errors in the

software will be addressed and de-conflicted. The end of the sixth month is the culmination of

the development milestone. The last phase of testing is started once development is finished.

There are three tasks in the testing portion; software testing, final software validation and final

system validation.

In the seventh and eighth month, software testing will be conducted on the Interconnect

Raleigh system. The software will be tested on the hardware at the Interconnect Raleigh facility.

The last month is the validation system test. This is the final test of the system as a whole. Once

this test has been completed and validated by Interconnect Raleigh, customers can start to use the

new system for their eCommerce websites.

Table 4 – Project Timeline

Design Development Testing

Equip & Cabling Installation

Equip & Cabling Validation

System Requirements

Software Requirements

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 18

Initial Software Design

Intial Software Validation

Comprehensive Software Design

Comprehensive Design Validation

Software Development

Software Debug

Software Testing

Final Software Validation

Final System Validation

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 19

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CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 20

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CONSULTANT'S ANALYSIS REPORT 21

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