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Running Head: Project Plan 1
Project Plan 21
Project Plan
Bernard Williams
Professor Waldrop
CIS 499 Information Capstone Systems
June 15, 2015
1. Executive Summary
This particular section of the project plan offers an overview of the scope, objectives and the purpose of the project for which it entails a written plan, the project constraints, and assumptions, detailed summary of the project budget and schedule, a list of project deliverables, and the layout plan for the developing the project management plan.
XYZ Company assets are valued at $25 million dollar data collection and Analysis Company that has been operating less than two (2) years. The company is expected to grow by 60% over the next eighteen (18) months. XYZ Company currently collects data using Web analytics and combines it with operational systems data. Web analytics is an increasingly important part of most business marketing plans. XYZ Company is looking for ways to leverage the collected data but wants to ensure that the information technology infrastructure will support the expected growth that the company is anticipating.
In this project it mainly deals with the improvement of the current data base data warehouse and data transfer and data retrieving. XYZ Company’s project proposes to provide best quality services regarding data collection and database for our clients beyond the standard of the contemporary age. The company’s project proposes to increase the current ten terabyte data by twenty per cent annually. It also describes the relationship and integration between systems and infrastructure. Database and Data Warehousing, Analytics, Interfaces and Cloud Technology, and Infrastructure and Security should be considered.
The project aims at expanding the storage of data due to the research expansion that is aimed at being achieved. With an expected duration of a going concern, the lifespan of the project is expected to be endless ceteris paribus. However, it is to be subdivided into sections of the years to help in achieving of the goals and objectives. Objectives include covering more research beyond into operational units for companies and advising them based on the results of the research (Yin, 2003).
Companies that deals with data collection, usually have a gigantic collection of information that more commonly goes up to terabytes. Data Warehouse is the only one choice though not as structured as the relational databases, but when used consistent with them data storage turns out to be a giant support. Every moment, a single page visit generates numerous of records to be saved. The information may get outdated, but it can't be deleted because a few months down the line, it is going to be used for evaluation of the company. This assessment of the future possibilities of the given industry depends on - how the info is collected and how efficiently it be organized to provide a clear snapshot for analysis.
Being the CIO of the company I had to search for the data warehouse vendor that can improve our analytics operations.
The Project deals with the improvement of the current data base data warehouse and data transfer and data retrieving. The project proposes to provide best quality services regarding data collection and database for our clients beyond the standard of the contemporary age. The project proposes to increase the current ten terabyte data by twenty per cent annually. Describe the relationship and integration between systems and infrastructure. Note: Database and Data Warehousing, Analytics, Interfaces and Cloud Technology, and Infrastructure and Security should be considered.
Business Analytics refers to practices, skills and technologies for continuous iterative investigation and exploration of past enterprise performance to gain drive and insight business planning. It also refers to the practice of methodological and iterative examination of business’s historical information with the individual essence of statistic making. This Business Analytics can to an extent assist companies optimize and automate their business approaches. Companies whereby information data plays a crucial role acts on its statistical data as a corporate strength and controls it advantage competitive gaining. A business analytics which is successful would typically rely on experienced and highly skillful professionals and data quality who have well understanding of technologies, comprehends the firms processes in details and knows how work with it. Also, the organization must have proper infrastructure sustain and support the procedures of business analytics.
A network infrastructure is termed as the interconnection of a group of computer systems that are joined by numerous sections of telecommunications architecture. And to be more specific, this network infrastructure is meant to represent the organization of its various configuration and their parts for example, computers networked individually to cables, switches, network access methodologies, routers, wireless access points, network protocols and backbones. Infrastructure can exist in two forms either closed or opened, in such that a closed architecture of private intranet or the open architecture of the internet. This can be performed as a combination of both or over a wireless network or wired connections.
The network infrastructure can be represented typically in the simplest form in which is to be made up of a hub to both join the computer machines to the grid connection, one or many computers, internet or network connection and link numerous systems together. The hub usually enters the computers and does not determine the data flow from or to any particular systems. To limit or control access to machines and manage information movement, the switch substitutes the hub to come up with network protocols which determine how the systems interact with one another. To permit the formed network by the systems to communicate with others, through the network connection, router is an essential requirement, which links the networks and typically offers data exchange of common language, depending on the particular regulations of each network.
1.1 Scope, Objective, and Purpose
· Define the scope and the purpose of the project.
The key goal of this kind of project is to offer software security, infrastructure and demonstrate the software projects being carried out in the course of the development of business requirements.
The aim of the project is to offer:
-Basic environment project plan development
- General scientific database and data warehousing design
- Software development tools
- Demonstrate the Analytics, Interfaces, and Cloud Technology
- Document templates and documentation tools and the support activity essential to guarantee that universal grid-enabled surrounding is available.
· Describe any considerations of the objectives or scope to be excluded from the deliverables and the project.
The project plan should adopt or use the existing where possible the software tools. Tools are emerging from Microsoft Visio, open software, software security, database, data warehousing and any other communities that can be utilized.
The core goal of the project plan is to develop and define an infrastructure and a process. The later maintenance of the software infrastructure beyond the inspection and business requirement will need a separate resources and planning.
· Ensure that the scope statement is steady and consistent with similar statements in the company case, other business-level documents or relevant system-level and the project charter.
Because such infrastructure & process project is to attain uniformity in the development of the various software packages of the project deliverables application area.
The work references for the project deliverables is an essential requirement for writing the final report on the management of the software. The universal recommendation of the project plan can be summarized as:
· All project deliverables must employ the same sets of standards, procedures, and tools.
· use the commonly adopted commercial software or open-source where available
· Avoid using software that do not have a license or may bring some problems.
· Avoid finding a software solution but also engage other IT experts.
· Describe and identify the system or business needs to be satisfied by the project.
The project plan will comprise of the numerous software projects that require to be launched and, therefore, to get universal infrastructure will offer a surrounding that will permit:
- Reduction of the cost by having projects that will share the resources both in terms of worldwide efforts to uphold sharing of usual services and software licenses, of hardware equipment and a project infrastructure, etc.
- Easier exchange of communication and information among projects.
- An infrastructure that is more advanced than if each person project was building its own.
· Provide a concise detail of:
- The objectives of the project,
- The deliverables needed to meet the project objectives, and
- The procedures by which the fulfillment of the objectives will be determined.
The primary project goals if to offer the deliverables of the projects an infrastructure for the:
- Components that make the software phase’s development, for example, testing, planning, documentation, and development.
- Overall service required by any project, such as collaborative facilities, a repository, and a project website.
· Describe the connection of this project plan to the other projects deliverable.
The software projects is going to function usually in offering facilities and services for the other deliverables software projects (e.g. updating the project plan). But this artifacts use will be overall and, therefore, accessible to all other projects and the software experiments.
· If appropriate, explain how this project plan will be integrated with other ongoing work processes or projects.
The project plan will utilize as much as possible prevailing services and procedures accessible in the experiments, documentation and in the software application processes. The usage and integration of such kind of the processes are a crucial goal of the project.
Planning is the first and foremost ingredient in this mix. You will need access to blueprints and the design of the building for drop locations whether it be for data and voice or electrical. You will also have to allow locations for peripherals, projectors, VTC, etc. A server room is going to be needed, so make sure that it is sizable for future growth of the network. The specs for the floor should be outlined. Try and label all cables because this will help with unneeded confusion later on down the road. Backup power for the backups should be in place also. There are cooling requirements for the server room so make sure you get the specs.
The media that you choose can make or break your networks speed. Try and make it a goal to install a couple of drops at each location for future expansion. If an additional phone or computers are added the location will already be physically installed. You will have to a lot enough time to move your existing lease lines and any other lines. Remember to save everything on your system before you take it down. After all is said and done a test should be performed to ensure everything is up and running.
XYZ Company is engaged in Web analytics, which is a generic term meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users. Ecommerce companies and other website publishers often use Web analytics software to measure such concrete details as how many people visited their site, how many of those visitors were unique visitors, how they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched with on the site's search engine, how long they stayed on a given page or on the entire site and what links they clicked on and when they left the site.
Web analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site's pages are working properly. With this information, Web site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and which areas of the site do not get traffic. Web analytics provides these site administrators and publishers with data that can be used to streamline a website to create a better user experience (Peppers, 2008).
XYZ Company was responsible for carrying out an investigation of how best to offshore their information systems services and decided to go with a large service provider in Okinawa, Japan. They decided to negotiate with the Japanese company for maintaining a significant portion of their database services. Following a year of intense planning, communication, and transition, the bulk of database maintenance was contracted out to the service provider in Japan.
Outsourcing occurs when information systems activities are carried out by a provider outside the organization.
Project managers are often involved with negotiation and management of contracts with international vendors for the delivery of information systems services.
Skills Required by the IT Management of Offshore Projects
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Contract negotiation and management
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Relationship management
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Risk assessment and management
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Planning and integration
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Business process redesign
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Enterprise needs analysis and testing
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Security and privacy planning
Outsourcing of information systems services to countries outside the US.
Just because you can get 10 Gigabit Ethernet here today and higher speeds do not mean that you need those ports all over the LAN. Too often customers purchase the fastest equipment possible thinking they need it, even though their existing 100 Mbps network is only running at 5% capacity. While it is definite to ensure that core switches can support these higher speeds, you may be advising the customer to waste a lot of money if you tell them that 10 Gigabit switches are needed everywhere. While these always seem to be left off purchase orders, network management tools are invaluable in providing maximum network uptime. Your goal is to offer the customer the lowest price possible.
More customers are deploying wireless LAN technology and IP telephony. Wireless LAN access points are easiest to install when Power over Ethernet (PoE) is available. IP telephony utilizes phones that connect to and draw power from the LAN.
Value Comparison: Licensed Software vs. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Solutions**
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Hardware & Software |
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) |
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Pay upfront capital expense |
Pay-as-you-go-operational expense |
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High upfront cost and annual maintenance costs |
Lower up-front subscription costs depending on number of users per month |
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Cost for applications, maintenance, infrastructure and IT/application resources |
Cost for annual subscription and minimal IT/application resources |
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Longer time required to install and configure applications |
Faster implementation and time-to-productivity |
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Not much control over vendor after purchase |
More control over relationship with vendor |
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Greater risk for users |
Better risk sharing with vendor |
XYZ Company has 4 security design committee or team to determine the security needs of the organization and to deploy security policies which can meet these requirements. The members of the network security design committee are knowledgeable on a number of factors, including the following:
The mission critical resources of the organization.
The security weaknesses or vulnerabilities of the organization.
The threats to which the mission critical resources of the organization is exposed.
The resources which are mainly at risk.
The loss to the organization should particular resources of the organization be compromised.
The level of security needed to secure the organization's resources.
The security features and security policies which can be used to secure the resources of the organization.
As the business grows so too must the security policies and processes be able to cater for this growth. Determine the risk tolerance of the organization. The level of risk tolerance would differ between organizations.
We know that most of data warehouses risks project are organizational to some extinct than technical (i.e., having a data warehouse that doesn’t address a related business need, for example). With that said, in Chapter 4 of Data Warehouse Project Management (by Sid Adelman and Larissa Moss) provides a pretty easy list of the major risks that can confront a DW project.
The risks factors include, but are not limited to the following:
a) Not having a commercial support high in the corporate office.
b) Project management that has never built a data warehouse
c) Team members not getting along, arguing.
d) The data bases are not legit and are to be transaction- oriented vs. aggregation oriented.
There are many risk factors for data warehouse accomplishment. I do not have any case studies to cite but have been implicated in more than 30 data warehouse implementation projects and can only cite experience. I will cover the risks that I have seen to be the most important. By the way, they have nothing to do with tools.
Data Warehousing Cost
There are down sides of course. You have to maintain Data Warehouses and that alone can be expensive to build. They can have a high failure rate without the right mix of high speed, powerful sponsor, and practically short time scale. However, just the impact that this can have on views that are traditional of data ownership and organizational structure can be really fatal.
Here are a few of the more cost that are very noticeable associated with data warehousing are listed in the following table.
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1. Time spent in careful analysis of measurable needs |
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2. Design and implementation effort |
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3. Hardware costs |
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4. Software costs |
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5. On-going support and maintenance |
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6. Resulting re-engineering effort |
Requirements for the business:
The following interpretations regarding the prioritization of requirements have been used:
· Requirements that conclude project success (must have); will be included in this release. These items stand for core functionality and must be present. Absence of any “must have” functionality represents project failure. (Inmon, W.H.,1993).
· Requirements that add value (should have); will be built-in in this release provided that all “must have” requirements have been met and sufficient project resources and time remain. (Inmon, W.H.,1993).
· Requirements that add convenience (nice to have); will be built-in in this release provided that all “must have” and “should have” requirements have been met and sufficient project possessions and time remain. (Inmon, W.H.,1993).
1. Business Sponsor: review and approve
2. Project Manager: review and integrate into construction project phase
3. Systems Analyst: review and translate into system specifications
4. Stakeholders: review and provide feedback to business sponsor
Some recent principles and tools have evolved and incorporated into a brand new science referred to as Data Warehousing. A data warehouse is a storage facility that is normally used to store an extremely big amount of data through an organization. A relational database is primarily designed for query and analysis processing rather than transaction processing. A relational database is a well-prepared, well-structured and advantageous process of organizing, managing and reporting data that are otherwise non-uniform and scattered throughout the organization in different systems.
The crucial features that data warehouse provide are the fact that: it allows recording, amassing and refining of data to separate systems at higher stages. More often than not it involves historic information that are derived from transactional data. However, it might additionally incorporate data from other sources as well. It helps companies consolidate data from several sources through separating evaluation workload from the transactional workload. Additionally, a data warehouse environment requires ETL which is Extraction, Transportation and Loading resolution, an OLAP which is Online Analytical Processing Engine, analysis tools and different instruments so that you can look at the process of gathering knowledge and eventually supplying it to users. The information stored in these warehouses must be preserved in a design that is dependable, comfy, and effortless to process and manage. The necessity for data warehousing arises as firms turn out to be more complicated, and they have also started producing and gathering a huge quantity of data that have been difficult to manage in the ordinary way.
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining is the approach of automatic extraction of non-obvious hidden data from gigantic volumes of information. For illustration, classification units are used to categorize participants into low, medium and excessive lifetime worth. Alternatively of classifying membership in the one-dimension-matches-all product. The membership can be arranged into distinct clusters established on the profile of the individuals and by using the clustering models the merchandise will also be personalized within the high-quality feasible manner for each and every cluster.
All of these KDD applications use special statistical and information mining systems that depend on summarized, discipline-oriented, cleansed data which is best viable and offered using a good designed and structured data warehouse.
Data Integration
An enterprise data is large and complex and spread out through a variety of different in-house and external systems. Also, there's an importance of analyzing data across different systems via vicinity, time, and channel. Therefore, the information integration is needed here so that the entire data is equipped and stored in one region. It also cuts down time and the prolonged approach involved in conception of reviews. Since a sequence of steps concerned in it which might be stripping and extraction of data from one source and then sorting and merging of information after which enriching the information by running reports on it are eradicated.
Data Warehousing serves both the rationale of a reliable information storage platform and also a very capable and satisfactory data integration platform. The information stored within the Data Warehouse is completely built-in, time-variant, non-volatile and field oriented. It helps corporations get a complete view of their company.
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Executive Information System
The data warehouse enables a business to make use of government information process as good. This EIS allows the Executives of the corporation to get a holistic snapshot of the company’s efficiency so as to make vital decisions. They would need the key performance indications was dropped on them. These KPIs require going division, or cross product evaluation which if accomplished manually is utterly tedious and time drinking undertaking and likewise almost inconceivable to perform on uncooked information derived from operational programs.
Some of these KPIs may just require a cross product or pass the departmental evaluation. However, could also be too manually intensive, if not impossible, to perform on uncooked knowledge from operational methods that are relevant to relationship advertising and marketing and for doing profitability analysis. The data present in Data Warehouses are already structured to support such type of evaluation. Advanced Reporting & Analytics. The foremost design technique of data warehouse is that it supports querying, reporting, and evaluation. The data model is de-normalized and then structured supporting subject areas. This flattened data model makes it faster and less difficult to understand and as good as write queries alternatively of working with hundreds and hundreds of extraordinary tables and write prolonged queries. Consequently, it enables anybody to get even the complex data with somewhat easy sets of queries and even let’s perform multidimensional analysis. The data warehouse is designed peculiarly to help in querying, reporting and analysis tasks. Apart from this, it is also possible to do multi-stage trend analysis. Below Multi-level pattern evaluation Data warehousing facilitates analysis of key tendencies at entry level across various dimensions comparable to Company, Location, and Product, Place, Time and the hierarchies inside them. It additionally makes it easier for most reporting ,visualization and data analysis instruments to take full competencies of the info model with the intention to provide enormously robust features reminiscent of drill-down, roll-up and different ways of reducing and dicing data.
Database Schema
Schema will define the table structure. For the entities, we’ll make a table and relationship will be defined depending on the type of association between them.
1. Page - Each page URL is unique in itself so it will act as its primary key.
2. Visit table - Each page will have 1 or more visits. Hence, here page’s primary key will act as a foreign key.
3. Client - Since client name cannot be unique, we need to generate and ID field as its primary key. The client can ask for data collection for more than one page.
4. Registered User - Registered user is allowed to give feedback on more than one page. Hence in visit table, the primary key of registered user acts as a foreign key.
5. Payment - User are paid for different kind of payment type.
6. Status code - For many page visit and logging in the server, a single status code can be applied. Hence, the primary key of status code acts as a foreign key in the respective tables.
7. Period - For detailed facts of the visit, time notes down in the table.
These are the main tables of the database schema.
ER Diagram
The major entities that form the groundwork of the company are these independent components that facilitate the appropriate data as assortment and sending them to the data marts. Customers are the service receiver of the company.
The consumer visits a page. Internet analytics notices the main points of the page. A single web page can have many visits. Information concerning the unexpected error status code can also be have got to be noted down. A single popularity code can have many web page visits. Data regarding the registered consumer forms the backbone of data source “patron feedback”. A single registered user can have more than one visits. At what time information is recorded can also be desires to save in Period? At a single point of time, where there can also be greater than one visit from within the system. Registered user are given payment for his or her feedbacks.
Page URL will also be on the social networking website, on-line varieties and an average net page as good.
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Data Flow Diagram
Mapping between input and output
Simplified Data View
A Simplified Data View
This view is simplistic of how from a range of sources is taken into the data warehouse first and then it is automatically made accessible to the end users for analysis and reporting, and it also corresponds to a type of model that was planned early in the project. Later we know that the database that supported the multi-dimensional analysis is different from the one underneath workers that write their own ad hoc reports. A data warehouse suitable for multi-dimensional analysis is deprived in several ways:
i. Replaced with values or meanings is coded data.
ii. Whenever tables are stored, the complex joins are done ahead of time.
iii. If demoralized, there will be a significant aggregation and summarization that will occur.
The usage of Business Analysis is utilized for the following reasons; Examination of data so as to realize trends and patterns. Classifying relationships in essential data variables useful in business forecasting. For example next likely purchase by the client. It foretells future outcomes by utilizing predictive analytics and predictive modeling. It conducts past business decisions tests using Multivariate and A/B testing. It helps in decision making in business for instance calculating the amount of discount to be issued to a new client. It drills bottom to the results to figure out the reason a specific circumstance happened. This method is undertaken by performing quantitative analysis and statistical analysis with business analytical tools.
Post recognizing of a study methodology and business goals require to be selected and information data is obtained to provision the analysis. This information attainment usually comprises of extracting meaningful data from the schemes may be spread all over various facilities and locations. The acquired data is then integrated and cleansed into a single repository such as a data warehouse and a data mart. Since the collection is done for data, it is incredibly vast and extensive, it’s hard to conduct the analysis on all of the data. As the sampling approach is engaged, and analysis is carried out. The analytical devices range from the obvious familiar used spreadsheets attached to statistical formulas to even more compound predictive modeling and data mining tools. Once the trends, relationships, and patterns commence to uncover, new realizations would be revealed, and the analytical approaches go on until all of the companies’ objectives are fulfilled.
Each year we undertake, companies encounters strange challenges with are current IT sector by obstructing its strengths. Nevertheless, a large sum of the finances might be an excellent approach to do away with the challenges, this does not always reflect the feasible solution. It is at this point that the cloud computing comes into existence. The technologies of cloud computing are revolutionizing the data in the computer globe by creating computing ubiquitously accessible leveraging on the factors including storage capacity, redundancy, flexibility and agility to manage assets for information. The dissemination of the internet and creative utilization of it in the world of business also facilitated cloud computing to make use of the present infrastructure in such manner demonstrating it is valuable to businesses by increasing efficiency and saving costs simultaneously. Enterprises are discovering that cloud computing comes with potential without boundary and that leveraging it is an indication of it being valuable to both business and clients.
XYZ Company which has put the business analytics tools to use have realize several benefits which include; operations being cost effective, Improved competitiveness, better knowledge and awareness of each of the enterprise process, essential enterprise-wide real-time information, more understanding of vital stakeholders and timely feedback of the client’s wants for accessibility of data.
Based on the Business Analytics we could conclude it has brought a lot of benefits to the company whereby the enterprise data acts a crucial role by assisting them to have the correct information when needed. This helps these bodies to come up with informed decisions very fast thus obtaining a competitive edge.
Nevertheless an organization should select the overall effective vendor who will offer the best solution to the business by giving different solutions and techniques to analysis, interpretation, clarification and collection of the data reveal key relationships, variables, anomalies and pattern resulting in more informed decisions and better insights. The vendor must input service along with the strategic advice needed to address performance, process and cultural matters of business analytics.
Why steering company towards cloud computing technologies is important
Effective cost: it gives enterprises power to leverage a big number of powerful robust and servers industry whereby their platforms are proven to have minimal financial commitments. Also, there is entirely no upfront capital and maintenance expenditures. This kind of services are normally accessible as pay-as-you-go facilities and are greatly customized in such that they promote the company to make payment for the only required services.
Implementation – the cloud computing technologies have no or very small implementation duration and usually such services can be deployed or configured on one day as a variety of them utilize a standard web browser to make use of cloud services.
Availability – the providers of the cloud services have the accessible bandwidth and needed infrastructure to cater for business demands to provide for high-speed applications and speed access.
Resilience – robust storage infrastructure is utilized by cloud service providers and has mirrored answers that can put in place in case of load-balancing traffic and disaster schemes. Accidents can occur in any form or shape that include virus attacks and intrusion attempts, for example, natural calamities, the providers of the cloud computing have capabilities and resilience to ensure the unfortunate event is sustained throughout.
Scalability – virtually limitless scalable is an aspect of cloud service and can expand or shrink depending on the business demands. Implementation and provisioning are usually carried out on demand that could handle other such urgent needs or unconditional traffic spikes.
Efficiency – transferring the data management on cloud promotes an enterprise to notice tension on different operational tasks assisting them to get more resources and time to diverting attention from the other aspects of the company involving effort and innovation. This support the enterprise to innovate and grow making cloud offerings to rise above financial advantages.
With all the facts in consideration, we can conclude that the business should reflect cloud computing is having an attractive potential service offering so as to advance their IT resources while managing the investments in these fronts. Nevertheless, a company much conduct broad investigations of the cloud offering from the providers but not jump into it blindly because there particular security and risks matters accompanied by cloud computing also to its advantages. It is expected that there will be a rise in dependency on the third-party provider’s service for a number of key operations of an enterprise so that the business must ensure that the vendor should be in position of providing robust, resilient, flexible and fast services. To realize the unattractive potential service for the cloud computing.
In every business offerings it emphasis on controlling costs while looking how to improve the IT resources. However, there should be an indication of the security and risks concerns that are involved despite having a couple of benefits along. Having IT services fetched outside the business, it comes with additional risk with the third-party provider increased dependency to supply efficient, available, resilient and flexible IT services. Although a significant section of businesses is used to administering this kind of in-house risk, adjustments are demanded to expand governance structures and approaches to enhance efficiently enterprise strategy analysis and handle the new IT solutions. The necessary utilization of business analytics in those companies whose current and past information data acts an essential role in the decision.
Solution provider recommendation
One of the most prominent analytical devices accessible in the current market is known as IBM – Smarter Analytics. It is maintained and developed by IBM and also has a well-known market track record. It can be integrated to close to all businesses and suitable for different kind of industries.
A typical network infrastructure comprises of:
· Networking hardware:
· Switches
· Cables
· Wireless routers
· Routers
· LAN cards
Networking software:
· Network operations and management
· Operations systems
· Firewall
· Network security applications
· Operating systems
· Network management and operations
Network Services:
· T-1 Line
· IP addressing
· Satellite
· DSL
· Wireless Protocols
· Network security
It is a field of specialty in computer networking that comprises of securing the network infrastructure of networks. Typically the network security is handled by the system administrator or by network administrator who implements the network hardware/software and safety policy which is essential to offer protection to the resources and the network which can be broken into by unauthorized users through the network via the network and to ensure that the companies staffs have sufficient access to resources and network to optimize the working.
Typically a network security system depends on layers of protection and is made up of various components comprising security software and networking monitoring also to appliances and hardware. All the systems are linked together to enhance the overall computer network security.
This subject of security is very broad, and it is impossible for an individual tackle it entirely. There are no consultant neither a magic pill offer directions for us to follow and guarantee us absolute security and if there is one who does this will not be doing honest at all. It is a fact that security matters is about compromise; it can be a range compromise between the level of acceptance risk, the level of cost and inconvenience and level of security.
Security is directly proportion to the cost incurred thus by increasing security results in inconvenience and costs to the user, in so doing the standard of risk falls below that a company requires to attain to sustain. In case we were to examine this compromise relationship, it is evident that it is nonlinear. Taking a graph as an example and moving close to the top the relationship between the added cost and the security to benefit ratio will exponentially increase; meaning with a slight decrease in the organization risk will cost more a lot. To maximize the outcome, we should focus on the expenditure to benefit ratio.
Considerations
As we have observed in the above discussion, there is no guarantee for absolute security. Despite our efforts, it is essential to realize that a guarantee of gaining 100% security is next to impossible, and in overall working towards attaining 100% security will be a fruitless journey and can also be misleading. As discussed above, when one exceeds a particular point of the expenditures will shoot up dramatically and the security of the business will be viewed as not economical. Which will eventually result in incurring a huge of risk in the company thus the weak link. In pure form by referring to weak link I mean as the security entails many things this is also a collection of factors operating hand in hand having the strength of this collection not a total of all sections but a fraction of its weakest portion.
Taking an example to gain better understanding of the network infrastructure and security we assume an individual has built a house and want to ensure close to 100% level of security if it is attainable to prevent the intruders. He plans to achieve this by overdoing it by installing a vault door in the front entrance door, fix titanium bars in front of each window and puts bullet proof glass in every window. Besides, there is a reinforcement concrete wall around the home making the place to appear like a bunker and also he has put a guard who is on the watch for 24-hours in the front door. For his personal reasons, let’s assume the back door is left pretty flimsy and even more facing the alley dark direction. Starting with the first description the home seems too secure for someone to break into but, unfortunately, the back door is facing in the dark way, and it is flimsy, requiring very little energy to open it. Thus making the whole idea expensive for nothing.
The above description is also applicable in our IT network infrastructure, but in our case there exist firewalls instead of guards, there installed perimeter security in place of the front door, we got servers and database in place of windows and instead of backdoors we have internal security. Each element is vulnerable to attack points in the network; we have personnel’s, routers, storage devices, workstations, servers, network points, email, wireless infrastructure and others. Every point requires to be secured and basing on the above story in ill advice to pay a lot of attention on the instilling high level of security since they appear more essential than others. Because malicious individuals requires only a single entry point to break inside.
Let’s assume the scenario of our company considering that the business will be expanding the company from one (1) floor to three (3) levels for the market in the very near future and our primary aim is to offer protection to the client database data from being disclosed or accessed by the intruders. The initial step in our work plan is to secure this internal database from being accessed from the outside. We will install some safeguards and firewalls to ensure it is impossible to access the network from the outside. Besides, we can apply security fixes and patches to the database in due time and place rules and regulations in to warn and prevent individuals from intentionally or accidentally send via an email a private data. It’s my duty to ensure that a lot of power and money is utilized to offer the best possible security for each point.
Protect as much as possible
Covering all the bases is the best primarily the secret to effective security and to cover those bases acts as the way of economically viable. Limited budgets is always a challenge to many and so by making use of this budget to attain the most expensive answers possible to secure the systems is not a trick for an adequate security. But the budget should be spread out to obtain the optimum protection to expenditure ratio across all the networked systems. There should be an attempt to cover all the bases. A network comprises of a Human Element, Software, Hardware and Physical Element. It should be noted that security does not involve bullying the software, but it is essential to protecting networked systems and deploying that software. Besides, security also entails educating individuals and this measure has the same weight as any other of being important but it is unfortunately in many cases overlooked.
(*Enclosed is an excel spreadsheet of the estimated cost of the project)
Constraints, risks, and assumptions
· Describe the assumptions on which the project is based.
The project plan adopts that will be probably to define a decision mechanism in the situation whereby more than one answer is available, and there are differences on which explanation/answer to be adopted. Due to the limited allocation of resources any of this kind of discrepancies will delay the deployment of the project considerably.
The project plan, also, is built in the favor of the user Society to assist in the definition and their input to the implementation of network infrastructure and security.
· Describe the imposed risks and the constraints on the project such as:
- Budget, quality, schedule, and resources
- Software to be reutilized, prevailing software to be incorporated
- External interfaces, and technology to be used.
Each project must deliver its individual components, as soon as they become accessible, so they can be utilized by the deliverables plan projects, and by other projects that one wish to do in the ICT. The resources are the ones that are availed present, or those known to be allocated to the project in the future.
Project Deliverables
List and identify the following, as needed to meet the terms of the project contract or charter:
- Project deliverables (either by reference to an external document or directly in this project plan),
- Delivery location, delivery dates ends
- Quantities required.
· Specify the delivery media
All the project deliverables of the planned project are required to be accessible in the following forms:
- Web-based access to the project, for example, collaborative facilities, etc.
- Pre-installed software tools and library in the public area.
· Specify any special guidelines for installation and mentainance.
Schedule and Budget Summary
· Provide the details of the budget and schedule for the project.
· Restrict the degree of detail to an itemization of the key supporting processes and activities (for example, show only the top level of the breakdown structure of the work).
This budget estimation is for the project deliverables one to five assumes a steady establishment of the project along the lines portrayed in this plan; if there will be alterations in the objectives or mandate the budget require to be redefined. In any circumstance, the budget of the project plan should be updated and assessed on an early basis for the project start-up.
Internal resources required
The resources needed to run the project plan are as follows:
- Software licenses and acquisition for the servers and network infrastructure
- The desktop hardware required
- Particular hardware for each project deliverable infrastructure for hardware upgrades and servers.
- Costs for participation conferences and workshops where to deliver the infrastructure and meeting project categories of the end users.
External resources required
As much as possible the prevailing IT services will be utilized and therefore there be the want of adapting, increase some of the services and changing. Some of the resources will be required in the present IT services for these upcoming new activities and may be estimated accordingly.
Evolution of the plan
· Find the compliance of this project plan to the required standards.
The project plan structure is in compliance with the IT recommendations where the document templates are utilized.
· Specify the plans s for creating both unscheduled and scheduled updates to this scheme.
For every six-month, the project plan should be revised to reflect variations in policies and employees.
· Specify how the plan updates should be spread.
· Specify how alterations of this project plan shall be maintained after implementation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as discussed at the start of this document I said security is not absolute and will always be demanding aspect in the daily operation of the company. No matter how efforts, time, and money injected, the will be occasions when it becomes a threat by going down resulting to another security aspect. Sometimes when safety is compromised it is very essential to notice it very promptly as possible and to have a disaster recovery plan is equally important because it will assist a person to act on the situation before it is too late. Having kept disaster recovery plan in place can help a company to retain its clients and save money; ideally the plan will never be put into practice, but it is very essential to it in place instead of a need for it to arise in its absence.
References
Harris, E. P. (2008). Project Planning and Control Using Primavera P6 for All Industries Including Versions 4 to 6, Page 6. Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd
Harris, E. P. (2009). Project Planning and Control Using Primavera Contractor Version 6.1: Including Versions 4.1, 5.0 and 6.1. Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd
Vargas, V. R. (2007). Practical Guide to Project Planning. CRC Press
Lester, A. (2007). Project Management, Control, and Planning: Construction, Managing Engineering, and Manufacturing Projects to PMI, APM and BSI Standards. Butterworth-Heinemann
Evans, R. J. (2014). Business Analytics: Methods, Models, and Decisions. Pearson Education
Erl, T. et. al. (2013). Cloud Computing and Technology Concepts & Architecture
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Data Granuality
Collection system
Integration Process
Operational Data Store
Staging/Verification Database
Integrated Data Warehouse
Page Visit Count
Visit
Online logging data
Data integrity Code
Data Mart
R E P O R T I N G
Page
TimePeriod
PageVisit
VisitFact
Online FormsWeb Page
Customer
Feedback
SEO
Relational Database
Extract, Transform and Load Processes
Operational Data Store (ODS)
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Online Forms
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Customer Feedback
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Extract, Transform and Load Processes
Operational Data Store (ODS)
Data Warehouse
Data Mart
Data Mart
Data Mart
:
End User
PowerPlay
:
End User
Impromptu
Operational
System
Production
Data -
VAX RMS,
Databus
Data
Warehouse
Data Warehouse
Database
Operational
System
External
Data -
PC,
Hardcopy
:
End User
Impromptu
Client
PKclient_ID
Pages
PKpage_ID
StatusCode
PKstatusCode_ID
PagesVisit
PKpageVisit_ID
Visit
PKvisit_ID
Registered Users
PKuser_ID
ServerLog
PKlog_ID
TimePeriod
PKperiod_ID
VistFact
PKvisitFact_ID
Payment
PKpayment_ID
InteractionTypes
PKinteraction_ID
Ref_Calender
PKreporting_Time
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Table
Data GranualityCollection system
Integration
Process
Operational Data
Store
Staging/
Verification
Database
Integrated Data
Warehouse
Page Visit
Count
Online logging
data
Data integrity Code
R
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P
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Visit
Page
TimePeriod
PageVisit
VisitFact
Data Mart