Running head: CIS 532 Term Paper

Assignment 5: Technical Term Paper Donald Shipman Strayer University Dr. Abdel Ismail September 6, 2012

Executive summary This summary endeavors to present the Network design project needs that are desired for Fiction Corporation. The documentation provided is a structured study of the problem and the actions to be taken in resolving the aforementioned. To begin we will conduct a study of the various parts of the existing network topology and the various types of technologies that are currently in use. After judicious evaluation, we will create a plan to transition the Data-center. Some proposals related to network design changes may also be recommended. The approach our company takes keeps in mind the business needs of Fiction Corporation. This includes noting the required uptime and financial constraints into consideration. Finally, a complete implementation plan has been constructed with the time-line and budget figures. We stand confidently behind our work and can boldly stake claim that our team has the qualifications to complete the project. We have expertise in project management, networking and internetworking. To support this, we have certifications under our belt (CISSP, CCNP, PMP, Network+). A team of 10-12 such subject matter experts will be dedicated to Fiction Corporations project. Project goals The project takes aim to deal with the major Data-center problem of Fiction Corporation, and will be an aggressive project with several project goals and sub-goals. The following represent the major project goals: Migration of Data center: Fiction Corporation needs to shift one of its data centers from its current location to the headquarters, which is located several miles away. The shift needs to be a seamless transition. Measures must be taken not to affect daily operational activities of the company. As a backup measure, there will be a

duplication of data storage at the remote location. Once the new site is ready for hosting operations, the old site will be dismantled or made dis-functional. Network and infrastructure upgrade: Fiction Corporations management looks to seize this as an opportunity to upgrade the infrastructure and network. While making the transition, our team will also work on an analysis of current network designs and its supplementary inventiveness. There is a sub-goal for the optimization and quality control of operations. New network architecture and technologies can be deployed as a part of migration. Cost-effective Implementation: Fiction Corporations management has set budget on migration costs of $500,000. We consider project costs to be non-elastic and having to be kept under the limits as set by Fiction Corporations executive committee. Such major projects can only be accepted if it provides a positive return on a short or long-term basis. While designing the network, Return on Investment (ROI) will be kept in mind for the project duration. Project scope: The data center and network infrastructure of a company influences and controls its business flow in many ways. There are enumerable tasks that can be in conjunction with a project dealing with data management and networking of a company. It is vital to set limits to a project. It is not realistic or manageable to include every aspect of network design/infrastructure and data management. There are desirable set priorities and definable tasks for beneficial project management. We will examine the scope of project that Wide-IP is taking up for Fiction Corporation: The scope of this project is limited to following deliverables:

1) Fiction Corporation currently has network design/infrastructure architecture. Analysis of current portfolio of Fiction Corporation Network has to be done. This will help in constructing an improved design. Implementation of that newly developed network design is also to be undertaken. 2) Data storage infrastructure is to be installed at the new proposed site (headquarters). This data center is then to be networked in conjunction with the newly created design, setting up internetworking of this center with other existing parts (retail stores, call center etc.) 3) We wish to avoid a disruption of any company operations because of this project. It is for this exact reason that necessary testing must be done on the newly deployed internetwork. The uptime that Fiction desires is substantially high. Quality checks and testing has to be done rigorously before using the system in a live environment. 4) Once the new data center site and internetwork is tested, we need to migrate our data from the old site to the new center. Only when migration of business data is complete we can host our business from the new center. Thus, Successful migration of Data should be done to the new site. 5) Wide-IPs team will be installing some new network designs and technologies. We will also be deploying them successfully. With that being said, there is a need for post-project support from wide-IPs experts. One of the primary deliverables is providing support and training to Fiction Corporations network managers for few months so that they will be able to handle basic and routine issues on their own. Post project support and training will be provided for a time period not to exceed 90 days. Additional support can be provided for a fee. It is the responsibility of Fiction Corporation to schedule their managers tasks in a way that training gets completed in the stipulated time frame.

Design requirements Design requirements deliberate about the prospects that are at hand from the design engineers. Network designers cultivate an infrastructural design based on specific requirements in mind based on the wants and needs of the requester. It defines the probable capabilities of the new design that will be created. For Fiction Corporations project, following are the design requirements: LAN Security: Fiction Corporation seeks a strong security circle. Intruders should be both kept away from their network as well as be discouraged from attempting to hack it. This is required for the security and protection of intellectual property. There are different aspects of security, including port security, firewalls, and VLAN configurations. All of these should be considered in network design and implementation. Back-up Capabilities: No matter how well an infrastructure is built or maintained, the possibility of downtime is real and likely. In such a scenario, company should be ready with plan-B. With this imminent consideration, primary back up must be available and fully functional. This is on the basis of the uptime requested of the five nines (99.999%). Bandwidth availability: Fiction Corporation has its network functioning in a remote mode. There are converging physical sites that are meant to be as lucid as a LAN. Frame relay and T-1 links are used to establish the existing internetwork. Selection of frame relay and T1 links should be done in accordance with the estimated traffic. Wide-IP wants to avert the potential of low bandwidth at any of the links. There must be satisfactory bandwidth to support daily operations at retail stores, the call center and warehouses. Network monitoring: In such a spread/remote internetwork, network management becomes exponentially crucial. Fiction is not capable of having its complete management team

deployed at each and every site. The concept is to have network managers monitor entire internetwork in a centralized manner. Remote monitoring will be included in the design. Provisions for failure detection by SNMP will be made. There are various monitoring technologies available in addition to SNMP (eg-RMON). Wide-IP can use any of those technologies to create a network monitoring infrastructure. Cost effective design: As per Fiction Corporations management, $500,000 or less of investment can be made in this project. This is a business decision which takes into contemplation the business returns that this project will bring to the company. Design must abide by the cost constraints provided by Fiction Corporation. Wide-IPs plan will land within these budget limits. Business goals Business goals of this project are related to the impact that this project is expected to have on the business functions. This projects requirement has some changes/enhancements that are in direct relation to business operations. There are several objectives set by Fiction Corporations management pertaining to this project. The objectives are the following: Fictions management needs their data center to be migrated to their Headquarters. They are ready to make the investment because of long term benefits associated with it. Because this is a very sizeable project, managements initial directive is that they do not want their daily business operation to get interrupted. Impact of this migration on Fictions customers and employees must virtually non-existent. Fiction carries a high level of performance related reputation. Management has a concern about protected the brand name and business continuity.

Also this migration should not create a steep learning curve for Fiction Corporations customers and employees. Fiction cannot afford to re-train customers and employees. Ideally the migration would need to then be just a back-end process. In this manner the system interacts with its users should not be affected.

With changes in infrastructure, management has a concern about network management systems. Wide-IP will handle this concern and implement technologies that will help in creating a complete network management system with good ease of use.

New network infrastructure should have improvement in the uptime too of at least not see a reduction in performance. Technical goals To achieve business goals set by Fiction Corporations management, Wide-IPs team of

experts has compiled a list of the following technical goals. Upon the accomplishing of all these mentioned technical objectives, the business goals will also be achieved. Technical goals (by Wide-IP team) are: Current data center might be facing issues such scalability, scope, low response time, etc. The new data center should be free from any performance related bugs. So, a detailed analysis of current operations will be completed and Wide-IP will also determine Data-processing requirements. Wide-IPs expert team will set up UPS systems, RS/6000 AIX application servers, virtualized servers and PCs at the new Data center location (Headquarters). There are many remote locations that need to be connected for setting up internetwork. Wide-IPs technical team has to set up or lease T1 links between remote locations and the Data center for this purpose.

Putting T1 links all over the place can hit our budget constraints. So, Wide-IP will also set up frame relay networks on ISDN back up at places where a little compromise can be done on bandwidth. This will greatly in cost affectivity.

The business objectives require quality uptime. Wide-IP will set up T1 and ISDN lines as primary back-up. Any significant downtime can affect Fictions profitability and reputation, so back-up is required.

Network management is also one of the business concerns. It should be done centrally (or at least remotely at some locations). So, SNMP network monitoring system will be put in place.

To make our internetwork functioning, Routers at both the remote locations and the Data center should be configured.

Data security and protection has to be included in design. Hence, VLAN configuration should be done on switches. This will limit unauthorized access and also help in network management.

Rigorous Testing of system (Internetwork) should be done. We cannot migrate until and unless we are sure of the performance of the new infrastructure.

Finally we will perform the data migration from old center to the new Data center. Migration should not result in tempering of business data, but it should be done with a back-up of data already taken. User communities and data stores

Fiction Corporation is a multi-department enterprise. Its data center hosts many different categories of users in their daily business operations. Some of these categories are:

1) Network administrators 2) Retail store administrators 3) Call center users. Theyll be accessing the data center for daily operations. Their customer support software is supported by Data-centers 4) Warehouse administrators. All the inventory information stored in our data-centers is accessed and used by them. 5) Support system (Wide-IPs support team or its successor after few months) Network applications Any companys internetwork experiences several kinds of applications working on its 7th layer (of OSI model). Some of the applications that will be present in Fiction Corporations network are: Email programs FTP Telnet Call center management application. Network management applications (SNMP) Network analyzer applications WAN and LAN network monitors Firewall Current Network Status

(Microsoft, 2011) The figure above illustrates 10 routers connecting other retail stores, warehouses etc. Router images Router Data center in the figure. These routers are connected to other retail stores; remote places via frame relay over ISDN back up. Retail Stores, Warehouses and Call Center

(Microsoft, 2011)

This figure illustrates an overall picture of existing network. There are data servers that are the actual storage machines. The data center facility has routers which connect it to other remote facilities over a frame relay link. Proposed Network design Frame relay and T1 links are a necessity in Fiction Corporations network design. It will be beneficial to wisely use T1 links at very select places and frame relay (ISDN back up) in others. A call center is a facility that will frequently access the data center. In addition, traffic flow will be greater. We assume that the call center softwares database is supported by the data center. Call center executives will access the data servers very often if not daily. This will require a high bandwidth link between data center and call center. Thus, a T1 link should be put in place. Other remote places such as warehouses and retail stores can compromise a little on bandwidth. Because for those sites, access will not likely be as frequent and thus, traffic will be more easily predictable and manageable.

(Microsoft, 2011)

The figure illustrates that a T1 link has been established with the call center. All other remote locations are connected via frame relay (over ISDN). This is a change that is proposed in contrast to the existing design. The link between data-center and critical remote locations will be a T1 link and not a frame relay (over ISDN). This will resolve all bandwidth related issues. Network testing results: The following test results are to be observed before final deployment. Success in all of these tests is required: Functionality tests router/VLAN/other network configurations are checked for expected functioning. Frame relays and T-1 links are to be tested. Tools like ping, trace-route etc. can be used for it. Bandwidth usage testing: (free bandwidth available). ISDN lines and T-1 links should be tested for the bandwidth that they are providing. There should be enough free bandwidth available for peak usage. Backup testing: T1 and ISDN back-up should be checked. This will ensure uptime for the entire system. Security tests: Security measures should be tested. This will include testing port security, firewall etc. The data center should be flooded with test (dummy) data to check scalability support. PCs and virtual machines should be enough for current volume of business data. Implementation plan:

Wide-IP has experts in project management. We believe in not just meeting but beating deadlines. Project schedule will tasks has been mentioned:

Data center hardware set-up (UPS, PCs, Power-chords etc) Team of 5 Data store set-up. Configuring Virtual machines.

Network devices hardware set-up (switches, routers etc) Team of 3 Configuring Network devices. Port access, Protocols, etc.

3 Weeks 14 Days 10-12 Days 25 Days 10 Days 10 Days 90 Days

Setting up or leasing T1 links, frame relay (ISDN backup). Configuring them for our use Set-up SNMP based remote network monitoring tool. RMON or any similar tool will do.Configure VLANs.

TESTING MIGRATION Post Project Support

In the first month, both network and data-center hardware set-up activities can be done. Next 25 days involve software configuration of data servers and networking devices. Routers, switches will be configured and Virtual machines will be set-up. All other tasks are done on a dedicated basis and not in a parallel way.

Return on Investment Discussion

Here are some ROI projections (estimates only) For a new Data center establishment: 1) Data center set-up cost 2) Networking cost : Frame relay + T1 links + ISDN back up costs 3) Expertise cost (cost of our expertises engagement) 4) Operational cost migration + support + testing etc. ROI analysis: Expert cost = $ 25/hour Frame relay lease cost = $200 per month (for 1.5 Mb) Investment = around $350,000 (average based on 4 experts deployed for 430 days, 10 hrs./day) Return on investment = profit / investments = Revenue/ around $ 350,000 This designates there is no loss taken on the investment. Profitability should increase at a rate of 3-6% per quarter based on the improvement of the performance which represents a gain of $10,500 minimum at the end of the following quarter after implementation.

Appendix:

VLAN: VLAN or virtual LAN is a logical concept that is used to separate parts of network. It is done to allow easy organization and prevent unauthorized access. Frame relay: Frame relay is a protocol that is used over ISDN backup links. These are virtual links that are formed between remote sites. It helps in LAN formation Frame relay/T1 lease: Putting up a dedicated line is not a practical solution. So, service providers provide lines which can be used by consumers on a subscription basis or lease basis.

References Microsoft. (2011). Network Design. Retrieved September 6, 2012, from wndw.net: http://wndw.net/pdf/wndw2-en/ch03-design.pdf Murhammer, M. W., Lee, K.-K., Motallebi, P., Borghi, P., & Wazabal, K. (2009, June). IP Network Design. Retrieved September 6, 2012, from redbooks.ibm.com: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg242580.pdf Network Computing.com. (2012). Network Design. Retrieved September 6, 2012, from Network Computing.com: http://www.networkcomputing.com/netdesign/series.htm