'IT Strategy and Network Design Proposal Essay\r'

'The GFK School of go was established in 1960. Since so, the school has grown steadily and now has a several strikeices in the capital of the United Kingdom atomic recite 18a. However, the Organization is expanding and a raw(a) showtime is to be built that allow for link with the be net and also utilise the la running play technologies such as simulators, the internet and the World Wide Web.\r\nFurther more, improvement is undeniable in the communications and sharing of reading amid offices spread around the Lon enter.\r\nThe Director wants to take routinefulness of the Internet to change the track the comp all operates. The sore tell leave behind allow prospective thickenings to stag the website and make an initial registration. Interview and the checking of documents kitty then be arranged on-line(a). Once a lymph gland has been registered any(prenominal) payments due git also be made on-line via any of the various commendation and debit cards.\r\nFlex ibility in the provision of fashion to knobs also requires that once registered, a invitee can take a driving lesson at any of the centres. Hence an integrated and up-to-date database establishment is to be follow outed.\r\nThe Director of the organization feels that too many mistakes are being made with the current organisation and that the success of the organization will be short-lived if he does not do something to overcome the situation.\r\nHe knows that a good IT strategy and ne iirk founding could support in part to solve the problem and has approached our group to help create a new showtime and implement an efficient and reliable information scheme to support the running of the organization as a whole.\r\n1.3 DESCRIPTION OF GFK OPERATIONS.\r\n each(prenominal) office has a coach-and-four (who tends to be a sr. instructor),\r\nSeveral senior instructors, instructors and administrate staffs.\r\nThe staff hierarchy is as follows:\r\n†film director\r\nâ⠂¬ Senior instructors\r\n†Instructors\r\n†Office personnel.\r\nThe manager is responsible for the everyday running of the office.\r\nClients must first register on-line or at an office and this requires that they complete an act form, which records their own(prenominal) details.\r\nBefore the first lesson, a client is requested to attend an interview with an instructor to prize the purpose ups of the client and to ensure that the client holds a valid provisional driving license.\r\nA client is free to ask for a particular instructor or to request that an instructor be changed at any stage throughout the process of breeding to drive.\r\n subsequently a successful interview, the first lesson is booked.\r\nA client may request item-by-item lessons or book a block of lessons for reduced fee.\r\nAn individual lesson is for one or two hours which begins and ends either at the client’s home or at the office.\r\nA lesson is with a particular instructor in a particu lar car at a given time.\r\nLessons can start as archaeozoic as 6a.m. and as late as 8p.m.\r\nAfter each lesson, the instructor records the progress made by the client and notes the mileage used during the lesson.\r\nThe Organization has a pool of cars, which are adopted for the purpose of teaching.\r\nEach instructor is allocated to a particular car.\r\nAs surface as teaching, the instructors are free to use the cars for personal use.\r\nThe cars are inspected at regular intervals for faults.\r\nOnce ready, a client will be given a test date by the instructor.\r\nIt is the responsibility of the instructor to ensure that the client is best prepared for all parts of the test.\r\nThe instructor is not the responsible for testing the client and is not in the car during the test but should be available to drop off and pick up the client before and after the test at the testing centre.\r\nIf a client fails to pass, the instructor must record the reasons for the failure.\r\n1.4. AIMS O F THE PROJECT.\r\n1. To design and implement a lucre solution for the new Barking branch .\r\n2. To redesign or upgrade the company’s existing network system.\r\n3. To connect GFK to the Internet and offer up full internet service.\r\n4. To design a desktop and its delivery to all GFK’s client computers.\r\n5. To oral communication security and back-up issues.\r\n6. To design a network supervise policy to master(prenominal)tain and/or improve public presentation in the future. This particular aspect of the group work is investigated in detail by Student number: 0212251 in Part B.\r\n1.5 BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROPOSED NETWORK SYSTEM.\r\nThe design of the Local Area Network for the new branch and its communication with the rest of the GFK network will be approached in view of satisfying two of import business functions:\r\n†Information sharing: refers to having users penetration the akin data files, exchange information via email, or use the intern et.\r\n†Resource sharing: refers to one computer sharing a hardware device (e.g., printer) or software program system package with other computers on the network to bear costs.\r\nThe main benefit of information sharing is amend decision making, which is one of the goals of the GFK School of Motoring.\r\nAny setance, e.g. a web browser, on the GFK LAN will demand the following functions:\r\n1. data storage\r\n2. data advance logic\r\n3. lotion or business logic\r\n4. presentation logic\r\nBased on these functions we will be implementing client/server network computer computer architecture at the new branch. We will be development 3-tier client/server architecture to spread the extend between the clients (microcomputers) and the servers (more powerful microcomputers).\r\nThis is illustrated in the diagram shinestairs:\r\n(FitzGerald & Dennis, varlet 46, top).\r\nIn this case, the software on the client computer is responsible for presentation logic, an applica tion server is responsible for the application logic and a separate database server is responsible for the data access logic and data storage [1, page 45].\r\nSince the main advantage of a client/server architecture is also its weak point i.e. enabling software and hardware from antithetical vendors to be used together, we will recommend a middleware software such as CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). It will perform two vital functions:\r\n1. It enables a standard way of communication by translating between software from different vendors\r\n2. It manages the message transfer from clients to servers (and vice versa) so that clients need not know the specific server that contains the application’s data. The application software on the client transports all messages to the middleware, which forwards them to the correct server. The application software on the client is therefore protected from any changes in the physical network. If the network layout changes (e.g., a new server is added), only the middleware must be updated [1, page 44].\r\nBy choosing this architecture for the new branch, we ache achieved two things:\r\n1. Better load balancing between the servers on the network\r\n2. Scalability. In the future, if due to business demands the system needs to be extended, this can be tardily done by adding one or more servers.\r\n1.6 REQUIREMENTS ACQUISITION.\r\nIn order to obtain valuable information round the GFK School of Motoring, the group resolved to send out questionnaires to members of the organization who uses the old system on a regular basis and piss a good knowledge of it. We decided on questionnaires because we believe that the users, being under no pressure as they answer questions virtually the existing system, will provide a reliable feedback.\r\n1.6.1 QUESTIONNAIRE 1.\r\n exploiter: Mr A. Patel.\r\nPosition: Instructor.\r\nTime at Company: 3 years.\r\nBranch: Stratford Branch.\r\n1. question: How often do you use the system?\r\n dish up: Daily. As many as 20 times a day, when at work.\r\n2. caput: Are you comfortable using the company network?\r\n dissolving agent: Sort of.\r\n3. Question: What do you commonly use the system for?\r\n issue: Browsing the internet, enquiring about client information, entering client details, sending and receiving emails etcetera\r\n4. Question: Which of these tasks do you found most intimidate and why?\r\nAnswer: No doubt, it is obtaining information about clients. The process is very slow and frustrating particularly during peak hours. For some reasons the system is sluggish and it slows consume the business.\r\n5. Question: From question 4, do you sometimes have to abort the task?\r\nAnswer: No, because a client details got to be entered. It’s frustrating, but you grasp until it’s done before moving on. As a result we tend to record client details at the whenever the system tend to be responsive. This might be a couple of geezerhood l ater.\r\n6. Question: Which of these tasks do you find easiest to do and why?\r\nAnswer: No doubt, surfing the internet, sending emails, registering clients on-line.\r\n7. Question: Have you had experiences of viruses causing disruption on the system and how?\r\nAnswer: Certainly on many sources. I can remember on one occasion a few of my clients and me couldn’t use our computers because it was only corrupted and my section had to be closed down while the techie people sorted it out. We disordered most of the files on our computers.\r\n8. Question: From question 7, on how many occasions did this happen?\r\nAnswer: I’ve experienced it about 6 or 7 times.\r\n9. Question: What advice were you given about using the systems in terms of avoiding virus infection?\r\nAnswer: The common stuff. Don’t open email you don’t the source, log-off the system before you close for the day, etc. But despite taking these measures, we still have the problem.\r\n10. Questio n: Do you normally back-up your files yourself and how often?\r\nAnswer: Yeah, files are supposed to be backed up on cd-roms at the end of every operative day but not everybody does it.\r\n11. Question: Do you case of lost customer files and how often?\r\nAnswer: Yeah, we do. I know a few of my mates who do. We just try to re-acquire it from the customer without the knowledge of management. somebody has been reprimanded for it in the past. Sometimes, it’s the fault of the system. As I said earlier, it can be frustratingly slow.\r\n12. Question: If you can change the system, what will you change and why?\r\nAnswer: Definitely, it will be the enquiry procedure. Anything that makes the process faster will do.\r\n'