SUP523 Systems And Applications Support

• What are the primary applications that need to be accessed using the network connections? – Shared printer data and design data of all the clients.
• What is the information category that the company deals with? – Design related data and client information.
• What is the short-term and long-term expansion plan of the company? – Short term plan is to strengthen the security of the network and long term is to move the company’s infrastructure on to cloud.
• What are the networking skills and knowledge that the employees have? – Basic level of networking knowledge is available.
• What is the operating system deployed on the computer systems? – Microsoft

Client-Server System

The choice of client-server system over peer to peer networks and systems will provide several benefits to the office. The set of advantages are as listed below.

• The system will allow easier addition or removal of the components and ensure that the scalability is maintained and enhanced. This will assist in the process of expansion (Kumar & Singh, 2010).
• The network components will be easy to maintain and the downtime will be minimal as an outcome. This will enhance and maintain the level of customer satisfaction.
• Centralization of control is another advantage that will come along with the client-server system.

Client server system vs peer-to-peer networks

Following are key differences between the mentioned networks:

List of Components

The components required for the system will be:

• Server: Lenovo ThinkServer TS150, Intel Xeon Processor, Gigabyte Xeon 1200 Motherboard, ECC 16GB x 4 DIMM = 64GB, 2TB x 4 SAS HDD
• Client Workstation: ThinkCentre M810z All-in-One, Intel i7 Processor, 8 GB DDR4-2400, 21.5" Integrated Screen

Additional hardware will be required to develop and implement the network architecture and maintain the availability of the network. These hardware items will be required for processing, data storage and management, and accessing the network services.

Brief Description 

Firewall

It is an application that filters the unwanted and suspicious programs from entering the system. Windows Firewall is the most commonly used firewall that will be used in this case as well. It will enhance the basic security and prevent unauthorized access (Blansit, 2009).

Defragmentation

It is a software utility to rearrange the fragments in such a manner that the adequate storage space is created. Windows defragmenter will be used in this case for optimum space utilization.

Backups

Windows backup will be used in this case to make sure that the data storage and handling is carried out properly and the data sets are not lost.

Software

Microsoft office and other business applications will be used to manage the official business operations.

Hardware

The hardware present on the client and server is scalable and will also be upgradable. This will assist in meeting the requirements in the future.

Implementation Plan & Gantt chart

The implementation of the network will be carried out in a series of phases.

• The first phase will be the initiation phase in which the connectivity to the servers will be validated and verified. The assessment of the implementation needs and requirements will be made followed by the estimation of the schedule and budget for the implementation activities. Scope estimation will be done in this phase.
• In this phase, the system will remain down and the migration activities will be performed. The implementation of the equipment and services will be done.
• Pre-configuration of the network equipment and testing processes shall then be carried out in this phase (Li, 2008).
• Support and maintenance activities will be performed in this step.

Implementation Schedule

Gantt chart Task 2

The right application that shall be used for Electronic Banking is a modern & secure browser, such as Google Chrome. It is a web browser that is developed and managed by Google and comes with pre-defined security settings. It will be apt for electronic banking as the information security will be maintained to keep the sensitive financial data protected. The network connectivity shall be Virtual Private Network (VPN) in this case from the security point of view.

The security risks and attacks will be prevented and avoided with the use of VPNs (Heyman, 2007). Real-time anti-virus protection shall also be used as the electronic banking transactions may be impacted by the malware attacks. The occurrence of the malware attacks may impact the information properties, such as confidentiality, privacy, and availability. The use of anti-virus protection will ensure that such issues are prevented and avoided.

Following table presents a comparison table among three well-known web browsers i.e. Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer (IE):

Task 3

The application types for Computer System Benchmark Software are as listed below:

• Aida 64 for CPU: It is a system information, diagnostics, and auditing application that runs on a varied number of operating systems and provides detailed information regarding the system components. It also provides the ability to extract and save the information in the desired format.
• MSI Kombustor for GPU: It is a benchmarking utility that is designed for graphics card stress testing OpenGL benchmark.
• Prime95 for Memory: The tool can be used for benchmarking the system memory and is a freeware application.
• HDD Scan for HDD: It is a free test tool that has been designed for hard drives and other disk drives. The tool allows the user to check for the bad blocks to ensure that the space is optimally utilized.

Task 4

GNU is an operating system that is completely free of cost and it is software that is compatible with UNIX. Richard Stallman came up with the idea of GNU project in the year 1983. A detailed version of the project was published in 1985. It was then translated and specified in many other languages.  The name was selected as it was in accordance with the requirements and fell in line with GNU – Not UNIX as an acronym.

It is a UNIX- like operating systems that comprises of a variety of components viz. kernel, compilers, text formatters, games, and many more. It comprises of a variety of free-software and shareware.

Task 5

Curse Client and Garena are the application type(s) that shall be used for online multiplayer games. Garena is an online gaming platform for the users to download and play games. It also provides a lot many other features, such as buddy lists, chat options, history & user management, and many more (Garena, 2018). Similarly, Curse is the gaming platform that provides enhanced gaming experience and provides the tools that are needed by the gamers to enrich their experience (Curse, 2018). There are events organized to allow the users to have an experience that they remember.

References

Blansit, B. (2009). Firewalls: Basic Principles and Some Implications. Journal Of Electronic Resources In Medical Libraries, 6(3), 260-269. doi: 10.1080/15424060903167377

Garena. (2018). Garena - Upgrade to the new version of our gaming platform now!.

Heyman, K. (2007). A New Virtual Private Network for Today's Mobile World. Computer, 40(12), 17-19. doi: 10.1109/mc.2007.410

Kumar, P., & Singh, Y. (2010). A Software Reliability Growth Model for Three-Tier Client Server System. International Journal Of Computer Applications, 1(13), 9-16. doi: 10.5120/289-451

Li, Q. (2008). Design and implementation of network firewall system based on Godson CPU. Journal Of Computer Applications, 28(6), 1372-1375. doi: 10.3724/sp.j.1087.2008.01372