SED500 - Lab 2: The Dubai Offices of Barakat Publishing
This is a group project of 2 or 3 students per group. The groups can be found in the document
Lab2_Groups.docx.
Introduction
You work in the IT department of the Dubai offices of Barakat Publishing Inc. They specialize in publishing the news
in three languages: Arabic, English and French. They have offices scattered throughout Dubai, and it is your responsibility
to ensure their IT needs are met.
They have a staff of over 600 from around 60 countries. They have employed foreigners like yourself to fulfill their labour
requirements. All staff can speak English, some can speak French, some can speak Arabic.
The Server
The Director of Human Resources has given you the requirements that all employees must have access to the following Microsoft
Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive and Teams. Note that these applications can run on
other operating systems besides Windows.
The Data
The Director of Information insists that all work is stored in a repository. This repository has to be backed up, in order
to restore the "state" of the company at any time in the past.
The Network
The Director of Operations has given you the requirements that there must be servers in every one of the buildings used by
this staff. There are a cluster of 4 buildings next to each other near the center of Dubai (buildings 1-4). There are 2 buildings within
walking distance of this cluster (buildings 5-6), and one building in the suburbs (building 7).
The Director of Publishing insists on full connectivity. Each employee should be able to communicate with each of the
other employees by email, website, Teams, etc... Some websites will be restricted to certain employees however.
Network Components
Be sure to add any additional network components you feel necessary.
The Tasks
- The Architecture. You must come up with an architectural pattern that meets the requirements.
- Which architectural pattern will you use?
- If there are more than one, specify which is the dominant pattern.
- Show how your servers, data, and network fit into this pattern.
- Does it make sense to have a central server controlling or monitoring all other servers? Why or why not?
- Does it make sense to have some other central network device monitoring everything on the network? Why or why not?
- The Server. You must decide on a server that is capable of hosting accounts for all the staff. Considering
the diversity of the staff as well as the other above mentioned pieces, you have to do the following.
- Create a list of requirements (consider the requirement categories of week 2).
- Create a purchase (or leasing) plan for the servers.
- Consider how the servers will be maintained.
- Consider how the servers will be upgraded.
- Consider security.
- Consider the user interfaces.
- Consider the operating system of your server. This will affect the networking software.
In considering the purchase of a server, be sure to abide by the triple constraints of project management.
Be sure to outline how you hope to reduce costs, reduce implementation time, control the scope, and most of all
ensure high quality.
- The Data. You have to do the following.
- Come up with a system for storing and restoring data. What is your backup plan?
- The Network. Your network(s) are complex. You will have to do the following.
- Research on the types of computer networks and decide which types of network for which buildings.
- Decide on the hardware for each of your networks. Hardcode or wireless, or both.
- Decide on how to strengthen the reliability of your networks. Communications in this company cannot be interrupted.
The Risks
Hopefully with the above tasks you have carried out a thorough risk analysis. Below are some scenarios that hopefully you have
already addressed. If not, state in detail how you would deal with them.
- Barakat Publishing uses English, French and Arabic. Have you accounted for those Arabic letters?
- The servers you purchased have a memory leak in them which might take some time to repair. Due to the memory leak, the server
will crash within a week. Do you have a maintenance contract with them? What will you do in the mean time?
- Fire has broken out in building 3, one of those 4 forming a cluster in the center of the city. Do you have an automated
mechanism for storing all data and shutting your servers down?
- Are you sure your networks are balanced? How are you monitoring network traffic?
- Are you sure your servers are balanced? How are you monitoring their activity?
Marking Rubric
| Does not meet expectations | Satisfactory | Good | Exceeds Expectations |
|---|
Architecture
(3 marks) | Does not meet requirements | Meets the most important requirements | Meets all requirements with minor errors | Meets all requirements with no errors |
Server (or something else)
(3 marks) | Does not meet requirements | Meets the most important requirements | Meets all requirements with minor errors | Meets all requirements with no errors |
Data
(1 mark) | Does not meet requirements | Meets the most important requirements | Meets all requirements with minor errors | Meets all requirements with no errors |
Network
(1 mark) | Does not meet requirements | Meets the most important requirements | Meets all requirements with minor errors | Meets all requirements with no errors |
Risks
(2 marks) | Does not meet requirements | Meets the most important requirements | Meets all requirements with minor errors | Meets all requirements with no errors |
Submission
Please email all documents to:
miguel.watler@senecapolytechnic.ca
Late Policy
You will be docked 10% if your lab is submitted 1-2 days late.
You will be docked 20% if your lab is submitted 3-4 days late.
You will be docked 30% if your lab is submitted 5-6 days late.
You will be docked 40% if your lab is submitted 7 days late.
You will be docked 100% if your lab is submitted over 7 days late.