Assignment 1: Preparing
for a Company-Wide Migration to Windows 8
Due Week 10 and worth 160 points
Crescent
Manufacturing Inc. (CMI) is a luxury leader in crafted and customized home
furnishings. The corporate headquarters and a production facility are located
in Texas, with additional manufacturing facilities located in Nebraska and
.
There
are 250 employees in the Texas location, 175 in , and 25 in Nebraska.
All locations use Windows 7 as the primary client operating system. The systems
at the location are over five (5) years old. CMI’s Information
Technology (IT) department upgraded the computer systems with new hardware
within the past year at all other company locations. These upgraded computer
systems are capable of running Windows 8. CMI recently upgraded all of its
servers to run Windows Server 2012 in an Active-Directory-based environment.
The
Operations, Marketing, Administration, IT Support, and Finance departments are
located in the Texas location. Nebraska is primarily a manufacturing location
that is staffed by production line employees, a line supervisor, and a plant
manager. The office also includes an operations component (i.e.,
production line employees, line supervisor, and plant manager), a small IT department,
and the company’s human resources department.
The
current IT support staff comprises a seasoned group of individuals that
collectively have over ten (10) years of experience in network administration
and working with Microsoft operating systems. Many of the IT staff have
recently completed training on the Windows 8 operating system and are
well-versed in supporting Windows Server 2008 and 2012. The remainder of the
company’s employees has only a basic knowledge of Windows 7 and relies on the
company’s help desk to solve a majority of its computer problems. CMI has a
team of 50 salespeople who use laptops and tablets while working from their
home offices. These employees, who travel extensively with their laptops, must
have their systems secured in case of loss or theft. The laptops, purchased
over five (5) years ago, run the Windows 7 operating system. The tablets, used
only by a subset of the sales staff, are iPads running iOS 7.
The
Chief Information Officer (CIO) is concerned about employees installing
non-standard company applications downloaded from the Windows Store both while
at work and when they have their devices at home. The CIO also wants to ensure
that those persons on the IT staff are the only individuals authorized to
update Windows Store apps. The CIO has an IT support staff of ten (10)
employees and does not want to increase the number of applications that need to
be supported via the company’s help desk. The help desk is currently staffed by
three (3) employees from 8:00 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m. (CST).
Hardware
and software compatibility issues experienced during the upgrade to Windows 7
several years earlier resulted in the company going over budget by several
thousands of dollars. The CFO stated that the reason for going over budget was
directly related to problems with their business critical applications not
being fully compatible with Windows 7. The applications are used by the
Operations department to track inventory, schedule production runs, handle
purchase orders, and track product shipments. Senior management wants to
address software compatibility testing prior to moving the entire company to
Windows 8. They are also concerned about the time it might take to migrate user
settings and applications over to the new Windows 8 operating system, the time
to train employees on using the new interface, the overall impact on the
company’s help desk, and day-to-day operations.
The
CIO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) want more information before making the
decision to upgrade to Windows 8 and have asked you to write a report that
addresses their concerns and also includes your recommendations on how best to
proceed, should the project be approved.
Write
an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:
1. Develop a SWOT analysis
on the viability of upgrading to Windows 8 for the organization as a
whole.
2. Provide a detailed
upgrade plan for the organization, including the sales staff. At a minimum:
a. Identify the number of
systems, by location and / or departments that IT must replace with new or
compatible hardware.
b. Recommend whether the
organization should use a phased-in approach (i.e., upgrades are sequenced by
departments and / or locations) or a flash-cut approach (i.e., all at once) in
order to upgrade to Windows 8. If a phased-in approach is recommended, identify
the departments and / or locations you would upgrade, and describe the
preferred upgrade sequence. Support your recommendations.
c. Address the length of
time in which the upgrade should occur, and identify the main issues which
could impact the specified time frame.
d. Describe one (1)
approach that IT could use in order to ensure that they thoroughly test
business critical applications.
3. Describe three (3) best
practices for securing the laptops and tablets for the sales staff after the
upgrade is complete.
4. Examine the pros and
cons of configuring AppLocker to standardize the software used by employees
across the organization.
5. Explain the process and
options available for managing application installations and updates via the
Windows Store, and thus addressing the concerns voiced by the CIO.
6. Use at least three (3)
quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do
not qualify as quality resources.
Your
assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
·
Be typed, double spaced, using
Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations
and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your
professor for any additional instructions.
·
Include a cover page containing
the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the
course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not
included in the required assignment page length.
The
specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
·
Demonstrate the ability to
install and configure a client operating system, applications, and associated
updates as well as designing a client operating system installation strategy.
·
Validate and successfully
install a computer client operating system.
·
Demonstrate the ability to
discuss the migration phases and considerations in a client operating system
installation to include virtual machines and the cloud infrastructure.
·
Demonstrate the ability to
apply technology tools to monitor and configure applications and network
performance.
·
Use technology and information
resources to research issues in operating system environments.
·
Write clearly and concisely
about desktop administration and operating system topics using proper writing
mechanics and technical style conventions.
Grading
for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of
the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.
Clickhereto view
the grading rubric for this assignment.
