Reference no: EM132635115

ICT301 Advanced Network Topics, Management & Security - University of sunshine Coast

Background

Classic Avanti sell classic and vintage Italian car parts and complete car restorations. They will also sometimes buy cars to disassemble for parts or to complete a restoration as a showcase of their skills. They have been in business for twenty years and have slowly been building the digital side of their business. The digital side started as an advertisement for the business but this has grown to the stage where they have an online store and beginning to generate income from their social media presence, with the owner ex-race car driver Bruce Allison celebrity status increasing.Members of the staff who are shown in the Instragram and FaceBook posts are also increasingly been recognised by the public. They have begun selling branded merchandise and have been approached by companies who wish to see their tools and equipment being used in Classic Avanti's posts. It has reached the stage that approximately 40% of the business profit is being generated either online or by their social media posts.

They have two locations at present Brisbane and Melbourne, each with around 15 staff. Brisbane was the first location and has been head office however they have better access to second-hand parts and stronger local sales in Melbourne. They have had one part time IT support person currently relying on calling people in from local businesses to complete any necessary work. They have recently appointed an experienced social media manager who has doubled their followingand increased sales by 20% in the last two months. There has been no strategic plan for the IT infrastructure with purchases made becausesalespeople came to the premises at the right time or on industry reporting of new developments. The manager in Melbourne Duilio Rossi, has come from a larger business and has stated he is not happy with the current IT infrastructure and feels that better systems would increase business efficiency. They have been approached by a streaming service who have been following their social media posts to film a series centred around the cars and people. There is also an idea to begin shooting YouTube videos on how to fit replacement parts or care for the classic Italian cars.Bruce Allison has been competing in classic car events privately for a number of years, he now wants to continue racing with a team from Classic Avanti showcasing their ability to prepare classic cars to race level. He wants to expand competing away from local events to high profile Australia such as Historic Sandown, New Zealand Highfields Festival of Speed and Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. An example of racing at Goodwood is attached here. The streaming service and the social media manager are enthusiastic about these ideas and want to start as soon as possible. However, Bruce Allison is concerned that all of these ideas will mean that he will not be available to handle the day to day business of Classic Avanti and will require financing. A new manager has been hired Phil Daily, to manage the business, he has a concern that all these ideas rely on strong IT systems which he does not think are in place.He wants to make sure that professionalism shown in social media posts are reflected in interactions with the business. He is frightened that if they try these ideas without good systems and processes in place,Classic Avanti will fail to take advantage of the interest and good will because of poor processes, inventory control and order fulfilment. He is also concerned that their social media processes and success is only understood by the social media manager.

The owner Bruce Allisonwants a business model which makes better use of customer and sales data and where both locations are integrated. Currently they run almost as separate businesses. He is also interested in opening at other locations where there is demand. As he is moving away from hands on management, he wants to make sure the reporting is sufficient and timely to gain a good oversight of business.He understands the need and is ready to invest but has to be convinced that any expenditure is necessary as he would prefer to spend money on the new racing team

They have a reasonably quick Internet connection with good wireless availability across the facility in Brisbane and Melbourne with the staff being free to BYOD and connect to the network. However, essentially Classic Avanti are still using home networking equipment. The main office of Classic Avanti is on a main road in an standalone industrial building They do employ a security firm to patrol during periods when they are closed, and they are concerned as the cars they work on are usually high value.

You have been requested to prepare a report by the managerPhil Daily, this report is to assist the owner to make strategic decisions and advise how to move to a business level range of networking and data storage equipment and processes. There is a high level of organizational interest across Classic Avanti in this project, as it marks a change in direction for them. You need to make sure your report presents recommendations and options in terms of business impact rather than technical. It is important to achieve well in this assignment that you discuss this networking project in particular notnetwork management and security in general.

This report should address the following issues and focus on what Classic Avanti should do over the next two years to improve the systems. Include the following sections in the main body of the report.

Please note standard report structure must be adhered to.

1. Project Background which includes the following sub-sections
• Project Background
• Project scope
• Project goal
• Strategic alignment of project.
2. Network management
3. Scalability
4. Physical and digital security
5. Dataprotection including video files
6. Conclusions
7. Recommendations

The body of the report should be around two thousand five hundred (2500) words and it would be best to be no longer than three thousand (3000) words long.

Attachment:- Advanced Network Topics.rar