ICT171 Total Cost of Ownership Assignment v1.00 Due: Midnight Sunday 30th April 2017 Submission: ​Upload PDF via LMS link Weighting: 20% Wordcount: Quality is far more important than quantity. But if you feel need for guidance, 1,500 words should be considered a maximum. See the ICT171 unit guide for further information regarding assessment procedures and policies. Background The School of Business and Governance at Murdoch University is applying for an industry grant to support a five year study into the long term effects of the Western Australian mining industry rise and decline on the state's economy. They anticipate collecting very large data sets to support the research and will require reliable networked storage. You have been hired as an independent IT consultant to provide a specification and costings for a storage solution that meets the following requirements: ● Capacity - The envisaged storage needs are 40 Terabytes of reliable disk storage. No single drive failure should result in the data being unavailable. ● Legal jurisdiction - Murdoch University Legal & Governance recommend that confidential research data be stored on Australian servers to avoid the risk that foreign laws allow unanticipated access to the data. This also increases the chance that the grant will be awarded. ● Independance - The granting body are particularly keen to see that the research and the researchers are absolutely independent. The researchers are prohibited from accepting funding or support from other parties that might bring their independence into question. This includes the use of shared facilities provided by the University or the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet). ● Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - The School of Business and Governance are emphatic that the storage system must be fully costed so that adequate funds can be sought to maintain all aspects of the storage solution. They will not be able to rely on the support of University IT services. Should the grant application be successful, there is a good chance you will be employed on an hourly rate to provide technical support for the storage system. ● Your client would like to show that they have been diligent and require that consideration be given to both buying a physical server and renting a cloud based service. ● Your client estimates that around 20 Terabytes of data will need to be uploaded when the system is deployed. Each month around 2 Terabytes will be retrieved by researchers and 200 Gigabytes of new data will be added.● After 5 years the project will end unless further funding becomes available. At that time all data will be archived under University policy. The costs associated with backing up and storing the data will be borne by the University and you do not need to consider this. At this time the servers can be decommissioned Deliverable You are asked to provide a report that specifies a suitable physical server and a single cloud based alternative. The report should compare the TCO for the two solutions as well as highlighting any differences, such as risk, that might influence your clients preference for one solution over another. Although the final decision rests with the client, they would like your opinion and reasoning as to which option they should choose. Your report should be submitted as a single PDF document. Marks will be deducted if you do not submit in PDF. Report format There is no strict format for the report but the following document provides valuable guidance. http://bestentrepreneur.murdoch.edu.au/Guide_To_Report_Writing.pdf Although this is essentially a business report, it is dealing with a technical subject. Your audience consists of your client and the industry association providing the grant money. As the grant would be for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, you can assume that the granting body will have a competent technical professional comment on applications received. This technical professional is also a member of your audience. Report content and focus To guide the content of your report, we have broken the requirements down into a series of questions. The reader should be able to find the answer to these questions in your report. However, you should not use headings such as “Question x”. Appropriate headings for the sections can be determined in consultation with the Guide to Report Writing PDF.Question 1 (RAID) There are several RAID (0,1,5 etc) schemes that can be employed to improve the resiliency of a disk-based storage system. A. Examine the business requirements above and make a recommendation as to the RAID scheme that should be employed. B. Explain the benefits of your chosen RAID scheme when compared to the alternatives. Question 2 (Buying a Server) Using server products and prices that can be found on the Web, design a suitable server to address the business needs outlined in the scenario. Your design needs to include a rack mount server and the RAID based storage system you specified in question 1. Enough detail needs to be provided so that you can accurately determine the capital cost (purchase price) of your server. In particular you should specify model numbers for server chassis, CPUs and hard disks. A. In a table list the items required to build your server and their purchase price. At a minimum there needs to be a line item for the rack chassis, the storage drives and any components and software needed to assemble a working system. Headings could include: quantity, description and price, with a total for the complete system. This table represents the cost of your solution as delivered on day one. B. Consider the ​Total ​ Cost of Ownership (TCO) and present these in a table over the life of the server. The word “total” is important. The purchase price of the server is just one aspect (Part A). You must capture all of the costs that would be incurred in setting the system up and keeping the system running over it’s life. Question 3 (Renting cloud based storage) An alternative to buying a physical server is to rent the services in the form of a cloud based solution. Search the Web for a suitable online server/storage provider with similar performance and capacity to the server you specified in question 2. A. Briefly describe details of the service you are proposing to rent. B. In a table, present the TCO, on a year-by-year basis, for renting and maintaining the required services. Question 4 (Comparison) You have a choice between buying a server (question 2) and renting an equivalent server (question 3). A. Which solution do you recommend to your client and why? B. Discuss any non monetary issues to be considered.Draft Marking guide The following will be used as a guide for tutors in marking the assignment. If you are unsure of the requirements, this may provide further guidance. Report format and appropriate structure: 10% ● Reflects business report structure ● Document “flows” with sections in logical order and linked. ● Questions well integrated into structure ● No “question x” headings ● Submitted in PDF form Visual presentation including grammar and spelling: 10% ● Professional appearance ● Appropriate page layout ● Consistent fonts and formatting ● Clear tables and graphics Content addressing each of the four questions (20% each): 80% Question 1 (RAID) 1. Correctly identifies a RAID scheme that addresses the business need for resiliency. 2. Accurately describes characteristics of the RAID scheme that are beneficial to the organisation. 3. Demonstrates understanding of the available RAID schemes and their advantages and disadvantages. a. Detailed understanding b. Completeness of coverage in terms of RAID schemes considered Question 2 (Buying a server) 1. Combination of RAID scheme and physical drive models leads to a usable storage that is close to requirements. 2. Combination of components leads to a complete workable system: 3. Completeness of pricing 4. Recognition of ongoing support costs 5. Costs reflect assumptions. 6. Table presents information clearly and logically with a total.Question 3 (Renting cloud based storage) 1. Cloud based system is comparable the purchased server. 2. Completeness of pricing. 3. Recognition of ongoing support costs 4. Costs reflect assumptions. 5. Table presents information clearly and logically with a total. Question 4 (Comparison) 1. Well reasoned decision supported by TCO. 2. Identifies the breadth and implications of the non monetary factors.