Research Project – Preparation and Design

Value: 15%
Due date: 24-Apr-2016
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Alternative submission method
Task 1

This assessment item is to produce a short report by investigating and addressing some key topics in
relation to virtualisation technology. Note answering these questions will help you build some
understanding for the next assessment item. You are required to produce a clear, concise and to the
point report according to the given format. Please note that this is not a traditional report so the general
report format will not apply. The report format will be provided in the resource section of the subject
Interact site. You must use APA 6th edition style referencing for your references.

You are required to answer the following questions in your report while considering the marking criteria
given in the marking rubric.

Question 1: Virtualisation plays an important role in today’s IT environment. Almost every organisation
uses virtualisation in some form. Your task is to research and explain briefly the need/importance of
virtualisation technologies in IT organisation with relevant examples. Your answer should be between 400
– 500 words and address the points in the marking rubric.

Question 2: Virtual Machine (VM) is an important application that can works as a computer in any virtual
environment. Explore and document some key attributes of a VM to be considered an efficient VM. What
important points will you consider when using a VM as a server? Your answer should be between 400 –
500 words and follow the report format.

Question 3: Virtual appliance is a key concept in virtualisation world. There are hundreds (probably
thousands) of virtual appliances available these days. Define what is a virtual appliance and vApp? Name
any three main virtual appliance providers and briefly describe their products with some key features.
Your answer should be between 400 – 500 words and follow the report format.

Task 2

Riverina Pharmaceutical Ltd is a regional Australian pharmaceutical company that delivers

pharmaceutical supply chain services to a number of nursing care facilities in regional Australia. The
company has some 100 staff, which includes management, administrative staff and other pharmaceutical
staff. Riverina Pharmaceutical has a small data centre at its main site at Wagga Wagga where the
company’s servers and data storage is located. The company has the following server infrastructure at its
data centre:

 2x Active Directory domain controllers on Windows Server 2008 R2;

 3x MySQL database servers on Windows Server 2008 R2;
 1x Exchange 2007 Email Server on Windows Server 2008 R2;
 4x Windows Server 2003 File and Print Servers;
 2x Red Hat Enterprise 5 Linux Server running Apache and TomCat.

The management of the company is concerned about the increasing costs of power and cooling to
operate their data centre. The management also wants to increase the reliability of the services, reduce
the desktop support loads and accelerate desktop provisioning to the staff. They are investigating
whether they should employ a virtualisation technology in their data centre to enhance the data centre
efficiency while keeping the cost low. They are also considering whether they should use virtualisation to
provide an updated desktop environment to their staff.

The Challenge

You are to consider how to implement a virtual infrastructure for the company and prepare a report for the
management. Your report should include:

 One page executive summary

 Proposed virtual infrastructure for the data centre including which virtual technology is
recommended and the reasons for that recommendation
 Analysis of how virtual applications and desktops or both will be delivered to the user’s desktops.
 Design disaster recovery / backup system
 Information security changes required and the steps required to implement / monitor these
changes
 Final approximate price for your proposal

Rationale

This assessment consists of three questions assessing the basic understanding of virtualisation and
related concepts. This assessment covers the following learning objectives:

 be able to list and explain the importance of different virtualisation technologies for x86 and UNIX
based platforms;
 be able to evaluate which virtualisation technology should be used in a given set of requirements;
and
 be able to discuss and evaluate the requirements for effective VM management.
 Marking criteria
 The following rubric will be used while assessing each question in this assignment.

Assessment
Component HD DI CR PS FL
Task 1
Explanation of the An assessment of
need and the importance and A detailed An
An assessment of the A short
importance of need of explanation of incomplete or
importance and need of explanation of
virtualisation in IT virtualisation virtualisation not relevant
virtualisation technology virtualisation
organisations with technology with technology in an explanation
with some examples technology.
examples appropriate and IT organisation. of the topic.
relevant examples.
A concise and to
A concise
the point A concise and to the point A simple and
Explanation of key explanation of An
explanation of key explanation of key short
attributes of a VM some key incomplete or
attributes of a VM attributes of a VM to be explanation of a
to be considered as attributes of a not relevant
to be considered as considered as an efficient VM to be
an efficient VM VM to be discussion of
an efficient VM VM with some relevant considered as an
considered as an the topic.
with supported literature. efficient VM
efficient VM.
literature.
Identification of An accurate A brief
Simple No
important points identification of Partial identification of identification of
identification and identification
while using a VM as important points important points while few points while
discussion of of important
a server while using a VM using a VM as a server using a VM as a
points while points at all.
as a server server
 Assessment
Component HD DI CR PS FL
Task 1
using a VM as a
server
A partially
An accurate
A partially correct An
Definition of a definition of a An accurate definition of a
correct definition definition of a incomplete or
virtual appliance virtual appliance virtual appliance and vApp
of a virtual virtual appliance not relevant
and vApp and vApp with with some relevant
appliance and and no explanation
supported references
vApp definition of of the topic.
references
vApp
A clear
Identification of
Name any three identification of Identification of
less than three
main virtual virtual appliance A clear identification of less than three An
virtual appliance
appliance providers providers with their virtual appliance providers virtual appliance incomplete or
providers with
and briefly describe web addresses with their web addresses providers with no not relevant
no web
their products with A brief description and description of some web addresses, explanation
addresses and
some key features. of their products products some description of the topic
no description
and key attributes of their products
of their products
of the products

Marks will be deducted for NOT following the given report format (see below) as well as for
poor presentation, spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
Presentation &
Referencing Marks will also be deducted for NOT providing / following the proper APA style referencing.
Referencing should be accurately documented using APA 6th edition and includes in text and
bibliographic information. (Note that the guide for APA referencing is provided in the
Resource section of Interact site)

Item
HD DI CR PS FL
Task 2

A highly An
Executive A complete A thorough An adequate
detailed incomplete,
Summary summary of the explanation of explanation of
explanation of irrelevant or
solution and main main points of main points of
main points of not sufficient
points of the the report. the report.
the report. information.
report.
A concise and to A concise and An adequate
the point A concise and to the point description and
Virtual An
proposal of to the point proposal of reasoning of
infrastructure incomplete,
virtual proposal of virtual the proposed
proposal irrelevant or
infrastructure virtual infrastructure virtual
not sufficient
with justification infrastructure with justification infrastructure
information.
supported by with justification supported by for data
literature literat centres.
Provides Provides short
Provides
Analysis of detailed and brief
complete Provides short
desktops / analysis and analysis and An
analysis and analysis on
applications make some make some incomplete,
makes desktops /
delivery to suggestions on suggestions on irrelevant or
suggestion on applications
users desktops / desktops / not sufficient
desktops / delivery to
applications applications information.
applications users
delivery to delivery to
delivery to users
users users
 Assessment
Component HD DI CR PS FL
Task 1
A highly
A thorough An adequate
Disaster A comprehensive detailed An
description of description of
recovery / description of description of incomplete,
disaster disaster
backup plan disaster recovery disaster irrelevant or
recovery plans recovery plans
plans for the recovery plans not sufficient
for the for the
infrastructure. for the information.
infrastructure. infrastructure.
infrastructure.
A highly
A thorough An adequate
detailed
Describe A comprehensive discussion on discussion on An
discussion on
information description of the the information the information incomplete,
the information
security plan information security security irrelevant or
security
security changes changes changes not sufficient
changes
needed needed in this needed in this information.
needed in this
environment. environment.
environment.
Marks will be deducted for not following the given report format (see below) as well
Presentation & as for poor presentation, spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
Referencing Marks will also be deducted for NOT providing / following the proper APA style
referencing. Referencing should be accurately documented using APA 6th edition
and includes in text and bibliographic information. (Note that the guide for APA
referencing is provided in the Resource section of Interact site)

Presentation

The report should be submitted as MS Word (preferably) or pdf document. Please do not submit *.zip or
*.rar or any other format and also do not submit multiple copies of the report. Please use A4 page size
with Times New Roman font of size 12. Following should be included as minimum requirements for the
report structure.

Title of Report
This section should have proper title of the report.

Student Name and Student ID

This section should contain your name and your student ID.

Student Email Contact

Provide your email address under this section.

Executive Summary
This section provides a brief overview of the scenario, reasoning/findings and concluding remarks on your
findings.

Main Report

This section should contain main body of the report. It should discuss all tasks / challenges asked in the
case study. You can have a number of sub-sections answering each task. Support your answers with
solid literature (in-text referencing) and figures (if applicable).
References
You must cite references using APA referencing style to all material you have used as sources for the
content of your work

Glossary (optional)
A glossary should assist the reader in understanding any technical terms used in the report. Use a
generally accepted source for the definition of the terms and include appropriate referencing.