Company Specific Network Management and Security Plan

Introduction

In the age of technological advancement, businesses have increasingly realized that the importance of technology as an integral aspect of operations. Businesses have invested hugely in computers, one of the largest communication channels to connect to clients, vendors, business partners to make contact and transact business. They have relied on emails due to the reliance of internet access for a lifeline, whereby, internet-enabled computing provides the business to receive orders from clients, place orders with suppliers, contact and research businesses, communicate with government agencies, explore business opportunities and ideas as well as manage businesses operations such as banking and others researches Awasthi (2020). A business that has invested into multi-site networks has tremendous benefits from standardizing, accounting, and administering several faceted functions. Thus allowing centralized administration group to get reports on all macro-view of the business when required. Thus, in this report, the focus is on Computer connection and internet accessibility of the Handmade Furniture Limited; a single site company with a factory and an office on site, and has internal computer and Internet access issues that need improving the network security and mitigation of security network threats and the steps to take to recover from serious incidents in a quest to opening a contemporary outlet in the City Center meant to sell its products to its clients. Additionally, seeking business dissertation help can provide valuable insights into addressing these technological challenges effectively.

Company-specific Network Management Plan

Handmade Furniture Limited Company has intentions on upgrading its Internet connection. According to Awasthi (2020), the increase of organization’s internet can have a substantial effect on its functions and overall performance. The availability of fiber-optic Internet connection in currently has proven that there is increase of businesses’ productivity, client satisfaction, collaboration and organization’s profits. First is it vital to comprehend the Internet speed available, and it has depicted that a speed of 10 Mbps are not sufficient for Handmade Furniture Limited operations. Thus the typical broadband capable service in most cases offers speed between ten and twenty-five Mbps. However, the company can invest in internet that has a speed up to 300 with some other Internet provider company offer a further service of pushing Internet speed up to 1000 Mbps depending on the growth of the company over time.

The improvement of Internet would enable the company’s staff to embrace the movement depicted as ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) to foster accessibility from several other Internet connected devices, researches Faynberg et al. (2020). This mean that the Internet must adopt the Window server 2019 standard, that facilitate users to access features like Manage Cloud-ready workloads with extra ease. Window server 2019 standard bridges on-premises surrounding with Azure, with more layers of security while assisting to modernize application and infrastructure that the company applies to provide access to Internet for its operations. In addition, the server has the capacity to aid in the preventing malicious attacks against the organization’s system with a strengthened security suite capable of detecting any suspicious activity as a preventive measure.

Figure 1: The company’s network connectivity with security stack included

Data corruption, severe insecurity risks, poor professional image and limited flexibility are some of the effects of using outdated information technological equipment researches Klijn et al. (2020). Handmade Furniture Limited has been using outdated PCs installed with Windows 7, 8 and 10 together with outdated versions of Microsoft Office. But then maintaining a solid IT infrastructure with older versions of computers and versions of operating systems might hinder efficiency in the operations of day-to-day, and can also reduce costs of maintenance claim Hoffman (2018). Thus, as technology continues to constantly change, businesses must also adjust their tools of operations to in this case adopting laptops, computers of current versions, servers and other technological tools.

Therefore, this IT equipment must be also installed with latest version of Windows 10 that was last updated back in the year 2019. According to Gholap and Dapke (2020), it has improved features such as fast Windows file search, fostered bandwidth controls for Windows update, and a cloud download feature for reinstalling Windows. With such improved features, in contemporary PCs which could be brands of Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard Companies will increase productivity, communication, better security, greater efficiency, with IT support, minimize costs, and these systems are currently warranted thus will not result to failure and consequently not put the business to failure.

The latest versions of PCs and Windows 10 are most compatible with latest version of Microsoft Office 2019 or Microsoft 365 compatible with both Windows PCs as well as Macs identifies Hoffman (2018). The Microsoft Office 2019 can only operate on Window 10, that re slightly different from traditional versions of Office that has improved inking in all applications of pen, finger or mouse. It has an improved PowerPoint Morph transition effect that can be used in between slides, a ‘Focused Inbox’ for outlook that partitions the most vital emails from less significant ones and several other features. The use of current Microsoft Office 2019, it offers a feature where it is linked to cloud computing, where all businesses of finance, designs, and reports are stored in the cloud unlike previous methods of using NAS storage limited to 10TB capacity of data. The staff members also used unofficial methods of storing information of the company that can leak to the competitors, but with adoption of current Microsoft Office systems, such cases would not exist anymore.

Since the commercialization of Internet back in the nineties, Lin et al. (2020) depict that email has been a constant communication and business instrument in people’s lives. While emails seem to be an outdated form of communication due to technological evolution, it is an important tool in businesses, since it is a powerful marketing tool. Within the Handmade Furniture Limited, there is no common email address used in the business, only the finance department has a shared email address of Gmail meant for ordering, the rest of the staff uses personal email addresses for their needs.

Therefore, the company needs to invest in a common email address of a Google App (Handmade Furniture LTD Connect) that is cloud sponsored. Its purpose will facilitate the staff, the Managing Director (MD) and the Personal Assistant (PA) to the MD to link with individuals from around the location of the business setup. It is a quick, cost-effective, concise, professional with the capacity to connect with a lot of people at the same time. According to an article by Themediagenius (2017), a single Email address that is linked to the Company’s Website will not only need several people to employ the email address as a medium, but also it will be a common platform for all the twenty staff members to access the email address for information dispensed from the MD, instead of several unofficial emails used. Thus, Hallward-Driemeier and Pritchett (2015) researches that the company will create a single email address that will be linked to the company’s website, therefore, providing the power, success, cost-effectiveness, marketing as well as communication medium. It is a proven fact among other successful companies that company’s emails are the most cost-effective and best forms of business marketing in attaining contemporary clients as well as new enterprises; provided 80% of contemporary businesses originate from existing customers creates emails an even more powerful business instrument.

Handmade Furniture Limited applies a wired connectivity to access the Internet. Its insufficiency has led to some staff to bring personal devices to work to provide internet access that is in 3G or 4G enabled. As technology advances each day, Internet connectivity has become wireless and the company need to shift from cable connectivity to Wi-Fi connectivity as explained in an article by Gray (2019). This wireless technology has rendered mobility of technological devices to become possible, and apply it to communicate, work, save data and money. Businesses have ventured into this wireless Internet connection and not only applied it for its operation, but also offered it to their customers in –store as well as in waiting areas. It has allowed clients to bypass long queues, in financial institutions, food outlets and several other business ventures.

Most importantly, Handmade Furniture Limited when it installs Wi-Fi Internet connection, it will keep the employees linked and functions will run smoothly, that will consequently positively impact the bottom line. Secondly according to Klijn et al. (2020), it will offer safe network access to clients and business partners, thus setting the business apart from the competitors. Thirdly, during the setting up of a small outlet in the city center meant to sell its furniture to clients, the installation and wiring cost will be eliminated, making the installation cost-effective and fast for such as small enterprise. With use of Wi-Fi connectivity, an article by Version Resource Center. (2018) outlines that it is a mobile point-of-sale framework, will allow the staff to communicate with clients and provide them a personalized experience. It can lead to clients looking up for products information; can enable the business to take advantage of online shopping platform, thus complete sales using this wireless network.

Employees working in Handmade Furniture Limited, bring their personal devices only for provision of 3G or 4G Internet access points. But the company needs to adopt the BYOD movement to reduce the cost and increase productivity. As part of this consumerization, Scarfone et al. (2020) identifies that BYOD will encourage Handmade Furniture Limited staff to work on the device they choose accessing corporate email, website, viewing of text documents and several other functions. It is a move unto which the company will be keeping up with the annually technological advancement, where the organization staff aspires to apply their personal devices to access corporate information.

In the office, there exist a single ink-jet printer shared among the twenty PCs, thus reducing the workflow, less productive, and increases the costs. Thence, the organization need to invest in a pull printing that is server-based on the staff workstation and is connected to all PCs that are linked to it via Wi-Fi network as embedded software according to a study by Hegde and Badanahatti (2020). With the use of pull printing, the organization need to be aware that it has an addition of security, where by all documents printed are at not at risk to be left in the printing tray for others to view or take. Therefore, the security feature eliminates this threat by making sure that users are in control of the print job, whereby they execute with precisely where and when they require the printed document and ensure it reaches the actual individual who requires it.

Pool printing not only secures the work, but also reduces wastage during printing, where by use of single printer that is shared, the staff needs to maneuver their way to the printer and pick up documents researches Bohm et al. (2011). In the process, they can get interrupted or require to pick up the document later in the day when it is convenient to them. It ends up forgetting the printed document, and by the time they recall, the document has either been recycled from the printing tray, thus asking for re-printing. But with pull printing, the staff can easily print job to the print queue and release it where and when it is convenient.

The presence of cloud based-based service will facilitate sending of designs and jobs by the staff to print beforehand where one will collect it claims Gang (2010). Thus print jobs will be submitted not only from company’s PCs by also in mobile phones, laptops, tablets and any other mobile devices, and then they will be secured stored in private queue on the cloud. These jobs will then be collected at any supported printer-whether in the next room or a branch office such as the small outlet to be set up in the city center that will be used to sell their products to the customers. This will be the power of cloud-based pull printing benefiting the company’s operations and the staff.

Cloud provision is basically the allocation of cloud provider’s resources as well as services to a client. Gang (2010) adds that it is the main aspect of a cloud computing model, linking to the manner in which a client procures cloud resources and services from a cloud provider. There are three models of cloud provision that can be adopted by a company, they include; dynamic provisioning, advanced provision and user self-provision, whereby each provision process can be undertaken by applying one of the three delivery models. The models differ depending on the type of services the company buys, how and when the cloud provider delivers those services not leaving out how they will be applied by the company.

The best model that Handmade Furniture Limited Company can adopt is the self-provision cloud services, whereby according to Byme et al.(2020), the company will purchase from a reputable company; in this case, Microsoft offers cloud-based computing services that are in alignment with most of computer operations such as Microsoft Office 365 suite of Google Apps for Business. The company will have to purchase the resources from such a cloud provider via a web interface or portal. It entails developing a user account and paying for resources with company’s credit card. The resources will immediately spun up and availed for use within minutes.

Figure 2: Proposed Handmade Furniture Limited network Infrastructure

By applying cloud-base services into the company’s operations, there will be a benefit of scaling up and down their cloud resources based on short-term usage requirements compared to traditional IT provision model. In traditional IT model, Costan et al. (2020) claim that the company would have to invest largely in on-premise infrastructure and calls for extensive preparation and forecasting of infrastructure requirements, which is set up to last for many years.

By use of the cloud-based services, Costan et al. (2020) find out that the company will benefit from cloud provision’s speed, whereby, an array of workload can be quickly spin up on demand by company employee, eliminating the need for an IT administrator who provision and managed compute resources. Zhang et al. (2020) identifies that cloud-base service potentially can save the cost of operations and installation compared to traditional on-premises technology, which exacts large upfront investments from a company. Nevertheless, by use of cloud-base service, providers offer clients an opportunity to pay for only what it consumes.

Threats to Network Security and Mitigations Plan

Handmade Furniture Limited Company intends to boost its Internet connection that previously offered a bandwidth of 10Mbps, and for a business that intends to open a new shop at the center of the city, must invest in a Wi-Fi network that offers a bandwidth of between 20Mbps to 50 Mbps to run its operations with zero buffering and downtimes. Pilkington, (2019) identifies that there exist increasing internet security threats which include phishing, rootkits, zero-day attacks, boot-sector malware and ransom-ware that might affect the company’s internet connection. These network security threats as well as attacks are supposed to be treated as high profile and therefore call for reinforcement and the essence of cyber-security plan proposes Metso et al (n.d). It is clear that hackers target brands that are growing in quest for money and notoriety, and as a result the security repose of the business must increase to the occasion.

Therefore, handmade Furniture Limited Company must invest in computer network security features such as antivirus engine as an internet security suite. These features that exist in form of packages bring about several essential additional protections to PCs and mobile devices operating systems. According to a report by microsoft.com. (2017), these features are either bought online from the Windows 10 Suites against malwares that can shut down POS systems, block payments from reaching recipients and can leave digital door open for more malicious users.

According to Lin et al. (2020), the upgrading of the Internet connection from cable connection to Wi-Fi connection has higher rate of security threats since it is giving up security in two basic regards; one is linking to a network that may or may not be encrypted with password thus anyone can access it identifies Karasek (2018). Karasek (2018) claim that one cannot ascertain the security of the network or even verify and validate that it is actually a Wi-Fi network or not, whereby it is or not a means of intercepting leading to modifying or reading the company’s data according to a study conducted by Gray (2019). This is where a hacker places an access point between the users of the Wi-Fi network, and he or she accesses information being sent or received via the network.

Figure 3: The company’s Authentication and Authorization feature

Therefore, Hegde and Badanahatti (2020) claim that it is vital for the company to invest in securing their Wi-Fi security protocols as well as hardware component. This is when a company employs an IT expert who can easily identify the vulnerabilities in wireless connection and can change default Wi-Fi network name and passwords to complex credentials to deter unauthorized access. This individual must also be capable of updating the firmware of Wi-Fi enabled devices, routers as well as other hardware the moment updates are present. According to Metso et al (n.d), the individual must also be capable to conduct diagnosis on firewall for added security in devices, or even applying a virtual private network specifically when remotely accessing information.

Investing in cloud-based services by the company requires that all functions be network based. This means that most of the company’ data will be prone to cyber security threats that can cause countless issues within the system. One of the most common threat that the company will face by applying cloud computing is data breeches, and according to Costan et al. (2020), it is whereby a cyber-criminal with the capacity to gain unauthorized access to the cloud network in viewing, copying or transmitting information, or destroy it altogether which is a violation of General Data Protection Regulation. Another threat of using cloud-based computing by a company is denial of service attack. Klijn et al. (2020) studies that it is the shutting down of cloud services and makes them unavailable bot to the company and the clients, but also to the staff. It is where cyber-criminals flood the business cloud-base system with enormous amount of web traffic that the server is incapable of dealing with it. It means that the servers will be unable to buffer and consequently the no information will be able to be accessed deeming the business unable to manage.

It is the responsibility of the Handmade Furniture Limited Company to implement critical protection as well as prohibiting all the staff members from sharing of account credentials, not leaving out utilizing strong two-factor authentication techniques. It is vital for the company to perform effective due diligence when seeking for a cloud service provider, where the Cloud Security Protocol’s security references and history, where there is need to ask for known security vulnerabilities suggests Melzer et al. (2020). In addition, Parms (2016) claim that the company needs to use Single-sign on (SSO), where a single or a few accounts to manage as the staff enters and log out of the organization’s cloud-based accounts, as they has a set of credentials and are not going to be written down for remembrances.

Costing Implications

Coleman (2012) argue that assumption are the integral part of project cost estimations, to facilitate with budget allocations The cost of installation of new Wi-Fi network, new PCs, new Windows 2010, latest Microsoft Office 2019 for each PC, a pull printer and accompanying components will require identifying a business that will provide all these devices at a friendly cost. However, according to a study conducted by Lohrey (n.d), the cost of installation of the PCs will be determined by the laborer and how much the company intends to spend. Generally, it costs 30 US dollars for installation of new Windows and Microsoft Office as well as connection to pull printer and Wi-Fi to a single work station or a PC. Another 15 US dollars is likely to be spent for switching network and cable and installing Cloud-base backup data option per work station or PC. In most cases, it cost a total of between 1000-2500 US dollars is estimated for everything. The company will also incur a cost of employing an IT specialist to maintain the new technology advancement of the business. The Company will have to budget for an income of 106,881 US dollars annually not leaving out a 5000 US dollars cash bonus by using current US economic status.

The total cost of a business IT security system can be broken down into three price factors;

Security hardware: 500 to 1200 US dollars per year

Installation and activation cost: 300 -500 US dollars

The total can be roughly 2000 to 5000 US dollars that can be paid upfront or can be updated on a monthly basis at a cost of 60 US dollars. However, these are broad price ranges that are broken down to consist specific estimated prices of security features provided by Windows 10 OS, Microsoft Cloud-base service providers and other hardware security programs bought for each PC and personal mobile devices.

Recommendation

For effective application of contemporary devices and network as an IT transformation, it is vital to take into account a few aspects to know how effective and sustainable the IT shift would be in a business. Therefore, the following recommendation has been suggested by Krypsys IT Company (n.d) would enable smooth adoption of the new technology by all teams involved;

It is important to induct or rather enroll the team to current technological advances education programs and securities so as to facilitate quick adoption of the new technologies into the business outcomes.

To secure the data of the company, it is important that the business introduce Correct User Rights, basically granted to all the staff with caution. It is to avoid the use of authentication to do serious harm on the new technological advancements and breech security features from within.

Finally, the Manager of the Company needs to review network shares, whereby it ensures that the files and folders that are needed by the staff are the only data that is accessible by the staff.

Conclusion

The adoption of contemporary network management plan as well as security plans on multi-site networks has tremendous benefits from standardizing, accounting, and administering several faceted functions. Within the Handmade Furniture Limited Company, the company will have to adopt a 4G network is Wi-Fi enabled to increase productivity by the staff where BYOD movement is fostered to increase connectivity to the rest of the businesses. The business will upgrade its PCs operating systems to Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2019 that are cloud-based enabled to unlimited access to save large quantity of data. The cloud-base service increases speed, whereby, an array of workload can be quickly spin up on demand such as pull printing by company employees, and eliminate the need for an IT administrator who provision and managed compute resources altogether. Beside investing in new technological advancements, they must be followed with security features to curb the increasing ransom-ware, phishing, rootkits, zero-day attacks, and boot-sector malware. These attacks have brought down huge companies costing them financial loses and technical damages. Therefore, anti-virus engines, employing IT experts, setting up security protocols such as two-way authentication and setting up rules on the employees from sharing linkages to the business to competitors or any other outsiders would enable the business to increase its security features and protect the proposed advanced technology shift.

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