Assignment Preparation: Activities include watching the Lynda.com® videos, independent student reading, and research.

• Watch “Cloud computing: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and DaaS” in Section 6, “Storing Big Data,” of the Lynda.com® video “Big Data Foundations: Techniques and Concepts” with Baron Pouson.
• Watch “Overview of virtual machines” in Section 3, “Compute: Virtual Machines,” of the Lynda.com® video “Learning Azure” with David Isbitski.

Assignment:

Write a 2- to 3-page executive briefing memo to technical leadership identifying a current system within your organization’s network that you would propose moving to the cloud using one of the following services:

In your memo, make sure to cover why you recommend this change and what benefits there are to the organization.

If you don’t have access to information about your organization’s network, try meeting with the network manager to come up with some ideas. If this is not possible, use the following scenario:

You are the IT Manager of a mid-size wholesale distribution business of 500 employees. The following are a few systems that are used within your business:

• Internal Exchange 2003 server – this is a physical server
• Internal CRM system – this is a virtual machine
• Internal ERP system using SAP ERP 6.0 – this is a physical server
• Internal File server using 1.2 TB of data – this is a virtual machine
• (2) Internal SQL Servers used for business intelligence – (1) server is virtual and (1) server is physical

The network has the following characteristics:

• A WAN with (4) connected sites – (3) distribution centers, and a corporate office.
• Each site is connected via a 100 Mbps MPLS WAN and has a single T-1 for a failover connection.
• The datacenter is centralized at one of the distribution centers.
• There are (2) internet connections a 100 Mbps primary connection and a 10 Mbps backup.
• The network has redundant firewalls that also provide VPN access for any remote access that is needed.
• Each site has a LAN that is 1 Gbps Ethernet.

Format your memo as a standard business memo.