IDS 520: Enterprise Information Infrastructure Planning & Security
Term Project Assignment Guidelines
The term project will involve an ongoing review and analysis of the survivability and
performance characteristics of a case study IT infrastructure that reflects close to a real
world situation. By infrastructure, we mean the servers, databases, network switches,
power plant, software and operations that comprise a typical enterprise IT infrastructure.
In general, the case study can constitute any of the following:
• An IT infrastructure that reflects a real-life public/private enterprise.
• An IT infrastructure that is common within a particular type of firm or industry (e.g.
retail, hospital, airport, banking, finance, etc.)
• An IT infrastructure that is commensurate with a new IT technology (e.g. storage
networks, security, Wi/Fi, Voice over IP, grid computing, etc.)
• An IT infrastructure drawn from the course case studies provided.
You can choose a study that may be of personal interest to you. It can be one that is
reflective of the company or industry that you currently work in, or perhaps one that you
would like to become involved with in the future.
Each week you will also be conducting a step-by-step evaluation of the case study. Your
goal will be to produce a plan for an overhaul that improves the overall operating
characteristics of the infrastructure. You will compile your findings into a written report
that will be submitted at the end of the term. At that time, you will also unveil your plan
in a formal class presentation.
In any case, make sure that you choose a case study that has a substantial body of
available information associated with it. The links and information presented on the
Blackboard Web site are only cursory and high level. You will probably have to do some
investigative research on the case study using other sources. Fortunately, today there is a
multitude of information sources available, such as the Web and the University or local
libraries.
The team project will be divided into two parts as follows to coincide with the learning
modules:
Module 1: Enterprise Infrastructure Extreme Makeover
The first part of your project will be to evaluate an existing architecture and to renovate it
according to the business and operating needs and requirements of the particular
enterprise. In this process, you can engage any of the tools and techniques covered in the
course, as well as any other similar methodologies that you are familiar with. Your team
will present your re-designed architecture to class at the conclusion of this module. In
this process, you will have the opportunity to solicit input from other class members to
improve your designs. You will document your results in an interim project report to be
turned in as well. Please review the report and presentation guidelines that are described
further in this document.
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