Assignment 1 Preparing for a Company-Wide Migration to Wind

Assignment 1: Preparing for a Company-Wide Migration to Windows 8 CrescentManufacturing Inc. (CMI) is a luxury leader in crafted and customizedhome furnishings. The corporate headquarters and a production facilityare located in Texas, with additional manufacturing facilities locatedin Nebraska and Maryland.  There are 250 employees in the Texaslocation, 175 in Maryland, and 25 in Nebraska. All locations use Windows7 as the primary client operating system. The systems at the Marylandlocation are over five (5) years old. CMI’s Information Technology (IT)department upgraded the computer systems with new hardware within thepast year at all other company locations. These upgraded computersystems are capable of running Windows 8. CMI recently upgraded all ofits servers to run Windows Server 2012 in an Active-Directory-basedenvironment. The Operations, Marketing, Administration, ITSupport, and Finance departments are located in the Texas location.Nebraska is primarily a manufacturing location that is staffed byproduction line employees, a line supervisor, and a plant manager. TheMaryland office also includes an operations component (i.e., productionline employees, line supervisor, and plant manager), a small ITdepartment, and the company’s human resources department.  Thecurrent IT support staff comprises a seasoned group of individuals thatcollectively have over ten (10) years of experience in networkadministration and working with Microsoft operating systems. Many of theIT staff have recently completed training on the Windows 8 operatingsystem and are well-versed in supporting Windows Server 2008 and 2012.The remainder of the company’s employees has only a basic knowledge ofWindows 7 and relies on the company’s help desk to solve a majority ofits computer problems. CMI has a team of 50 salespeople who use laptopsand tablets while working from their home offices. These employees, whotravel extensively with their laptops, must have their systems securedin case of loss or theft. The laptops, purchased over five (5) yearsago, run the Windows 7 operating system. The tablets, used only by asubset of the sales staff, are iPads running iOS 7. The ChiefInformation Officer (CIO) is concerned about employees installingnon-standard company applications downloaded from the Windows Store bothwhile at work and when they have their devices at home. The CIO alsowants to ensure that those persons on the IT staff are the onlyindividuals authorized to update Windows Store apps. The CIO has an ITsupport staff of ten (10) employees and does not want to increase thenumber of applications that need to be supported via the company’s helpdesk. The help desk is currently staffed by three (3) employees from8:00 a.m. − 5:00 p.m. (CST). Hardware and software compatibilityissues experienced during the upgrade to Windows 7 several years earlierresulted in the company going over budget by several thousands ofdollars. The CFO stated that the reason for going over budget wasdirectly related to problems with their business critical applicationsnot being fully compatible with Windows 7. The applications are used bythe Operations department to track inventory, schedule production runs,handle purchase orders, and track product shipments. Senior managementwants to address software compatibility testing prior to moving theentire company to Windows 8. They are also concerned about the time itmight take to migrate user settings and applications over to the newWindows 8 operating system, the time to train employees on using the newinterface, the overall impact on the company’s help desk, andday-to-day operations. The CIO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)want more information before making the decision to upgrade to Windows 8and have asked you to write a report that addresses their concerns andalso includes your recommendations on how best to proceed, should theproject be approved. Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you: 1. Develop a SWOT analysis on the viability of upgrading to Windows 8 for the organization as a whole.  2. Provide a detailed upgrade plan for the organization, including the sales staff. At a minimum: a. Identify the number of systems, by location and / or departments that IT must replace with new or compatible hardware. b. Recommendwhether the organization should use a phased-in approach (i.e.,upgrades are sequenced by departments and / or locations) or a flash-cutapproach (i.e., all at once) in order to upgrade to Windows 8. If aphased-in approach is recommended, identify the departments and / orlocations you would upgrade, and describe the preferred upgradesequence. Support your recommendations. c. Addressthe length of time in which the upgrade should occur, and identify themain issues which could impact the specified time frame. d. Describe one (1) approach that IT could use in order to ensure that they thoroughly test business critical applications. 3. Describe three (3) best practices for securing the laptops and tablets for the sales staff after the upgrade is complete. 4. Examine the pros and cons of configuring AppLocker to standardize the software used by employees across the organization. 5. Explainthe process and options available for managing applicationinstallations and updates via the Windows Store, and thus addressing theconcerns voiced by the CIO.  6. Useat least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note:Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.  Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: Betyped, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), withone-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APAor school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additionalinstructions.Include a cover page containing the title of theassignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title,and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included inthe required assignment page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Demonstratethe ability to install and configure a client operating system,applications, and associated updates as well as designing a clientoperating system installation strategy.Validate and successfully install a computer client operating system.Demonstratethe ability to discuss the migration phases and considerations in aclient operating system installation to include virtual machines and thecloud infrastructure.Demonstrate the ability to apply technology tools to monitor and configure applications and network performance.Use technology and information resources to research issues in operating system environments.Writeclearly and concisely about desktop administration and operating systemtopics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions.