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Running head: IT SOLUTION: ABC COMPANY NETWORK IMPROVEMENT

Outline of IT Problem Project: ABC Company Network Improvement Author’s Full Names, Including Middle Initial Stanford University

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IT SOLUTION: ABC COMPANY NETWORK IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Outline IT Problem Project: Network Improvement Section A Problem Summary Company ABC has resorted to moving its company offices in Los Angeles to Montreal on June 29th, 2021 Currently, ABC's hardware is a combination of security and multi-vendor networks without standardization The ABC Company uses two internet Service Provider (ISP) circuits that provide outbound Internet redundancies, but this is not working based on the expectations ABC Company uses a third-party Managed Service Provider (MSP), which is vital when assisting or providing internet services to desktops, infrastructure support, security, and network For the past years, the ABC Company has been developing in size, which has made it hard for the MSP to adhere to the company's Service Level Agreement (SLA) when responding to issues The delays caused by the MSP in offering support have caused satisfaction problems with the ABC's customers Of late, the company has been affected by power surges within this area, resulting from rebooting its infrastructures, with the unable to offer internet services for more than ten minutes. Information Technology Solution The Houston IT Partners (HITP) have been involved in the process of upgrading, documents, standardizing, and also supporting the IT infrastructures for the ABC company, with this robust solution that has been proposed by the technical team having the capabilities of replacing the current firewall using a Cisco Meraki MX100 within a highly available (HA) software and hardware mode redundancy

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IT SOLUTION: ABC COMPANY NETWORK IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

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This proposed new firewall can assume the roles of internet edge firewalls to provide internet services to the ABC Company, VPN customer connectivity, and VPN tunnel connectivity while also using passive or active configurations for the ISPs for failovers The local area networks (LAN) will replace the current switch with a Cisco Meraki MS250 This implies that the wireless internet areas will ensure that the company and clients can access and use the internet while at the same time ensuring that there is internet access as it is required. Additionally, after internet access has been mitigated, there will be hardware migration to the new location. The HITP will take over the MSP role, which will support the forward moving of the ABC Company in terms of internet connectivity. Plan of Implementation HITP will start this process by carrying out interviews with the present MSP to acquire the credentials of the present internet infrastructures After the verification of these credentials has been finished, HITP will then start to document the current network infrastructures of the ABC Company, where the HITP Solutions Architects will have to verify the software and hardware that the proposed solution will use Also, this project will require a placement of an order and shipping to the proposed new offices of the ABC Company location The ABC Company will also require rack elevations, power, server room layout, and cooling systems during this period. The second phase of this program will commence by racking, receiving, hardware powering, and verification of the equipment in the proposed new offices of this company This will be followed by design to discuss the configurations and the proposed new network design, which will start after the ABC Company has received the required approval

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Section B Reviews of Other Works within the same Field The standardization and migration of vendors for security and networks lead to network administrations' implication and minimizes overheads for managing networks Where Cisco has carried out research, this describes how the Eileen Fisher enterprise was able to mitigate to Cisco Meraki to reduce the costs and improve the store deployments while at the same time leading to an increase in the networks of the company Therefore, Fisher required minimizing the daily operations labor, speed needed to deploy retail stores and to reduce the networks' costs Before, the software updates of Fisher were unreliable and cumbersome With Cisco Meraki being implemented, the Fisher Company has achieved their goal of centralizing its software update based on various version recommendations while simultaneously scheduling the software updates in the absence of an individual at the sites. Deploying the Cisco Meraki enabled Eileen Fisher to minimize its deployment costs by about 40 percent. Also, it estimated that the company managed to save about 50 percent of costs associated with WAN during the first six months of their implementation. Therefore, the company has been able to roll out the whole Cisco Meraki stack, which includes MX firewalls, MR wireless access points, and MS switches. Eileen Fisher managed to realize these outcomes to their Data Center and seventy retail stores with the help of three people as their staff (Franc et al., 2017). Wireless connectivity has been on the rise, meaning that this has become necessary to many companies that require internet connectivity. For instance, the Kafkas Company recently started using the Cisco Meraki wireless, installed in their 47 branches. The Kafkas Company utilized two SSID's, where one was explicitly used for guest access, with the remaining one

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being used for their corporate access. Intending to ensure that the Kafkas Company achieved ease of access in wireless connectivity, the company had to enable guest splash screens which provided the registration of guests by themselves without the need for creating an account, which led to the company realizing the idea of the number of clients and the ways of reaching out to their clients if a need arises (K. & K., 2018). With the deployment of the dual SSID, Kafkas Company has ensured that it prioritizes corporate wireless internet connectivity traffics over guests' traffics, ensuring that their business needs are met first. Every AP offered usage documentations, layer 3-7 security, and heat maps inspections after combining Cisco Meraki MX firewalls. A deployment that has also led to the company ensuring that its workers can utilize the opportunity of Bring your own devices (BYOD) policy that is vital for saving the cellular bandwidth of the Kafkas Company. Additionally, at the center of wireless connectivity involves remote access. Partners and employees typically use mostly the Remote VPN users in contemporary society more than in the past years. For instance, in the case research involving the PGA Superstore, they also utilized Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls and VPN client features to ensure that the company's3rd party vendors and remote labor force continued with their work activities outside the company offices. The use of the Cisco Meraki MX firewalls ensured that PGA Superstore realized handy operations and ensured that the company leverage Active Directories for the main authentications and access lists, allowing access depending on the Active Directories Directory category memberships. This implies that the deployed solution in the PGA Superstore case ensured that the company could set it and forgets it with their remote labor force while at the same time ensuring that security and logging for those who were accessing the network services of the company from distant locations were maintained (Popov, 2017). Therefore, the Cisco Meraki

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MX firewalls were not only protecting the PGA Superstore employees from cyber threats while at the same time ensuring that the workers were able to access the internet services from remote areas, but the Cisco also inspected and searched for any threat such as IPS threats, URL filtering, and Malware, which were all found in a single solution (K. & K., 2018). Cyber threats have been rising for the past ten years. But the use of Cisco Meraki ensures that these threats are searched for through traffic inspections from and to the internet, where the MX firewalls layer-7 being able to access lists and also has the capability of using a similar set of guidelines and rules in several locations, which were all associated with the need for internet access regulations (Rizov, 2018). By applying the Cisco Meraki MX firewall, they have managed to design one template used across all their 60 sites within fifteen minutes. The Soul Cycle had to the current firewall solution to MX firewalls. The current firewall configurations required between seven and eight hours compared to the MX Cisco Meraki firewalls associated with outof-box designs of 15 minutes. The above several studies depict the idea that Cisco Meraki has had a vital role in fitting into the required ABC connectivity needs This should be based on the ABC Company's security needs and the switching and wireless solutions to the ABC Company Section C Project Rational The ABC Company has had the golden chance that any company would dream of ensuring that they exponentially expand and grow annually As a result, garbage has grown to become a small and medium firm currently employing over 100 individuals within the more significant Montreal area

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The growth such as the one that has been witnessed in the ABC Company usually is the turnover and learning with workers Despite the ABC Company continuing to expand, the Information Technology experts and administrators have had to change hands every year This has triggered the instability of the company's systems, which have since been branded from several business entities and lack particular standards With the ABC Company having new senior management, which has before been brought in to control all of its operations, there has been an implementation of a top-notch, which has been vital for forming a uniting organization intending to ensure that they work together Section D The Present Project Environment The ABC Company is currently involved in a network situation, where its main switch comprises a Net-gear 24 port controlled by layer two switches The outbound internet browsing services traversing the Logix circuits while the inbound internet services like phone administrations, WWW, and FTP traversing the Comcast circuits Section E Methodology The HITP chosen for this project settled on using the Waterfall approach because this strategy is a standard one for such projects and the size deployed by this HITP regularly The waterfall model is easy to understand and follow because each stage involved has been welldefined

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As a crucial part of the scope of this IT project, the systems design and requirements phases were completed to show pricing and competency for this IT project, which were vital for implementing this project Further, some of the system design phases saw an evaluation is completed This aimed to verify the requirements for resolving the suitability and Internet performance as far as the wireless and local area network is concerned The project implementation phase will commence with the software and hardware being ordered and license from the approved System Design stage The printers, PCs, and servers will have to use the legacy network after being transferred to the new office location Testing is being carried out to ensure that the office systems can function similarly to work in the old offices A significant section of this IT problem solution project will depend on the System phase The ABC Company usually carries out non-functional and functional testing to verify that the completed new office systems and devices are internetworking This will include, but not limited to, Email, wired and wireless networks access, scanning to emails, internet printing, and client-server app apps Finally, ABC's IT Problem Solution maintenance stage commences managing the network, server infrastructures, and PCs, which will be transferred to HITP to run as MSP The maintenance phase in this project will ensure that there is effective migration of daily IT operations to HITP from MSP Section F Objectives, deliverables, and goals descriptions

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Goal 1: Migration of the current security and network hardware to the newly selected location of the ABC Company offices This will be vital because it will assist with end-of-life and outdated hardware for ABC Company Completing this goal will be marked through network access for wireless, wired, Internet failover and client VPN Goal number one is the central goal for this project and it is comprised of five objectives as follows in the table below:

Objective a: Paper existing network configuration; to understand the present network, HITP should come up with an image of the current network and connections Through this, it will be simple to identify the number of ports needed and assist with the planning capacity for the existing network This aim will now be termed successful upon the completion of the deliverables mentioned below; Deliverable i: Creation of network drawing; a comprehensive network picture will be produced to manifest the physical existing network cabling This is required to show the current hosts attached to the web, and any upcoming problems can be back-engineered from this network configuration Deliverable ii:

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Acquire firewall layout Acquiring the current configuration will manifest the firewall allocations for firewall favor and customer VPN allocations There is a need for this to show the failover threshold Deliverable iii: Acquire a new configuration Extensively reviewing the current design will aid in creating an understanding of the usage of the network and its layout Objective b: Create and have new web hardware ordered This aim is gotten from the initial deliverables to aid planning for succeeding networks Hardware will be collected, approved, proposed, and received throughout this objective Deliverable i: Create a suggested network picture; this will allow the team to authenticate the items necessary and sort accordingly for a complete solution Deliverable ii Come up with a list of pieces of equipment ordered Considering the network picture, materials can be made, and pricing acquired Deliverable iii: Collect hardware consent from clients This is obligatory to engage the extra-polate or project group and the client to verify the cost associated with the orders Deliverable iv:

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Order equipment; the ordering of software and hardware will establish an easy estimation of the project's kick-off concerning delivery Deliverable v: Get the hardware at the brand new office premises Shipping the hardware to the new premises will be authenticated, noting that all software, licenses, and hardware have been delivered for the reckoning or project. Objective c: Construct hardware Being the most prolonged phase during the project, the equipment is put in an order about the project being undertaken Set up of every device will be carried out here to make sure the project succeeds Deliverable i: Set up a firewall Setting up the firewall for allocation of traffic VPN customers, threat examination will be performed During this stage, configurations arising from the current firewall are used to develop a like-forlike environment Deliverable ii: Compose switches A like-for-like setting will be put into place, and password standardization will develop mechanisms that strengthen security Deliverable iii: Configure points that are not accessed wirelessly

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These points are achieved by configuring with guest and company's SSID, thus allowing web access and access to the local area network Objective d: Position hardware; the equipment is racked in the brand new office premises upon device set up is saved Wiring will be done concerning the picture of the firewall wireless access areas as well as switches Deliverable i: Station the UPS's with the rack. The UPS should be stationed below the stands due to their weight. Each UPS will be stationed on power B, and power A. switches and firewalls will be wired in fault-tolerance for maintenance of power up to 10 min in the case of a power outage. Deliverable ii: Install switches and firewalls in rack Switches and firewalls will be set up at the top of racks where documentation of cabling by the provider has been done, that is, between the cabling management and the patch panel To aid with power redundancy, power will be passed through UPS-A as well as UPS-B. Deliverable iii: Scale the points that are accessed wirelessly These points will contain brackets mounted at points where the wiring was passed to them Here, ends accessed wirelessly should be attached to the brackets mounted and make sure they power up through the Power over Ethernet provided from the switch Objective e: Experiment with the hardware

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In this phase, the software and hardware are tested to ascertain that all the business's services are in working condition and not faulty. File server, Email, and internet access are majorly cloudbased, and testing is done adequately to ensure a more significant transition. Deliverable i: Internet access is verified for both wired and wireless. Wired is verified by PS's and internet, DHCP, and guest wireless restriction to confirm wireless internet connections. Deliverable ii: Test the printers. Printers are tested from the corp: Wireless and wired networks. Verification is done by printing a printer test sheet that is connected to the verge of the printer. Deliverable iii: Evaluate LT2P VPN customers The catalogue of consumers will be examined to make sure that they can easily have access to the local area network, internet services, and cloud This is by the use of their web details or credentials outside the network hotspot Deliverable iv: Refurbish the network diagram When the hardware is cabled, racked, tested, and powered, the web diagram will be affirmed and modernized as required Goal 2: Handoff of MSP; this is a step that is crucial to the business progress program and for undertaking the daily routine activities and support to the network users Objective a: Provision of documentation for the management of the networks The daily operations of ABC Company are vital for the growth and development of the company

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By the time this project will be complete, HITP will be in control of the daily tasks, where it will be offering helpdesk assistance Deliverable ii: this will include verification of admin authentication and remote connectivity, where the MSP team has been working out of remote facilities, not belonging to the ABC Company Therefore, the MSP team will have to ensure that they are in full access of connectivity through verification using a cloud-based utility and VPN client, which will enable the MSP team to control this network from remote locations Deliverable iii: this will involve the verification of the alerting system monitoring tool belonging to the MSP Section G

Section H Outcome The project of upgrading the internet network for ABC Company will be big developments based on the current technological advancements By using load-balancing of internet, file sharing, cloud, and ISP circuits capabilities and performance will be added which will be lead increased employee productivity

IT SOLUTION: ABC COMPANY NETWORK IMPR...