Research Project – Preparation and Design

Value: 15%
Due date: 24-Apr-2016
Submission method options
Alternative submission method
Task 1

This assessment item is to produce a short report by investigating and addressing some key topics in
relation to virtualisation technology. Note answering these questions will help you build some
understanding for the next assessment item. You are required to produce a clear, concise and to the point
report according to the given format. Please note that this is not a traditional report so the general report
format will not apply. The report format will be provided in the resource section of the subject Interact site.
You must use APA 6th edition style referencing for your references.

You are required to answer the following questions in your report while considering the marking criteria
given in the marking rubric.

Question 1: Virtualisation plays an important role in today’s IT environment. Almost every organisation
uses virtualisation in some form. Your task is to research and explain briefly the need/importance of
virtualisation technologies in IT organisation with relevant examples. Your answer should be between 400
– 500 words and address the points in the marking rubric.

Question 2: Virtual Machine (VM) is an important application that can works as a computer in any virtual
environment. Explore and document some key attributes of a VM to be considered an efficient VM. What
important points will you consider when using a VM as a server? Your answer should be between 400 –
500 words and follow the report format.

Question 3: Virtual appliance is a key concept in virtualisation world. There are hundreds (probably
thousands) of virtual appliances available these days. Define what is a virtual appliance and vApp? Name
any three main virtual appliance providers and briefly describe their products with some key features.
Your answer should be between 400 – 500 words and follow the report format.

Task 2

Riverina Pharmaceutical Ltd is a regional Australian pharmaceutical company that delivers

pharmaceutical supply chain services to a number of nursing care facilities in regional Australia. The
company has some 100 staff, which includes management, administrative staff and other pharmaceutical
staff. Riverina Pharmaceutical has a small data centre at its main site at Wagga Wagga where the
company’s servers and data storage is located. The company has the following server infrastructure at its
data centre:

 2x Active Directory domain controllers on Windows Server 2008 R2;

 3x MySQL database servers on Windows Server 2008 R2;

 1x Exchange 2007 Email Server on Windows Server 2008 R2;

 4x Windows Server 2003 File and Print Servers;

 2x Red Hat Enterprise 5 Linux Server running Apache and TomCat.

The management of the company is concerned about the increasing costs of power and cooling to
operate their data centre. The management also wants to increase the reliability of the services, reduce
the desktop support loads and accelerate desktop provisioning to the staff. They are investigating whether
they should employ a virtualisation technology in their data centre to enhance the data centre efficiency
while keeping the cost low. They are also considering whether they should use virtualisation to provide an
updated desktop environment to their staff.

The Challenge

You are to consider how to implement a virtual infrastructure for the company and prepare a report for the
management. Your report should include:

 One page executive summary

 Proposed virtual infrastructure for the data centre including which virtual technology is
recommended and the reasons for that recommendation

 Analysis of how virtual applications and desktops or both will be delivered to the user’s desktops.

 Design disaster recovery / backup system

 Information security changes required and the steps required to implement / monitor these
changes

 Final approximate price for your proposal

Rationale

This assessment consists of three questions assessing the basic understanding of virtualisation and
related concepts. This assessment covers the following learning objectives:

 be able to list and explain the importance of different virtualisation technologies for x86 and UNIX
based platforms;

 be able to evaluate which virtualisation technology should be used in a given set of requirements;
and

 be able to discuss and evaluate the requirements for effective VM management.

 Marking criteria

 The following rubric will be used while assessing each question in this assignment.
 Assessment
Component HD DI CR PS FL
Task 1
Explanation of the An assessment of
need and importance the importance and A detailed An
An assessment of the A short
of virtualisation in need of explanation of incomplete or
importance and need of explanation of
IT organisations virtualisation virtualisation not relevant
virtualisation technology virtualisation
with examples technology with technology in an explanation of
with some examples technology.
appropriate and IT organisation. the topic.
relevant examples.
A concise and to
A concise
Explanation of key the point A concise and to the point
explanation of
A simple and
An
attributes of a VM to explanation of key explanation of key
some key
short
incomplete or
be considered as an attributes of a VM attributes of a VM to be
attributes of a
explanation of a
not relevant
efficient VM to be considered as considered as an efficient VM to be
VM to be discussion of
an efficient VM VM with some relevant considered as an
considered as an the topic.
with supported literature. efficient VM
efficient VM.
literature.
Identification of Simple
An accurate A brief
important points identification and No
identification of Partial identification of identification of
while using a VM as discussion of identification
important points important points while few points while
a server points while of important
while using a VM using a VM as a server using a VM as a
using a VM as a points at all.
as a server server
server
An accurate A partially
Definition of a A partially An
definition of a An accurate definition of a correct
virtual appliance and virtual appliance correct definition incomplete or
virtual appliance and vApp definition of a
vApp of a virtual not relevant
and vApp with with some relevant virtual appliance
appliance and explanation of
supported references and no definition
vApp the topic.
references of vApp
A clear
Name any three Identification of
identification of Identification of
main virtual less than three
virtual appliance A clear identification of less than three An
appliance providers providers with their virtual appliance
virtual appliance providers virtual appliance incomplete or
and briefly describe web addresses providers with
with their web addresses providers with no not relevant
their products with A brief description no web
and description of some web addresses, explanation of
some key features. of their products addresses and no
products some description the topic
description of
and key attributes of their products
their products
of the products

Marks will be deducted for NOT following the given report format (see below) as well as for
poor presentation, spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
Presentation &
Referencing Marks will also be deducted for NOT providing / following the proper APA style referencing.
Referencing should be accurately documented using APA 6th edition and includes in text and
bibliographic information. (Note that the guide for APA referencing is provided in the Resource
section of Interact site)

Item
HD DI CR PS FL
Task 2

A highly
Executive A complete A thorough An adequate An incomplete,
detailed
Summary summary of the explanation of explanation of irrelevant or not
explanation of
solution and main main points of main points of sufficient
main points of
points of the the report. the report. information.
the report.
report.
 Assessment
Component HD DI CR PS FL
Task 1
Explanation of the An assessment of
need and importance the importance and A detailed An
An assessment of the A short
of virtualisation in need of explanation of incomplete or
importance and need of explanation of
IT organisations virtualisation virtualisation not relevant
virtualisation technology virtualisation
with examples technology with technology in an explanation of
with some examples technology.
appropriate and IT organisation. the topic.
relevant examples.
A concise and
A concise and to
A concise and to the point An adequate
Virtual the point proposal
to the point proposal of description and An incomplete,
infrastructure of virtual
proposal of virtual reasoning of the irrelevant or not
proposal infrastructure with
virtual infrastructure proposed virtual sufficient
justification
infrastructure with justification infrastructure information.
supported by
with justification supported by for data centres.
literature
literat
Provides
Provides short
Analysis of Provides detailed
and brief Provides short
desktops / complete analysis analysis and
analysis and analysis on An incomplete,
applications and makes make some
make some desktops / irrelevant or not
delivery to suggestion on suggestions on
suggestions on applications sufficient
users desktops / desktops /
desktops / delivery to information.
applications applications
applications users
delivery to users delivery to
delivery to users
users
A highly
A thorough An adequate
Disaster A comprehensive detailed
description of description of An incomplete,
recovery / description of description of
disaster disaster irrelevant or not
backup plan disaster recovery disaster
recovery plans recovery plans sufficient
plans for the recovery plans
for the for the information.
infrastructure. for the
infrastructure. infrastructure.
infrastructure.
A highly
A thorough An adequate
detailed
Describe A comprehensive discussion on discussion on
discussion on An incomplete,
information description of the the information the information
the information irrelevant or not
security plan information security security
security sufficient
security changes changes changes
changes information.
needed needed in this needed in this
needed in this
environment. environment.
environment.
Marks will be deducted for not following the given report format (see below) as well as for
Presentation & poor presentation, spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
Referencing Marks will also be deducted for NOT providing / following the proper APA style referencing.
Referencing should be accurately documented using APA 6th edition and includes in text
and bibliographic information. (Note that the guide for APA referencing is provided in the
Resource section of Interact site)

Presentation

The report should be submitted as MS Word (preferably) or pdf document. Please do not submit *.zip or
*.rar or any other format and also do not submit multiple copies of the report. Please use A4 page size
with Times New Roman font of size 12. Following should be included as minimum requirements for the
report structure.

Title of Report
This section should have proper title of the report.

Student Name and Student ID

This section should contain your name and your student ID.

Student Email Contact

Provide your email address under this section.

Executive Summary
This section provides a brief overview of the scenario, reasoning/findings and concluding remarks on your
findings.

Main Report

This section should contain main body of the report. It should discuss all tasks / challenges asked in the
case study. You can have a number of sub-sections answering each task. Support your answers with
solid literature (in-text referencing) and figures (if applicable).

References
You must cite references using APA referencing style to all material you have used as sources for the
content of your work

Glossary (optional)
A glossary should assist the reader in understanding any technical terms used in the report. Use a
generally accepted source for the definition of the terms and include appropriate referencing.