Concepts and Models
Value:20%
Task
Scenario
VideoDev Ltd is a video and production development company which works for clients across Australia and New Zealand. The company is considering moving some of its computer infrastructure into the Cloud. The VideoDev Board is contemplating this move as a way to increase the company’s flexibility and responsiveness, as well as to achieve some savings on the cost of maintaining their ICT infrastructure.
VideoDev has engaged you as a consultant to advise them on the use of Cloud Computing in their daily operations. They have some 100 video production, engineering and support staff that work on different projects for clients in Australia and New Zealand. They have been advised that a move to using a Cloud based infrastructure would be an advantage to them.
VideoDev have a number of application servers in their Sydney and Melbourne datacentres that provide video processing capabilities for their staff. These servers are quite heavily customised and run reasonably heavy workloads while doing video processing. There is often a considerable queue of jobs waiting to be processed, which causes backlogs in getting jobs completed on time. The Board hopes that a move to a cloud based operation may help to relieve these backlogs.
Another of VideoDev’s initial projects is to provide all their staff with a Standard Desktop Operating Environment (SDOE) on their desktop. This would include providing a standard desktop to any device that their staff may be using, as well as access to office automation, such as email, word processing, spreadsheet capabilities, as well as online storage for their files. The Board want the SDOE to be available on any device that their staff use, whether they are in the office, at home, or deployed at a customer’s office in the field.
VideoDev is considering the use of either Amazon WorkSpaces (https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/) or Windows Virtual Desktop (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/virtual-desktop/) as a replacement for their existing desktop environment.
Your task is to:
Prepare a PowerPoint briefing for the VideoDev board. Your briefing should:
- Explain the Cloud Computing to the Board:
- What are the main cloud computing concepts that the Board should understand before committing to move to the Cloud? (10 marks) and,
- Why you think that a move to the Cloud could be good for VideoDev (10 marks);
- Explain how you think that VideoDev could move their video processing to the cloud. You will need to discuss:
- Explain the differences between the service models IaaS and PaaS (10 marks)
- What type of service model you would recommend? (10 marks)
- What are the advantages of, and the issues with, the service model that you recommended for VideoDev’s video processing? (10 marks)
- What other types of architectural patterns could be used in this deployment? (20 marks)
- How that move would assist in removing backlogs? (10 marks)
- Which would provide the best SDOE for VideoDev – Amazon WorkSpaces or Windows Virtual Desktop?
- Briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each possible SDOE (10 marks)
- Briefly discuss how the SDOE could be delivered to a staff members laptop (10 marks).
Your presentation is to be completed in either PowerPoint or Google slides. Your presentation must not exceed 30 slides of content.
- The presentation should be a maximum of 30 slides, including introduction, conclusions and recommendations.
- You are required to record your presentation as a Voice over Presentation (VoP) with your commentary on each slide.
- Each slide should have speaking notes in the Notes section which expand on the information in the slide.
- Images and quotations used in slides must be referenced on that slide.
- The slide deck does require a reference list. References are to be included on a Reference list slide(s), but these are not counted as part of the slide deck limit.
Your presentation should highlight the significant points of your argument, but you should include the detail in the speaking notes section of your slides.