Recommendation Report: Digitalization of Kristi Brooks' Business

This recommendation report addresses the digitalization of Kristi Brooks' photography business, established in 1962. The report analyzes the current business setup, including its reliance on physical assets and limited digital infrastructure. The project objectives include a budget of $15,000 for infrastructure, encompassing a server for data storage, computers for scanning and photo editing, and secure backup solutions. The report details technical terminology, such as server, client, and cloud server, and recommends cloud server implementation using Windows Server 2019. It specifies server and client configurations, including memory, storage, and operating systems, alongside security measures like firewalls, antivirus software, and data encryption. Backup strategies, including RAID configurations and remote backups via cloud, are also discussed. Furthermore, the report suggests using Remote Desktop Server (RDS) for low-bandwidth photo uploading and outlines methods for sharing photos with clients. Finally, it provides an estimated cost analysis for the proposed solutions, aiming to modernize the business and enhance its digital capabilities.

RECOMMENDATION
5 July 2020
This recommendation was created for Kristi to upgrade her business for keeping up with the
rapid increasing market.
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Contents
I. Situation Analysis:..............................................................................................................3
1. Company profile:............................................................................................................3
2. Background:....................................................................................................................3
3. Project Objectives:..........................................................................................................3
II. Specification Outline..........................................................................................................4
1. Technical Terminology...................................................................................................4
2. Server Configuration And Operating System:................................................................4
3. Client configuration and operating system:....................................................................6
4. Security...........................................................................................................................7
5. Backup.............................................................................................................................8
6. Method for uploading photo with low-bandwidth..........................................................8
7. Sharing photos with clients.............................................................................................8
8. Estimate cost.................................................................................................................11
III. Reference.......................................................................................................................12
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I. Situation Analysis:
1. Company profile:
Company legal representative: Kristi Brooks
Business lines: modelling and photography business
Established year: 1962
Location: Adelaide’s northern suburbs
2. Background:
The business was established in 1962 by Terry Brooks, Kristi’s father. The business has
changed to digital photography for 8 years and earned a loyal list of ageing clients. However,
due to Terry’s limited computer skills, the business was not exactly digitalised to keep up
with market changing. For instance: the business assets are a large library of photographic
prints and negatives, 16 cameras (14 films and two digital), eight large filing cabinets full of
documents, and one old laptop running Windows 7. Kristi decided to digitalise the entire
business by taking it online for seeking more customers as well as backup all old records and
photos.
3. Project Objectives:
Budget: $15,000 for all infrastructure (including consulting fee).
Scope:
 A computer to serve as a reliable device on which to store and manage scans of all
photos and documentation
 A computer to do the digital scanning
 A daily computer to run photoshop, tie into the server, and manage the business
records
 A means of ensuring data integrity, including managing backups
 As some of the photos are quite personal, a method of securing the server from
unwanted visitors while still allowing people to have access to selected photos
 Copying and backing up photo remotely and securely (Cloud)
 Choosing an operating system for all computers in the business.
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II. Specification Outline
1. Technical Terminology
There are several technical terminologies mentioned in the recommendation:
Server: A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to another
computer over the internet or a local network (Ryan & Bradley 2020).
Client: A client is a computer that connects to and uses the resources of a remote computer or
server (Computerhope 2019)
Cloud server: A cloud server is a virtual server (rather than a physical server) running in a
cloud computing environment. It is built, stored and distributed via a cloud computing
platform over the internet and can be accessed remotely. They are also known as virtual
servers (Probrand 2019).
Central Processing Unit (CPU): A central processing unit, also called a central processor or
main processor, is the electronic circuitry within a computer that executes instructions that
make up a computer program (Wikipedia 2020a).
Graphics card: The Graphics Card is responsible for rendering an image to your monitor, it
does this by converting data into a signal your monitor can understand (Ebuyer 2015). It is
designed specifically for performing the complex mathematical and geometric calculations
that are necessary for graphics rendering (Jeff & Tracy 2020).
ZIP: ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may
contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed (Wikipedia 2020b)
Remote Desktop Server (RDS): RDS which is known as Terminal Services in Windows
Server, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to take control of
a remote computer or virtual machine over a network connection (Wikipedia 2020c).
2. Server Configuration And Operating System:
Recently, many businesses have been using cloud for their sever for many reason: scalability,
save time, save money, access from wherever, whenever, increased security (MemSource
2018). Since main purpose of server is to storage and manage documents/photos/scans and
the owner can connect to the internet all the time, therefore, Cloud server would be best
solution here. The below is the advantage of using cloud serber:
 Accessibility: you can access to the server anytime and anywhere. If one of the
virtual management systems has a problem, the client is automatically transferred to
another server.
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 Upgrade easily: If you need additional resources, you just raise the limit on the
server.
 Backup data: Cloud Server system is "backed up" and stored weekly at another
server to help ensure the highest level of data security.
 Advanced security: Cloud Server uses the latest multi-layer security system, full-
time protection combined with comprehensive security of data in/out on the system
when communicating with other systems.
 Lower cost: Using cloud server you do not need to pay for the hardware which the
physical computer normally requires high hardware costs, maintenance, upgrades.
As storaging and managing documents which obtain large of space (due to photos and scans)
is the core aim of server, therefore, the storage disk should be as largest as it can.
Memory(RAM) 15GB It is enough to handle the simple tasks: store and
manage.
Processor 2vCPUs To handle the tasks
System Disk Unlimited To store the scans
Data Disk Unlimited To store the scans
The operating system suitable for this circumstance is Windows Server 2019, the reason
following as:
 Training: Both Windows Server and Windows Client (e.g Window 7,8,10) is built
upon the same foundation, except Windows Server focuses more on dealing with
server administration. Because the business has been already using Windows 7 for
running, it will be much easier to be trained and experienced Window Server
compared to Linux. The owner don’t need to be a programming expert to gorven the
sever, in the other hand, learning to install and manage a Linux server is a whole
process (Bojana 2018).
 Budget: When it comes to Linux, although it is free to download, there are expensive
cost following to administrate the Linux server. For instance, to customise the Linux
server, there are 2 options can be considered: a support contract for hiring techs
specification to support using/managing Linux server (65$/hour)(Upwork 2020);
learning and being trained to use Linux server . Linux is a niche market (<1% on the
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desktop), it is hard and expensive to find or replace experienced Linux support
personel as well as learning to manage Linux (Eric 2016).
3. Client configuration and operating system:
Client Objective: One computer for doing the digital scanning and one other for using
photoshop and managing business records.
Because modelling and photography business is the main business line of Kristi’s business,
graphics design softwares are certainly installed into the computer. Furthermore, using
business support software to manage the business documents could be more efficient than
manual method. These packages are all missing from Linux. Kristi can use these packages on
Linux with the third software support or on macOS but it will restrict her performance. The
biggest reason behind this would be that the server system is Windows Server, learning other
systems is inessential. Likewise, Kristi can work efficiently and effectively when she use the
familiar system. Therefore, Windows system is the best option for these two clients.
Client configurations:
 The first computer client objective is just to do the digital scanning, the normal
computer can do this task easil.
Memory 4GB The minimum to handle the simple tasks: scanning
Internal storage
(Drive)
500GB - 1
TB
To store the temporary scans before moving these to
server
Scanner Fast and
quality scan
To do the digital scanning
 The second computer client main objective is to use graphics software such as
photoshop for designing the photos.
Memory 32 GB To serve photography tasks, the computer needs to have
a large memory to handle designing features.
Internal storage
(Drive)
1 TB The main task of this computer is to use graphics
software and manage business records, therefore, it does
not need to have a large driver
Graphic card 11-22GB To help the efficient workflow, graphic card is essential
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to build in.
4. Security
Keep up with system and software security updates
Since windows 10 will be automatically up to date the lastest patches, Kristi needs to be
aware if there is any update version of other applications such as photoshop, business
management software… When Kristi opens software/applications, there will be a pop up if
updates are available. Kristi can easily follow the steps after clicking into the pop up to
update her software (Dennis 2018).
Firewall
A firewall is a computer network term that can be a hardware or software. It is worked as a
barrier or a shield to prevent unauthorized access to private computer/network in order to
protect the internal data as well as enhance the security (Dennis 2018). In addition, the
Firewall has many other functions such as checking, filtering in and out of the system. To
control the firewall system, Kristi can easily find the Windows Firewall by typing into the
search box.
Antivirus and anti-spyware software
Computer viruses are becoming more and more variable, harder to be killed, strong anti-virus
software therefore is neededd to quickly detect and eliminate viruses, spyware to to minimize
damage to the computer. There are several options that Kristi can consider, which are
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2020, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Norton AntiVirus Plus, etc…(Desire
2020)
Encrypt data
When accessing websites, Kristi should choose the one which begins with HTTPS because
HTTPS provides a level of user privacy as well as security. For example:
https://www.unisa.edu.au/
Regarding exchanging sensitive data purpose, Kristi could consider by zipping a file or folder
with password, then send the password privately to the recipter in person or via phone
(University of Southern Maine 2019).
Account Management
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Using different and strong password for each software/application/account could help to
increase security by minimise the chance hacked by hackers.
5. Backup
The client computers could be set up backup by windows server management tool. The client
backup files/folders will be located in server. The cycle of client back up can be around 2 -3
weeks.
Some of cloud servers are already provide back up solution. For instance, RackSpace
provides RAID10- protected service which means that the data will be parity written into
two drives and written identically to two other drives (mirroring). RAID 10 ensures that data
will be backed up fast and securely storage. It is not only improving performance but also
ensuring data is not lost when 1 out of 4 hard drive fails.
To increase the percentage of redundancy data, you can set up a RAID 1 mirrored drive by
yourself. In order to proceed with Raid 1 setup, the server needs at least 2 drives and data is
written identically to two drives. You can store 1 drive on site and another drive at another
place to avoid disacters on site. If the data is to large, you can change it to RAID 5 which
mean that the data will be parity written into 3 drives or more. If one of the drives is broken,
you still can use the other to restore the data.
6. Method for uploading photo with low-bandwidth
A proper method for uploading new photos and accessing securely to the server with a low-
bandwidth is to connect to cloud server via an RDS. Because only the software user
interfaced is transferred to the user’s screen when using RDS, low-bandwidth is accepted to
upload the photos (SysGen 2019).
7. Sharing photos with clients
With cloud server, you can easily share photos with client computers. There are two options
for you to share photos with your client computers:
 Using Windows Server tool to share files with clients. Firstly, we need to create or
choose one Folder/Disk (volume) which we want to share. Then right click on that
volume and choose Properties
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From the sharing tab, select Advanced Sharing.
In the pop up, tick Share this folder , then click on Permission
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Choose or add the clients you want to give permission (change, read) in the second frame
 Everything in server is connected through internet, you can use sharing tool of cloud
server to share the photos directly with your clients.
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8. Estimate cost
The following is the estimate costs:
No Description Unit Estimate Amount
1 Cloude Server (RackSpace 2020) 1pc $309/month
2 1st Computer client (Dell 2020) 1pc $500-600
3 2nd Computer client (for designing) (mWave 2020) 1pc $4,800 -$6,500
4 Monitor (including one for editing) (mWave 2020) 3pcs $1,000
5 Scanner (Hillary 2020) 1pc $ 519 -$1000
6 Anitivirus, ani-spyware software (3 devices/year)
(Bitdefender 2020)
1pc $ 35.00
Total estimate costs is fluctuated from $7,000 to $9,000.
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III.Reference
Bitdefender 2020, 'Bitdefender 2020 security suites, the choice of experts worldwide!'.
Bojana, D 2018, 'Windows Server vs Linux: The Ultimate Comparison', phoenixNAP.
Computerhope 2019, 'Client', Computerhope.com.
Dell 2020, 'Desktop', Dell.com.
Dennis, A 2018, '8 easy steps to secure your computer', Privacy.
Desire, A 2020, 'The best antivirus software of 2020', ITproportal.
Ebuyer 2015, 'What is a Graphic Card?', ebuyer.com.
Eric, vL 2016, 'Why companies don’t install Linux on their desktop machines', Quora.
Hillary, KG 2020, 'The best photo scanners for 2020', digitaltrends.com.
Jeff , T & Tracy, VW 2020, 'How Graphics Cards Work', computer.howstuffworks.com.
mWave 2020, 'Mwave Gaming PCs', mwave.com.au.
Probrand 2019, 'What is a cloud server and how does it work?', Probrand.co.uk.
RackSpace 2020, 'Cloud Server Flavor Classes', Rackspace.com.
Ryan, P & Bradley, M 2020, 'What Is a Server?', Lifewire.
SysGen 2019, 'Cloud computing can seem confusing. But it doesn’t have to be', sysgen.ca.
University of Southern Maine 2019, 'Computing Services - 10 Steps to Data and Network
Security'.
Upwork 2020, 'Hire the best Linux System Administrators', Upwork.
Wikipedia 2020a, 'Central processing unit', en.wikipedia.org.
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Wikipedia 2020b, 'Zip (file format)', en.wikipedia.org.
Wikipedia 2020c, 'Remote Desktop Services', en.wikipedia.org.
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