System Administration Consultation: Improving IT Processes & Services

This document provides a system administration consultation report based on three different company scenarios: a software company, a sales company, and a non-profit organization. For each scenario, the report identifies existing problems within their IT infrastructure and proposes several process improvements, offering a detailed rationale behind each recommendation. The improvements address issues such as insecure handling of IT services, inadequate laptop specifications, data security risks, lack of backup systems, and website downtime. The recommendations focus on cost-effective solutions that align with the company's restrictions, such as implementing cloud-based backups, training existing staff, and improving server management practices to ensure data security, system reliability, and efficient IT operations.

Running Head: SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION CONSULTATION
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION CONSULTATION
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SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION CONSULTATION
Scenario 1: Software Company
Problem: The spotted problem in the software Company are lack of a system administrator to
handle most of the service the HR representative is handling in an insecure way. There are
several duties the company HR is mishandling. Not planning on the type of the laptop the
company should buy. It is not bad to go for the cheap laptops, but the laptops could be cheap due
to some inefficiency. As a software company, the users should have laptops which can help them
perform their tasks. Another problem is that the HR representative handle the technical issue
which should be handle by the system administrator so as to evaluate the solution to provide
based on the skills he has acquired. The other problem is the use of a non-restricted password
for the office computer. Lack of adding the laptops in the inventory and have a unique way to
label the laptops.
Process Improvement: As the system administrator, the technical issues should not be handled by
the HR representative. The HR should handle the office related duties. In case of buying new
laptops, the system administrator should determine the type laptops specifications that are
appropriate for the new employee. The system administrator should install the necessary
application in the laptop. The system should have a strong password only know by the
administrator. Then a guest account should be created where the employees will then add a
strong password of their choice. The password should be restricted. The employees should not
share that password. The cloud administration password should be strong and only known to the
administrator. The administrator should add user account for other employees to use a different
password and username.
Rationale: Since the company does not have too much revenue to spend the company should but
a few an extra laptop incase all laptops are used and set up the laptop ready for use. This will
save time for the new employee. Also, the HR should stop handling the tech related request. The
new IT administrator should handle the duties. The system administrator should use his/her
technical skills to handle all technical related issues. For example, he should advice on the type
of laptop to be bought by the HR. All items should be label in order to make a follow up on the
inventory.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION CONSULTATION
Scenario 2: Sales Company
Problem: W.D. Widgets has a number of problems. First as the company is growing so rapidly,
the IT person may not be in a position to install the application required for sales in all the
machines. The other problem is that the software are at a risk when kept in-house. The customer
data should not be stored in a single file server. As the company seems to be growing rapidly and
the IT person will not be in a position to handle all the employees’ requests alone.
Process Improvement: The IT person has to teach the current employees or a group of curious
sales people on how to install the software. The will group will help the IT person to install the
applications required in the new laptops. The IT person should order for more extra laptops like
20 laptops and do the installations at once and keep them ready. The customer data is at risk
when it is stored in a single file server. The data should be store in cloud in raid form then in case
of data loss the company is able to recover from data loss. Confidential customer data should be
store in an encrypted form. This will really help in data security. The software keep in-house
should also be store in cloud for backup incase the software kept in-house get corrupt.
Rationale: As the sales company generates a lot of revenue the number of extra laptops should be
increase to approximately 20 extra laptop. Then the IT person will train a number of sales people
on how to install the sales applications on the new laptops. This will enable the IT person handle
the other technical duties on time and the new employees will meet ready to use laptops. The
customer data is very important, therefore the data should be mirror in the cloud storage for
backup and the data in the cloud should be stored in an encrypted form for security measures.
The software kept in-house is prone to get distorted. Therefore, the IT person should have a
backup of the software in the cloud.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION CONSULTATION
Scenario 3: Non-Profit Company
Problem: There are a several problems in Dewgood Company. Lack of ready laptops for the new
employees. The company operates on a single server which could be risky if the server fails.
There is also lack of a messaging system. Also, when an employee leaves the company, the user
is not disabled in the active directory. The account may be misused the person without the
companies awareness. The backups done by the IT person and then carries them home can be
risky as he could be attacked before he gets to his home. The other prole is that the website goes
down most of the times.
Process Improvement: There are number of improvement that need to be enhanced in Dewgood
Company. The company should host the information in more than one server in different
location. In case one server fails, they will rely on other servers. The company should buy an
extra laptop in case of a new employer join. The IT person should place the laptop in a drawer.
The company should have a messaging system to make the communication in the company more
efficient. Also, in case employees leave their user accounts should be deactivated for the
employee not to misuse the account. The daily backups should be done on a different backup
server and cron-jobs should me developed to automatically do the backup. The backup could be
done snapshots. The website should be hosted in a different server or troubleshoot the current
server.
Rationale: The information should be hosted in more than one due to avoid data loss in case one
server fails. Since the company has no store to keep extra laptop, they could buy one or two extra
laptops which will not use much space. The extra laptop could be place in drawers or a shelf. The
user account in the directory service should be disabled. If they remain activated the owner could
access service they are not supposed to access and may misuse the account. Backup are
necessary to make in every organization but they should be done to another server for safety
purpose. Finally the server in which the server is hosted should be troubleshoot to find for
possible reason as to why the website is down most times.