AusEd Inc. is an organization that provides distance learning and education to the students all across the globe. The students from interiors of Australia along with the rural areas of South Pacific Islands and New Guinea are associated with AusEd Inc. Currently, distance learning and education is provided to the students; however, the organization is now looking forward to enhance its reach to the further communities and industries. The expansion of the business operations and activities will require the expansion of the infrastructure as well.
The solution that is desired by AusEd Inc. shall be scalable and flexible in nature. The organization is looking to expand its business operations and activities and it is therefore necessary to implement a solution that meets the business needs. The number of students associated with the organization are increasing rapidly and therefore, a system is now required which is scalable, reliable, and always available. It is; however, not possible to restrict only to physical learning capabilities. There will be remote students that will always be involved. The cases of data leakages and breaches would be required to be controlled and prevented. AusEd Inc. is a not for profit organization and therefore, the costs shall be kept as low as possible.
Cloud computing is being actively used in the area of education to develop and provide e-learning mechanisms to the students (Xu, Huang, Wang & Heales, 2014). Cloud-based solution has been proposed which will meet the non-functional requirements of the systems, such as scalability, reliability, flexibility, and availability. Also, the functional aspects will be easily met. This is the approach that has already being followed and is undertaken by other similar case studies. There are three major cloud models that are developed as public, private, and hybrid that are commonly used and implemented. Public-cloud services will be visible to all and the service provider will have the complete control over these services. Private cloud will also be used in this case of the control and management of the services and operations associated with authentication, security, access control and identity management. Private cloud has been recommended for the organization as it will meet the current as well as future needs. Some of the key challenges that will come up with the cloud-based systems will be the maintenance and network connectivity along with the security issues and threats (Kumar, Singh & Jain, 2003).
Following are key assumptions are as follows:
The cloud-based system that has been proposed for the organization will be required to be provided with a suitable networking infrastructure so that the suitable services may be provided to the end-users without any interruptions. Availability is one of the most important requirements that will be associated with the system to make sure that the system is available and accessible to the users at any hour of the day. Cloud computing architecture will be able to meet these requirements and therefore, it is one of the most suitable architectures for the purpose (Silverman, 2016). The diagram that has been illustrated below shows the modularity of the architecture along with the break-up of the various layers that will be involved. Each of the layers involved in the system will perform a specific set of tasks and activities (Lawler, 2011).
The network infrastructure that will be associated with the system will be implemented in parts. One of its parts will be implemented using traditional processes while the other will be implemented as private cloud architecture. The private cloud will comprise of the distribution layer and the access layer. The diagram that is illustrated below shows the networking infrastructure that will be involved. One of the physical hosts present in the network architecture will have the ability to host multiple virtual machines. These will then act as virtual hosts that will include various VLAN interfaces which will be further connected with the physical hosts. The inclusion of such hierarchical model will provide numerous advantages. It will bring down the usage of CPU and will also eliminate the issue of redundant network broadcast. The overall cost of implementation will also come down as an outcome.
The core Learning Management System that will be developed will be based on Moodle. The rest of the system will be based on a variety of open-source and proprietary solutions. Some of these will include online class delivery and sessions, e-learning platforms, customer relationship management systems, collaboration services, and hosting services. The vendors for procuring the networking tools will include Cisco, Juniper, TP Link, etc. The second layer of OSI model will be eliminated with the aid of Multiple Instance spanning Tree protocol.
Link aggregation in the network infrastructure was implemented using the Ether Channel technologies in combination with the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). It was done to make sure that higher data transfer rates could be maintained. The mobility and security of the virtual machines could be ensured with the aid of the implementation of OpenFlow protocol. The purpose behind the development of VLANs is to ensure that the traffic and network are logically separated from each other. Ports will also be involved for the purpose of interconnecting the switches and the router connections will be carried out in the form of trunk.
The network management processes and activities shall also be readily carried out. The aim shall be to bring down the unavailability of the network and the network logs to make sure that the costs are controlled and availability is always ensured. Out of Band Management (OBM) and communication protocols are the two mechanisms that may be utilized for the task. (Kotut, 2018). The amalgamation of these processes will result in enhanced network management. Cacti application may also be used for the purpose of network monitoring and control. The access and authorization will be controlled by the network administrators through the use and implementation of network access controls.
The educational firms and organizations in the current era provide their students with a lot many services. Some of these include library management, dashboards, decision support systems, customer relationship management systems, instant messengers, emails, etc. (Doelitzscher, Sulistio, Reich, Kuijs & Wolf, 2010). Pay per use of subscription model of the cloud may be utilized to provide one or multiple services to the students. The cloud-based services along with the network infrastructure that will be required to implement these services will need the following.
There will be numerous services that will be implemented in the system as per the description included above. The user authentication will be done through LDAP server, access control will be done using radius server, mails and messages will be maintained using exchange mail and file servers. CRM and LMS will also be implemented in the system along with the project management tools. The computer science and IT department will be able to host the respective sites and service using the hosting platform. Sample papers and quizzes will also be hosted on the same. The cloud-based platform will meet the changing needs and requirements.
The implementation of the system shall be done only after the costs associated with the system are known in advance. The cost analysis for the system will be based on the various factors, such as the number of associated students, distance to be covered by the students, study time-period and likewise. There will be fixed and variable costs associated with the system as listed below.
There is specific network infrastructure that is associated with the cloud-based system that has been proposed. The proposed infrastructure will not host the complete system; however, it will provide a mechanism to provide access of the system to the end-users. This will lead to the lowering down of the electricity bills and the digital carbon footprints will also be reduced. The majority of the hardware tools and the necessary software packages will be kept and maintained on the cloud platforms. The cloud resources and services will ensure that none of the e-resources are wasted and there is optimal utilization implemented.
Conclusion
The network model and infrastructure of the cloud-based system that will be implemented in the organization as AusEd Inc. has been showcased in the paper. The cloud-based model will include the private cloud architecture so that the authentication and security of the data sets are maintained. The hierarchical model has been suggested which will ensure that the system needs and requirements as scalability, flexibility, and reliability are met. The infrastructure also showcased the use of modern network protocols, such as OpenFlow. The overall costs associated with the system and its implementation will be low. The solution that has been proposed will be complex for the resources not aware of the cloud computing norms and principles. It would be essential to incorporate skilled human resources in the development and training of the system. In case of absence of such resources, the organization may also go for the public cloud approach as it would be easier to implement. However, from the security point of view, the use of private cloud has been recommended as it will ensure better authentication, network privacy, access control, and integrity of the data sets.
References
Doelitzscher, F., Sulistio, A., Reich, C., Kuijs, H., & Wolf, D. (2010). Private cloud for collaboration and e-Learning services: from IaaS to SaaS. Computing, 91(1), 23-42. doi: 10.1007/s00607-010-0106-z
Kotut, L. (2018). NETWORK SECURITY CHALLENGES – A Survey. International Journal Of Recent Trends In Engineering And Research, 4(4), 343-355. doi: 10.23883/ijrter.2018.4245.d7rvv
Kumar, L., Singh, D., & Jain, P. (2003). Cloud Implementation and Cloud Integration. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY, 2(1), 1-5. doi: 10.24297/ijct.v2i1.2604
Lawler, A. (2011). LMS transitioning to Moodle: A surprising case of successful, emergent change management. Australasian Journal Of Educational Technology, 27(7). doi: 10.14742/ajet.907
Xu, D., Huang, W., Wang, H., & Heales, J. (2014). Enhancing e-learning effectiveness using an intelligent agent-supported personalized virtual learning environment: An empirical investigation. Information & Management, 51(4), 430-440. doi: 10.1016/j.im.2014.02.009
Yet another adaptive learning management system based on Felder and Silverman’s learning styles and Mashup. (2016). EURASIA Journal Of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 12(7). doi: 10.12973/eurasia.2016.1512a
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