Developing Service Level Agreement (SLA) And Maintenance Strategy For Ubendem Tools

Business Requirements

Task 1 –Develop a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for an ISP

Investigate alternative ISPs with a view to replacing the ADSL Modem to address Ubendem Tools needs. Take into consideration that Great Southern might be willing to upgrade the ADSL Modem and/or plan to keep Ubendem Tools business. Compare at least two other ISPs.

• Produce a comparison table for at least two ISPs listing the type of Internet service they provide (gigabyte allowance, speed, cost, shaping, duration, penalties, etc)
• Ensure that you also compare ADSL modems
• Make a recommendation to which ISP Ubendem Tools should use (remain with Great Southern or change to one of the other ISPs)

You are free to make what assumptions about the business that you feel are necessary including what Great Southern’s data plan might be. Perhaps the NBN has already been completed at Ubendem Tool’s location? You should state what these assumptions are.

Task 2 – Develop Maintenance Strategy for Ubendem Tools

Oswald is happy with the solution (and the ensuing SLA) you have proposed for resolving the problem with the loss of Internet connection however it has highlighted a potential high risk area should the connection fail for an extended period of time. He wants you to develop a maintenance strategy for Ubendem Tools that will mitigate the chances of this happening. He has also asked you to include other IT aspects of the business’s needs and not just focus on having a reliable Internet connection.

Develop a maintenance strategy that addresses the issues identified in the scenario. You should describe the type of maintenance strategy or strategies you are recommending and why. You need to develop maintenance strategies that address the following issues:

• consistency of Internet connectivity
• keeping software up to date
• continuity of information technology services (software & hardware)

Scenario

Ubendem Tools is currently running their business using the minimum information technology resources that caters their requirement of inventory management, preparing marketing materials, printing customer invoices etc. They have recently started using MYOB accounting systems. Due to increasing problems with their internet connectivity, they have contracted an IT consultant.

Business Requirements

There are a number of business requirements for the information technology infrastructure of Ubendem Tools.

• There is a number of users who are accessing the ADSL+ modem for accessing the Internet. It is degrading the performance of the network and the bandwidth is dropping down or the connection is lost.
• There is a lot of colour printing but most of those are not necessary. Hence the business needs a suitable solution.
• There is a concern for frequent update messages from Microsoft. The company is more interested in moving to cloud based Office 365 solution.

Current ADSL modem based broadband used by the organisation is not able to provide satisfactory service to the organisation. One identified reason behind that is over use of the bandwidth by more users. Thus the company needs to reduce the number of users or upgrade their broadband connectivity and modem. NBN is also rolling out in the metropolitan areas of Sydney. So another alternative plan for the organisation may be adapting NBN for their business.

In the following part, Optus and Telstra have been selected to replace the current ISP of the organisation.

The summary of ADSL2+ modem based broadband connection available to the locality and the same from the NBN, have been summarised as,

Criteria	Optus	Telstra
Gigabyte Allowance	50 GB per month	10GB per month
Speed	With ADSL2+, maximum download speed is 20Mbps.	With ADSL2+, maximum download speed is 20Mbps.
Cost	$70 per month or almost $1680.	$1,920.00
Duration	24 months	24 months
Hardware Provided	In some plans it provides free WiFi modem. Other than that it a compatible telephone handset and modem are needed. These will cost extra.	Compatible gateways can be purchased at extra cost.
Penalties	Maximum cancellation fees is $300 at the time of leaving a 24 month contract and if the customer re-contracts then it will cost $100 maximum depending on the period of discontinuation.	65% of remaining total monthly charges of the selected plan.
Comparison with ADSL modem	Netgear N600, Netgear DGN 2200, Netgear DG 834 are supported by Optus. The Suitable one is Netgear N600. The features of ADSL2+ modem in comparison to ADSL modem are, · Provides speed up to 300Mbps. · Secure with WPA/WPA2 – PSK, Push ‘N’ connect and WEP technologies. WPS supports a quicker and secure network connection through Wi Fi. · Contains NETGEAR Genie dashboard. · Provide more coverage than ADSL modems. · There are four fast Ethernet (10/100) ports. · There are built in DSL modem, ADSL+ and router. It helps in creating secure gateways. · Provides easy internet connection sharing. · Comes with shared storage ReadySHARE. Also provides access to external USB device. · Set up is easier. · Provides more secure guest networking connections. · Automatic QoS and jitter free connection. · Supports parental control. · Can stream voice, online gaming, music etc. in addition to other internet applications.	From the list of selected modem any one can be selected. A selection is, NetComm NB6 ADSL2+ Modem Router. Some important fearures compared to ADSL are, · Faster internet access. · Supports USB or Ethernet connections · Built in firewall · Supports VPN pass-through · Supports ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+ UPnP · QoS ensured · Easy configuration and interface.
NBN Broadband
Speed	From 12 Mbps to 100 Mbps.	25Mbps
Cost	$80 per month	$100 per month
Data Allowance	50 GB per month	50 GB per month
Duration	24 months	24 months
Hardware Provided	Utility box, antenna, connection box from NBN Co. and Optus Wi Fi modem.	NBN Premises Connection Device, NBN Fibre Wall Outlet (NBN FWO), NBN Network Termination Device, NBN Power Supply Unit (NBN PSU).
Penalties	Maximum cancellation fees is $300 at the time of leaving a 24 month contract and if the customer re-contracts then it will cost $100 maximum depending on the period of discontinuation.	65% of remaining total monthly charges of the selected plan.

(Telstra , 2015), (Optus, 2015)

NBN is available from the vendors Optus and Telstra for the metropolitan Sydney area. The details of the plans have been summarised in the above table.

After considering cost, durations, terms, maximum data allowance, it seems that NBN offers better service than the ADSL2+ based broadband services in general. Thus NBN is recommended over the ADSL2+ modem based broadband services.

Based on the business requirements of Ubendem Tools, NBN broadband from Optus is recommended. It provide more bandwidth and speed at the same price and terms as Telstra.

For adopting NBN broadband services, the company needs to replace their old modem to a suitable one that is capable of working with NBN broadband.

For using NBN service they no longer need their existing ADSL modem.  Rather they will have different set of equipment (hardware) as given above.

Task 2

The maintenance of information technology resources at Ubendem Tools is mainly focused on the following factors.

• Consistent internet connectivity
• Software updates
• Continuity of ICT services
• Use of printing

The maintenance strategy includes the following details:

• The internet connectivity should not be shared by more than the number of users allowed to share it. Otherwise there will be degradation in the performance of the network connectivity. The organisation can share bandwidth for domestic use and for business use.
• Instead of printing colour documents the company can use a low cost printer. It will help them make savings from their printing work, OR the default printer can be setup to print black and white documents only, and changed to colour only if required.
• The company is already using MYOB accounting systems. Microsoft is providing support for Windows 8.1 only. Thus it needs to move to the OS from their existing Windows 7 based environment. Windows 8.1 provides touch screen support and can be easily used from hand held devices like tablets, smartphones etc, thus the business needs move to the new operating system.
• To be free from the update issues, the company can use auto update option on for their system. The system will be automatically updated whenever it will get some updates. It will not notify the users. But there is a drawback, because every single update will be automatically installed while the company may not need those. A better approach is to hire some IT professional for managing timely updates.

Conclusion

In this report, there is a brief discussion about the scenario of the company. How they are working and what problems being faced by them. Based on that information the business requirements have been identified. For those business requirements a service level agreement and a maintenance strategy have been developed. In the SLA, two other ISPs than the current ISP of the company has been considered. The ADSL modem based broadband services offered by those ISPs have been compared, the NBN broadband services offered by those two companies have been also compared. From the results of the comparison, NBN from Optus has been recommended for the company. The maintenance strategy has also been outlined for the organisation.

References

Choudrie, J., & Middleton, C. (2013). Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation. Routledge.

Freire, M. (2007). Encyclopedia of Internet Technologies and Applications . IGI Global.

Miller, M. (2013). Wireless Networking Absolute Beginner’s Guide. Que Publishing.

NBNCo. (2015). Connect to a better future. Retrieved from NBNCo: https://www.nbnco.com.au/

Optus. (2015). ADSL2+ Plans. Retrieved from Optus: https://www.optus.com.au/business/broadband-internet/office/dsl-phone-bundles

Telstra . (2015). Telstra Business Broadband ADSL 10GB Plan. Retrieved from Telstra : https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/personal/help/pdf/cis-business/broadband-ethernet-dsl/business-critical-information-summary-adsl-10gb.pdf