Information Technology

Your company will be moving into a new regional office complex soon, and you have been chosen to complete an analysis of what it will cost to purchase all cabling, and hardware, along with selected software to meet your company's new requirements. You will need to purchase PCs that are capable of running standard office automation applications that will be used for administrative purposes by all fifty (50) employees in your company. Of our 50 total employees, the 15 who make up our engineering department will also need more powerful workstations, in addition to their PCs. Connecting all fifty (50) users and all the other shared network devices will require approximately 5000 feet of Category Five (CAT-5) cable which you must purchase in bulk. To connect the two servers you will need to purchase the correct type of "Ready Made" optical fiber patch cables. Each user and each device connection will require a minimum of two (2) each RJ45 connectors, which you must also purchase. Servers and their connection to the LAN switch will require G-BIC interface modules.

You will also need to purchase two servers, one of which will act as a combination network & application server, while the second one will be a database server. You will also need to purchase LAN switching equipment, shared network storage devices, and several different types of printers that will be shared on the networks. All the LAN switching devices and network storage devices must be devices that are scalable to accommodate our company's needs as it is expected to increase in size to 200 employees and management personnel over the next 3 to 5 years. All of this must be purchased with a budget of $200,000.00.

You will need to prepare a concise cost analysis report that will provide management with a detailed breakdown of the cost for individual hardware and software components, cabling and miscellaneous accessories, as well as a total cost of all Hardware, the total cost for all software, and the overall total cost for the entire project. Network connectivity requirements will be provided, along with the minimum requirements for the personal computers, workstations, and other devices. These requirements are identified in Table 1-1.

Assignment Requirements

Use your research techniques to provide cost information for Personal Computer (PC) and WorkStation (WS) systems that meet the minimum requirements