Management of Enterprise Wide Networking

Running head: Management of Enterprise Wide Networking

Management of Enterprise Wide Networking

TCM-538

Networks/Data Communications II

August 20, 2005

Workshop #:6 Individual Assignment

Management of Enterprise Wide Networking

In today's business, management of enterprise networking is an important aspect of an organizations Information Technology (IT) department. This paper will describe how businesses cope with a Legacy System, Internet Security, Offshore Development, Support, and Mobile Computing.

Dealing With Legacy Systems:

The Information Technology (IT) industry sees legacy systems as an obsolete hardware and application programs written in the 1980's code, specifically COBOL. The documentation for a legacy system is rarely used and as a result is very expensive to maintain. The primary purpose of a legacy system is to store financial, customer and employee information. However, do due to the lack of storage capacity, programmers wrote code in large data structures, which saved space. However, using this philosophy hindered the over application structure for next generation languages and scalability.

"The problems with a legacy systems pose are well known. Today's businesses can only survive if they can adapt rapidly to a changing environment and take advantage of new businesses opportunities. Since computer systems are now vital to almost all businesses, this requires that an IT system be modified quickly and cheaply. There are several reasons why this may not be the case. The best known is that the system was built in an era before evolvability was recognized as a difficult and crucial goal of system design. "(Stevens, P. 1998, p.17)

Businesses that still use a legacy system can incur millions of dollars in annual maintenance from an information technology budget. This exuberate cost, can prevent an organization from developing applications that can take advantage to today's technology. The cost of an overhaul/replacement of a legacy may not be a viable solution because of the cost and possible project delays. "The company knew it couldn't effectively brand out into other areas if it relied on its old accounting and payroll systems, which deployed back in 1999 or 2000, now required manual and in some instances, duplicate data entries" (Palmer, May, 2005, UOP article).

For a Chief Information Officer (CIO), a number of factors influence the decision on whether it would be feasible to replace a legacy system. This includes researching the legacy system to determine the structure of the code and understanding what it does. Redesigning the code of the current system is expensive and time-consuming. In addition, having a technical staff that is experienced in programming in obsolete code is very limited and most programmers prefer to use current programming languages.

"The flexibility of these tools also enables new ways to access them. Rather than invest up front in another fixed technology it is increasingly possible simply to access services on a 'pay on use' basis. While the term legacy will be around for sometime to come, it is less likely to frustrate business innovation in the future. The technology that allows legacy systems to be integrated also allows them eventually to be replaced without disruption to the business" (Anonymous, UOP article, 2005)

To become an industry leader, an organization must be able to compete effectively in an ever-changing technology environment. A legacy system that impedes the development and is unable to accommodate these requirements will inhibit the business to gain market share and succeed.

Internet Security:

Computer security is an important issue for any business. The proliferation of personal computers, local area networks, use of the internet and distributed processing has drastically changed the way we manage and control information resources. Internal controls that were effective in the centralized, batch-oriented mainframe environment of legacy systems are inadequate in the distributed computing environment today. Attacks on computer systems and networks are on the rise and the sophistication of these attacks continues to escalate to alarming levels.

For a Chief Information Officers (CIO), the main emphasis is to eliminate the companies networks that are susceptible to hackers, worms, viruses, phishing are terms, which create havoc to computer systems and financial bottom line. This can be an overbearing task due to the constant elusiveness of the hackers and disgruntle employees. However, to combat the security vulnerabilities, a CIO must take specific steps to protect their storage and processing financial systems. "For many businesses, implementing a risk-management plan should be at the top of their security to-do list" (Garvey, May 2005, UOP article)

Using a risk assessment approach in a devised security plan can eliminate or minimize a security breach. "Computers are tied to infrastructure and the core operations of business and have absolutely become a part of the fabric of how we function as a society. Yet comparatively few [in society] are aware of the risks imposed by distributed computing. That puts all of us in a more vulnerable position". (Bielski, L. pg. 7, Jun 2005) The following are recommended security suggestions:

A. Audit:

* Review security staff skills and knowledge. If necessary, contract with a profession security consultant

* Analyze the network, software, firewall using a questionnaire. Use utilities and documentation to provide system security miss-configurations

* Identify financial systems that need to protect hardware, software and data documentation. This will include any legal client compliance

* Create a contingency plan dealing with a security breach. Include the goals and objectives of a breach, who should be notified, determine the implications of the incident

* Create a project team. Include system security engineers and management

B. Execute:

* Perform technical analysis and feedback from the security