Design an Alternative Processing Site

Alternative Processing Site Proposal

R&D Media, LLC has asked you to develop a proposal for an Alternative Processing Site.

Conduct research on the latest technologies for Alternative Processing Sites (feel free to use your teamwork for this part of the assignment).
Determine who the companys stakeholders are.
Using the results of your research, develop the request for proposal that best meets the stakeholders requirements and incorporates innovative technologies.
Within your proposal you must also consider cost and what R&D Media, LLC can afford.
Develop and document the requirements for R&D Media, LLCs alternate processing site.
Identify the mission critical services and indicate services that are not provided at the alternate site. The plan must include all data security issues.
Create and document the design and do walkthroughs for building the alternate site to ensure that there are no omissions and errors.
Document the activation process for the alternate processing site.
Document the hand-back process.
The information you need about R&D Media, LLC is as follows:

Consider the LAN for a small 100-person business, R&D Media, LLC Inc. The business occupies one floor in an office building. Everybody has a computer on his or her desk, and there are servers for the web, file and print sharing, email, database, and a small 3D render farm, a rack of 20 quad processor Xeon servers running Red Hat Linux that generates the actual high-resolution video animations that R&D Media, LLC produces for its clients. The desktop systems consist of Apple Mac Pro desktops running the latest version of the Mac OS for the creative staff, and the latest version of Windows on computers for general use. The servers are running the latest version of Windows Server running Microsoft Exchange, web server, and file and print service.

The network is gigabit

Ethernet and the network hardware are a mixture from Cisco and Hewlett-Packard. Employees, business partners, and clients may visit R&D Media, LLCs office with laptop computers in order to collaborate on projects. The laptops will obtain their IP configuration from the DHCP server at R&D Media, LLC.

R&D Media, LLC has 10 megabit/second Internet access and uses a SOHO firewall that doubles as a DHCP server. This firewall filters out Internet-based attempts to access R&D Media, LLCs servers and desktop computers, but admits email, web, and SFTP (Secure FTP) traffic destined for specifically hardened servers.

R&D Media, LLC produces short animation movies for advertiser clients

These clients are located worldwide and need to communicate securely with R&D Media, LLC as they collaborate on their advertising shorts. R&D Media, LLC uses its high- speed Internet connection both to support the exchange of movie shorts as well as for email and general Internet web connectivity.

The network has the following additional specifications:

The network is all TCP/IP based.
The network is based on Cisco routers and switches.
All desktop computers include email, web, database access, and office productivity software.
Creative users also have multimedia authoring software installed.
All server and critical network equipment are in a secure server room.
Printers are located around the office area.
The multimedia department uses high-end workstations for video rendering and animation.
A load-balancing dual firewall connects the network to the Internet.
Security Policy:

All email must be secure so it cannot be inadvertently sent to the wrong party or intercepted.
All network resources and equipment must be password protected.
Company equipment may not be used for personal business.
All Windows-based PCs must run approved anti-virus and antispyware programs.
All servers and desktops should run host-based intrusion detection software.
Clients may use the Secure FTP (SFTP) server to send or receive multimedia files, but under no circumstances should one client be able to view the files of any other client.
The mail server must be configured not to forward email that originated on the Internet.
Password aging must be enforced on all servers and desktops.
All server configurations must be readily available to rebuild a failed system.
Offsite backup is required, with 24/7 access to that location.
All employees will demonstrate they understand the security policy.
There will be a security officer who reports directly to the CEO of R&D Media, LLC.
Be sure that you capture the following information in your report:

List of mission critical applications, list of non-critical applications dropped
New technologies for Alternative Processing Sites are utilized
The needs of R&D Media, LLCs stakeholders are considered within the plan
A Plan for updating alternate processing site software during normal operation
Documentation showing a simple rack diagram and a network diagram
Network configuration info (IP, DNS, MX)
Power consumption estimates
Bandwidth estimates
Information security architecture (firewalls, VPNs)
Plan for cutting over to the alternate plan
Plan for cutting back to the main site (a.k.a. hand back)