Upgrading All Client Machines to Windows 7 - Assignment Example

Upgrading All Client Machines to Windows 7 COMPANY OVERVIEW The company under discussion is a giant mall that encompasses numerous famous brands’ outlets into it. The Al-Manar Mall, located in the heart of the Dubai Marina the mall is spread over about 130 outlets each one of which has a class of their own. Designed keeping the convenience and luxury of consumers at first priority, the mall proudly fashions the most popular brands within it. It is spread over a substantial land of 390,000 sq. ft. It is even linked to a 5 star Hotel in order to enable international buyers to have the luxury of a shopper’s paradise right next door. PROJECT REQUIREMENT/ AIM OF THE PROJECT The ever evolving technological advancements and ever growing needs of customers, along with the increasing popularity of new emerging brands the management of the ever –famous Al-Manar Mall decided to review the IT services that were being rendered throughout its entire arena. It was not possible to ensure optimization within the Mall’s processing of tasks if the renovation of the IT related systems was not prioritized and was neglected. The review committee was set up that evaluated the technological amendments required. It was assessed that the most foremost need of the hour was to equip all the computer systems running within the mall with the very latest, up to date and prevalent operating system of windows 7. The reasons behind the decision of conducting a windows 7 up-gradation were numerous. They can be assessed initially by evaluating the drawbacks of the Windows XP operating system that was then prevalent within the IT systems of the mall. SHORTCOMINGS AND DEFICIENCIES OF WINDOWS XP. 1. Security loopholes 2. Unstable and often crashed if multiprocessing was attempted. 3. Had many bugs. 4. The operating system was cumbersome on Hardware. 5. Parallel ports were not detected in it. 6. The worst feature was that since it was equipped with a single user license, its licensed copies could not be uploaded on multiple PCs. 7. Built in chipset drivers absent. 8. XP home edition devoid of encryption facility etc. 9. Declared obsolete by the manufacturer i.e. Microsoft. 10. Vendor support and maintenance discontinued. 11. Upgrades seized. 12. No support for new application development platforms. 13. Old Operating System architecture got overpowered by new machines. 14. No driver support for new hardware peripherals. All the above mentioned deficiencies often resulted in the inefficiency of the computer systems all over the mall. It was in order to avoid these inconveniences and in order to improve security of systems that they were sought to be upgraded to Windows 7 whose prominent features are highlighted below. PROMINENT FEATURES OF WINDOWS 7 AND OFFICE SUITE. They can be summarized as in the words of Preston Gralla (2009) in the following words: “The New Taskbar Jump Lists Aero Peek It’s just plain faster UAC is now usable Better Document Organization Better Search.” (Preston Gralla , 2009) The most stable operating system from Microsoft so far. Better mechanisms for resource optimization are used i.e. no as resource hungry as Vista (the predecessor). Full driver support for new hardware peripherals. Adaptive Graphical Interfaces. Upgrades available continuously. Better network management and connectivity. Accompanied with the latest Office Suite 2010.the benefits of which are: New, updated ribbon, Editing of multimedia more convenient and efficient. The slideshow can now be broadcasted within power point. Visually enhanced than the earlier version. Collaboration and communication about a document under editing procedure. More enhanced security settings. Presentation equipped with enhanced web videos embedded in them. PDF-Writer added as a built in module. Creation of better visuals and data insight possible. Document printing made simpler. Enhanced template bank. (Kumar, 2010) SCOPE OF THE PROJECT The head of system support and security Rafii Suleiman and IT Infrastructure supervisor Marim Rajab were the key personnel who decided to give a go to the transformation of systems to Windows 7. Thus, the current project was the task of replacing all the existing client systems with Widows 7 enabled clients. The scope of the project is spanned over all the 130 outlets within the mall as well as the control centre of the mall and its security rooms as well. All these systems need to be well connected together so that timely information can be processed via their network throughout all the four floors of the Mall and within each and every level of it in a run-time environment. This would fulfill the basic need of the security personnel as timely alarms would then be able to be triggered in case of any sudden emergency that may be unfavorable in nature. All the IT systems running within the Mall were required to be upgraded because any change on the server side would not have been able to produce optimized results unless the same changes were reflected on the client side as well. TIMELY MANAGEMENT of LARGE amounts of Data in order to cope up with the expanded needs was the most prioritized reason why system up-gradation was urgently required. Requirement Analysis and Gathering The proposed systems are supposed to be equipped with the following hardware specifications in order to be able to run windows 7 efficiently: PROCESSOR: 1 GHz or Faster. It may be 32x or 64x. RAM: 1 GB RAM 32 bit or 2 GB RAM 64 bit. HARD DISK: 16 GB available space on 32 bit hard dish, 20 GB available space on 64 bit hard disk. INTERNET ACCESS: Has to be attained separately. GRAPHICS CARD: Direct X9 Graphics Device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. USB SLOTS: BitLocker to go requires a USB Flash Drive. DVD/CD READER: Compatible Optical Drive Required. HARDWARE FOR TOUCH AND TABLET PCS: These require specific hardware. (Microsoft, 2011) PROSPECTIVE VENDORS/ FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS: Research and data acquisition done by the IT department under the supervision of Maryam Rajab, IT Supervisor, acquired the proposals of Windows 7 supporting hardware computer systems. The top three most competitive proposals were those put up by the following narrated vendors: No. Proposed Vendors Offering Windows 7 Compatible Systems. Name of MODEL Proposed Cost of 1 Complete Windows 7 Compatible Computer System. 1. Jumbo Electronics ENVY14-1188 AED 4999/- 2. Sharaf DG M SI AE 2070 AED 3599/- 3. PurpleLines.ae X83VB-X1 AED 2400/- The detailed product descriptions offered by each of the above vendors are stated as follows: JU MBO ELECTRONICS (ENVY14-1188) Processor: Intel Core i7-2670/6/500/1D/WIN7P  SHARAF DG (M SI AE 2070) Processor: Intel core i3-2100- 3.1 GHz RAM 4 GB Hard Disk: 500GB HDD 20inch + FREE Bit Defender Antivirus + FujiFilm Camera PURPLELINES.AE (X83VB-X1) Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz processor. RAM 4GB Hard Drive: 250 GB. Backup and Service Maintenance, Warranty Terms and Conditions, Packages being offered for maintenance and services, Overall user ratings and facilities incorporated within each system enable the selection of a single type of proposed system over the others. The initial proposed cost of the windows 7 compatible systems should be accompanied with the cost of the introductory workshops. These workshops are required to be conducted in order to introduce the compatibility of the existing application software with the new hardware and its compatible Operating Systems being implemented. PROPOSED TIMETABLE: NO. MODULE TIME DURATION 1. Completion of the request for proposal 2 Weeks 2. Identification of Vendors 1 Week 3. Evaluation and Selection 2 Weeks 4. Preparation of Final Recommendation Document 2 Weeks 5. Conduction of Introductory Workshops 1 Week. FOLLOWUP: The follow-up after the proposal of vendors would be the modules of evaluation and selection of vendors. This would lead to the final its implementation phase in which the acquisition of the hardware and its installation would take place. Each existing computer system within the 130 outlets of the mall would then be substituted with Windows 7 compatible systems. REFERENCES: Purplelines.ae.(2009) Pre Summer Offer. Retrieved from http://purplelines.ae/Products/morepromotions.aspx# Microsoft, Windows. (2011) Windows 7 System Requirements. Microsoft. Retrieved from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements Jumbo Electronics. (2011). HP-Laptop. Jumbo Electronics Dubai. Retrieved from http://www.jumbocorp.com/prd_details.asp?prdt=42247 Sharaf DG. (2009). Core i3 Desktop. Sharaf DG. Retrieved from http://www.sharafdg.com/shop/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=6111 The Gemini Geek. (2011). What are the disadvantages of Windows XP. Retrieved from http://www.thegeminigeek.com/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-windows-xp/ Kumar (10 June, 2010). MS Office 2010 vs MS Office 2007. Retrieved from http://itzkumar.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/ms-office-2010-vs-ms-office-2007/ Gralla, P. (13 August, 2009). Seven Reasons for Upgrading to Windows 7.Computer World. Retrieved from http://blogs.computerworld.com/14541/seven_reasons_for_upgrading_to_windows_7 Read More