Scribd
Upload
18 views4 pages

ICT171 Assignment (2parts)

The assignment consists of two parts: a project proposal for a cloud-based server and a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) presentation. Students must demonstrate their understanding of server environments by comparing IaaS options with other hosting solutions, while also showcasing their ability to communicate effectively in a professional setting. The final submission includes a document with an IP address linking to the project and a PowerPoint presentation for in-class delivery.

Uploaded by

0scar Sula
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
18 views4 pages

ICT171 Assignment (2parts)

The assignment consists of two parts: a project proposal for a cloud-based server and a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) presentation. Students must demonstrate their understanding of server environments by comparing IaaS options with other hosting solutions, while also showcasing their ability to communicate effectively in a professional setting. The final submission includes a document with an IP address linking to the project and a PowerPoint presentation for in-class delivery.

Uploaded by

0scar Sula
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Project Proposal and Total Cost of Ownership

Presentation
ICT171 Assignment 1 - 2025

This assignment consists of two parts. The first part is demonstrating that you have made a start on, and thought
about, Assignment 2 - The Cloud Project. The second part is a Total Cost of Ownership presentation, demonstrating
that you can do the basic mechanics of a TCO again have put some thoughts into costs and benefits of different
approaches when creating Assignment 2 - The Cloud Project. Note that the Project Proposal will be graded on your
website, running in the cloud, and has a 400-word limit. The total cost of ownership presentation will be done live and
in class and you will have no more than 5 minutes to present.

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this assessment, you will be demonstrating the following learning outcomes:

• Develop proficiency with the Linux and Windows Command line environment
• Implement servers and applications using physical and virtualised infrastructure and compare them with a
Total Cost of Ownership approach
• Install and configure a Windows or Linux server.
• Maintain a desktop and virtualised computing environment
• Develop the ability perform a presentation
• Configure and implement an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) server in the cloud

Cloud Project Proposal


The document you submit to LMS should contain an IP address. This IP address should point to your server running
in the cloud. For now, this should be a basic website running on top of Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Digital Ocean or
another IaaS cloud provider. You should write some basic HTML code on this site, including your student number. On
this page, we are also expecting a 300-word description of your proposed project and a 100-word rationale for the
license that you have chosen alongside the correct markings of your license.

Total Cost of Ownership Presentation - The preamble


The focus of this unit is centred around Internet servers, and you are being trained to be builders of the Internet. You
are being taught how to put together secure internet services in a local environment, such as a company data centre,
or using cloud based services on the Internet. Each approach has a range of advantages and disadvantages.
As an IT professional, you will be asked to justify any approach taken. Many organisations have been tackling whether
they should move services to the cloud, or more specifically, what should be moved to the cloud and what should
remain in house.
Choosing to host servers in the cloud or in local physical premises is not binary. Some servers could run locally and
some in the cloud. To make everything more complex, choosing whether to run a service in the cloud or locally on
premises is not always clear cut. An organisation may:

• Run their own data centre


• Rent rackspace in a collocated data centre providing the hardware but leaving the networking, power, and
cooling to another party
• Use IaaS such as Amazon EC2 or Microsoft Azure, where someone provides the hardware and maintenance
but leaves the system to be setup and configured by the organisation’s IT team

Unit Code: ICT171 Introduction to Server Environments and Architectures Page 1 of 4


• Use Software as a Service such as a webhosting company https://www.bluehost.com/, https://www.wix.com,
https://www.squarespace.com
This preamble to the assignment has been written so that you understand why you are learning server and cloud skills
alongside a rationale and total cost of ownership. If you manage IT for any company, then these are skills and ways of
thinking that you will need to have.

The Assignment Description


The project that you will build for Assignment 2 - The Cloud Project, must use IaaS within Amazon EC2, Microsoft
Azure or Digital Ocean. We are requiring that you use IaaS because you are being taught the fundamentals of how
servers work, even if this is not the most efficient or expedient way to accomplish your proposed task of a blog,
website et cetera.
Based on your planned server, for the cloud server project, I would like you to turn your critical eye onto whether IaaS
is necessary or is really the best option. This will look different for every student as it will change based on what your
project is.
If your proposed services exist as SaaS, you should write a TCO comparing the IaaS and SaaS solutions for your
proposed server and use. If there are no SaaS services for your planned use case, I would like you to compare the
use of IaaS with rented rack space or a self-run data centre.
Your comparison should break down the costs in a total cost of ownership table. I would also like you to thoroughly
discuss the non-monetary differences between the different approaches.
For the Total Cost of Ownership Presentation, I would target one slide per minute. If you have 5 minutes to present:

• Slide 1: What is your project?


• Slide 2: What is the total cost of ownership in Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Digital Ocean…
• Slide 3: What is the total cost of ownership in a relevant SaaS, rack space, or local data centre
• Slide 4: Any non monetary factors/preferencesm
• Slide 5: Conclusions and recommendations.
See the ICT171 unit guide for further information regarding general assessment procedures and policies.

Audience: Who is this Presentation for


As suggested above, IT staff are frequently asked to perform Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comparisons.
Management will frequently want different approaches, or ways of solving a problem, to be evaluated. Generally, you
would be writing/presenting a TCO to assist senior management with decision making. In this case you are an advisor
to management. The ability for you to execute on professional communications will have a big impact on your career
trajectory. You will need to be professional and communicate clearly, without getting stuck jargon in that will frustrate
management. Treat this exercise as practice for one of the many forms of professional communication that you will
need to execute on in your IT career. There is a lot of advice on how to give a good presentation. The following is my
guide: https://github.com/SCH-IT-MurdochUni/NetworkingLabs/blob/main/Reusable_Learning_Objects/presenting.md
As you become more senior you will likely get paid to generate more paperwork, present and manage staff. Therefore,
your long-term career progression may be limited or accelerated by your ability to communicate; use this as an
opportunity.

Unit Code: ICT171 Introduction to Server Environments and Architectures Page 2 of 4


Professional Communications
Please take every opportunity, to work on your ability to write and speak well. I will direct you to my own guides here:

• https://github.com/SCH-IT-
MurdochUni/NetworkingLabs/blob/main/Reusable_Learning_Objects/presenting.md
• https://github.com/SCH-IT-
MurdochUni/NetworkingLabs/blob/main/Reusable_Learning_Objects/presenting.md

This guide obviously makes use of many other resources but hopefully it sends you down the path of continuously
trying to improve your writing skills.

Referencing
You can use any referencing method you like: IEEE, APA et cetera. Just be consistent. Have a look at my referencing
guide: https://github.com/SCH-IT-
MurdochUni/NetworkingLabs/blob/main/Reusable_Learning_Objects/writing.md#how-to-reference-in-an-essay
You should specify any guides that you used to create your page or code that you borrowed. There is no objection to
adapting code that you find online, it is just important to be transparent about what you borrowed and what you
contributed.

Options
The goal is to permit students to engage with the material and meet the learning objectives of their assignment in the
manner of their choosing. Where possible, I would like to allow the maximum possible freedom for students, while still
delivering on the learning outcomes. The following are the options available in this assignment:
Your cloud server project proposal can be on anything that you like. Please pick a topic, website or type of server that
you would like to deliver on, but make sure you implement it with Infrastructure as a Service.
For the TCO, many students will compare IaaS with SaaS, but please don’t let this limit you. If it is more interesting to
compare IaaS with a PC in your house or rented rackspace then please do what is most meaningful to you and the
goals of your project.

Your submission
To conclude, you should submit a document, which contains the IP address of your cloud-based server. When visiting
this IP address your tutor should see a 300 word description of your proposed project and a 100 word rationale for the
license that you have chosen alongside the correct markings of your license.
Your will also submit some power point slides to a separate assignment dropbox. You will need to present in class
during your scheduled weekly workshop timeslot.

Assignment Marking Rubric


Your tutor will grade your assignment using marking rubrics published in LMS. Please take the time to familiarise
yourself with it, as it will give you a clearer understanding of our expectations. Note that although there are negative
points associated with submitting late or your online submission not being accessible when we check, it is not possible
to receive less than zero for this assessment.

Unit Code: ICT171 Introduction to Server Environments and Architectures Page 3 of 4


Submission Checklist:
• Project Proposal: A simple document with IP address at the top so that we can visit and grade your site.
Remember that your project proposal sit on your site. Make sure you leave your site up and running until we
have graded it and returned the marks.
• Total Cost of Ownership Presentation: PowerPoint slides submitted to the TCO Presentation Assignment
Dropbox

Unit Code: ICT171 Introduction to Server Environments and Architectures Page 4 of 4

You might also like