Assignment: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

A risk management plan

describes the probability of damage or other negative consequences caused by external forces and the steps that can mitigate or reduce the effect on a service. Important information in a risk management plan includes a description of the risks, the cost of each risk, the likelihood of each risk, and the business continuity plans or disaster recovery plans that mitigate the risk from occurring (business continuity) or the rapid restoration of service (disaster recover). In this application, you will develop a risk management plan in anticipation of a disaster.

Choose an industry such as a public utility, higher education, retail, shipping, healthcare, or manufacturing. In a 2-3 page risk management plan, identify and analyze the potential consequences of three issues that might arise (e.g. natural disasters, or health crises such as H1N1) that would affect the ability of the company to provide its services. Recommend and rationalize the measures the company might initiate to avoid disruption of service and/or recover from a disruption of service. Consider the type of services and/or products provided, the relative location of the customers to the company, and other aspects that are unique to the industry segment.

Mobile Security Measures

Mobile devices are extremely popular. Smart phones, palmtops, and

tablet computers have flooded the market. They are being widely used all across the globe. Mobile devices offer many innovative features to enable mobile commerce; however, they also have led to a range of new security concerns.

Analyze mobile security threats and evaluate countermeasures.

Briefly describe your mobile device and another device currently on the market that uses a different OS. Explain the security vulnerabilities associated with each device. Explain the security solutions that would address the vulnerabilities. Finally, state which OS has more robust security and explain your reasoning.

The company that you are working for is considering buying another smaller firm. However, there is some business

analysis needed for your company to make its final decision about purchasing. Throughout this course, you will be working on creating the Business Strategy and Management Plan.

Choose an aspect of the IT industry that has not been previously used as an example in this course.

Note: The mobile phone industry was provided as an example in the video material and may not be used as the subject for this assignment.

Use Porter’s five forces to make a qualitative evaluation of the industry’s strategic position. Be sure to explain each of the five forces as well as explain how they relate to your chosen industry.

Remember to include the following elements (Porter’s five forces):

·        Threat of new entrants: Are new entrants being attracted to the market, and are there barriers to entry in the industry?

·        Threat of substitute products or services: Are there other products that could be alternatives to offerings in the chosen industry?

·        Bargaining power of customers: What degree of bargaining power do the buyers have in terms of putting the industry under pressure to provide more products or less cost?

·        Bargaining power of suppliers: What is the importance of raw materials, components, labor, and services that are required for the industry, and are there substitutes for those inputs? Discuss the possibility of switching suppliers, if necessary.

·        Intensity of competitive rivalry: Does the industry have a sustainable competitive advantage?

Understanding Technical Goals

To design a network,

you have to understand its technical goals. Very often it is not possible to meet all goals at the same time because of their conflicting features and requirements. Therefore, you need to understand the nature of each goal and make necessary tradeoffs to address your customers’ requirements. A network designer tries to achieve as many technical goals as possible. Within an organization’s overall technical goals for its network, there are elements that may have a higher business priority than others. Review the goals outlined in Chapter 2 of your reading for this week (scalability, availability, network performance, security, manageability, usability, adaptability, and affordability). Then, identify a business case of your choosing that requires the support of a network. This could be a scenario you’ve experienced in your professional life or one that you’ve read about in your resources or other research. In your post, consider the following:

• Briefly describe the network support requirements for your business case.
• Which two of the eight goals listed above are the most important in your scenario? Why?
• Which is the least important? Why?
• What are the most likely constraints in achieving your most important goals? What tradeoffs should you be prepared to make in order to achieve those goals?

Properly cite your sources according to APA guidelines.