Introduction
The 21st century has seen tremendous improvements in technology, making it the current leveraging factor in the completion age. Since websites provide a way through which most businesses sell their brands it is only prudent that they embrace internal hosting as it enables direct oversight as well as control while guaranteeing maximum reliability especially when everything is properly set up and maintained. In this paper, I aim to address the dynamics that is associated with website migration mainly using the SDLC in the implementation of the project.
Building the Web Architecture
Since the company already has a running website, then the first thing to do will be to try and decipher the technology aspect which was not desired in the first site. Moreover, the technical skills that are required to run the new website successfully should be established beforehand to avoid negating the steps made. Training of the IT staff might be necessary as well as additional resources which will have to be incurred to make this project successful.
Consequently, it should be noted that this process is a tedious one and will require immense business investments. Additionally, the computer system field has been marred with various standards that ensure efficient delivery of technology projects. It is in this regard that it will be important for them to follow the SLDC cycle (Lewis, 2008). It involves a series of steps that is addressed in this paper.
The first step will be dealing with system investigation. In this step, feasibility study is conducted to determine the probability of the project being successful, that is, whether the system will be build, the cost and benefits are analyzed and whether the website will be consented by the users
The second step involves conducting feasibility study to ascertain the workability of this project. It will involve quantifying the benefits and costs so as management can make an informed decision based on these facts. Similarly, the project team should be able to compare alternatives to find out the cost benefit analysis of one methodology compared to another in the execution of this project.
The third phase will encompass examining the current site. This is basically to ascertain the business problem that the company is attempting to solve. This will be accomplished by studying the strengths and weaknesses of the current website as well as the requirements for the current website. It is also in this phase that the initial user requirements with the end user are established by examining the organizational problems that the company is planning to address with the system (Lewis, 2008).
The next step in the SDLC will be on designing the website by describing what the new site will be addressing the requirements identified earlier. This step also tries to show the technical design in the form of the outputs and inputs as well as interfaces. The hardware and software's together with the personnel is defined at this stage.
At this stage, the website is tested to ascertain whether what was planned in the analysis and design phases is performing as expected. It might take two dimensions to achieve the correct results that are either a black-box or white-box testing which tries to test the extreme ends of the data entered. The next step will involve implementation where the old website will be phased out as the new one takes over.
The last phase is concerned with the operating nature of the website. It is at this stage that the site is optimized to perform as expected. Functionality maintenance will occasionally be done to fine tune the system to work as expected (Rozanski & Woods, 2011). This is an effort to protect the company website from being obsolete. Technical support will also be enhanced at this stage.
Migration with minimal downtime
The technological system is assessed based on its ability to be available all the time. In an effort to reduce downtimes during this migration then it is prudent that the company takes stringent measures to minimize this impact. There are a series of steps that the company can take in this effort.
The first step will involve displaying a sorry note on the website explaining why the system is down when customers try to access the page and assure them that they will be back online while also apologizing for any inconveniences caused. Similarly, the exercise can be done by tampering with the DNS of the company. The TTL should be set to maybe 1 hour before migration. This is in an effort to ensure that the IP addresses and site data are transferred to the new location in a swift manner.
Consequently, database relocation should be done when the website is not accessible. This will be safe as there will be no much impact on the data possessed by the organization. Moreover, the TTL on the DNS server should be done some day after the migration as doing it immediately will generate traffic to the new website to a level which can be undesired.
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery should be the core of every information system. In this regard, the system admin should at various intervals back up the data on the website to a different location. This will ensure that in the case of an emergency the website can be restored to its initially backed up point. Similarly, a copy of the website can be kept at a safe place such that when the running of the website is compromised, then it can be restored with minimal effort.
Disaster recovery plans should be at the center of the business operations. The IT department should laisse with management in the preparation of this crucial document. A good security policy should be developed to show how the various incidences that will occur in the company will be handled. Incident handling will help in the formation of an incident response team that will be able to act swiftly in the event the website and the systems is down. Understanding this will enable the company to ensure smooth recovery.
Justifying the operating system choice
The Linux Operating System will be used for the development of the website system infrastructure; this is because this OS is both a costless software and no cost would be assorted with its launch. Linux is a stable OS as it suffers fewer downtimes as the software is secure and powerful. Moreover, the operating system can be fine-tuned to meet the organizational specific needs which will provide an automated backup system for file and another resource. It is also one of the most secure OS available given its open source nature and contribution by the Linux open source community towards bettering the software.
Databases play an important role in the effective running of computer systems and applications. In this case, Tony’s company should use SQL Server 2012 as it will enable fully take advantage of the huge opportunities that comes with this infrastructure. One of the benefits is that it will provide an exhaustive platform that provides business intelligence that is crucial for the effective running of the company. Moreover, it will provide a secure platform through which business transactions can be done.
Evaluation of the alternatives to the company self-hosting the site
In a situation where the company possesses its servers and infrastructure to host its web content, then the company is termed as self-hosting plan. The company shoulders all the cost that is associated with the self-hosting especially on the bandwidth and operational cost. There exist several alternatives to self-hosting which is addressed in this section.
One is the dynamic DNS where the logical address changes regularly every time it tries to connect. This feature will help keep the domain name and other relevant details guided to the IP address. The primary advantage of this is that there will be no need to invest in static logical addresses.
Consequently, reverse proxy is another alternative which to a large extent eliminates the drawbacks of dynamic DNS. This will enable the organization to maintain an updated mapping of the PC’s and their respective domain names. This solution will not work in the current network as currently designed as the PC’s in this enterprise infrastructure is situated behind the NAT thus the organization will be forced to position a port forwarding design. This will mean huge investments on the IT infrastructure.
System architecture to be used
Linus based system architecture will be used this is because Linux is both a free software and no cost would be associated with its implementation. This architecture also suffers from minimal hardware malfunction ensuring maximum reliability
Illustration of the system architecture using Visio
Use case for the system
The following is the use case of how the new website will be servicing the customers’ requirements. A brief explanation is given below
Use case description
Description: Use case on how a customer can order a bag of chips online
Actor: Customer
Triggering event: The customer visits the site
Precondition: The user knows how to navigate the site menu
Basic flow
Customer logs into the site
Customer views the items displayed
Customer makes selection on the chips
He/she chooses the mode of payment
Enters shipping information
Confirms order and submits the choices
The system processes the systems
Shipping department is notified
Alternatives
Chips not available
Makes another selection
Preconditions
Customer needs a bag of chips
Post-condition
The bag of chips is delivered
Assumptions
Technical support procedures
As noted earlier, it is critical that the company establishes beforehand whether they have the necessary skills to operate this type of hosting plan. The company will incur costs on training as well as regular maintenance of the hosting infrastructure and application. Close monitoring of the system should be done to find out if it is working as planned.
Training will encompass furnishing the IT staff with the required skills to run the new hosting program. This training will be able to equip them with the necessary skills to securely and efficiently run the system. Similarly, application and system infrastructure ought to be done to ensure the website is running normally. The server hardware and the backup protocols should be routinely updated in an effort to prevent technological obsolescence. Backup plans should be adequately maintained as the staff with technical skills to handle Linux OS are sought to help in running the systems efficiently.
New site evaluation metrics
Evaluation metrics are a key factor in an effort to determine the success of a project. It is important that we establish a SWOT analysis table that will be able to fully study this site in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, the opportunities presented as well as the threats presented. The strength will be about the number of customers that the business will attract. This will, in turn, improve the consumer loyalty base in the market. Weaknesses of this site should be looked at from a perspective where the company is losing customers as a result of the new site. The opportunities will be in terms of further improvements to take advantage of the new technology that will come up as the website operates. Lastly, threats will be imminent in this system. Examples include hacking and down times which can badly damage the image of the company.
Evaluation of the Project Success
Every project undertaken will yield different results at the end of the project lifetime. It is important that at the end of the project lifetime, the company is able to ascertain the success of this project. The company should employ the services of traffic generated, bounce rate and conversion rate as the success metric. Traffic will be about the number of clicks the website is getting as well as the number of visitors visiting the site. The higher the number then the higher the success rate.
Moreover, bouncing rate will to some extent ascertain the success rate. This is the number of visitors that are leaving the site. A high bounce rate will indicate laxity on the search engine optimization. Similarly, the conversion rate will help the company in finding out the number of visitors who buy the products offered. A high conversion rate will mean a good customer satisfaction which will mean the intended purpose is achieved, and the project is successful.
References
Rozanski, N., & Woods, E. (2011). Software systems architecture: Working with stakeholders
using viewpoints and perspectives. Boston, Mass: Addison-Wesley.
Lewis, J. (2008). SDLC 100 success secrets: Software development life cycle (SDLC) 100 most
asked questions, SDLC methodologies, tools, process and business models. United States?
J. Lewis.
