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WASIKE IGNATIUS NYUKURI

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1. Ninety one business is planning to upgrade its server hardware to improve performance
and reliability. Analyze the steps and considerations involved in this hardware upgrade,
including budgeting, hardware selection and minimizing downtime.
a. Budgeting
In IT budgeting, we need to identify the existing equipment in a client server, plan hardware
refresh projects for each device and accounting for new hardware needs. It should be noted
that the main objective of developing an information technology server upgrade budget is
planning for expenditures in advance and ensuring that projects being approved meet the
current needs of the business. In upgrading server hardware, new equipment is always
preferred since it always comes with hardware warranty, dealer support at the time of
purchase. Purchasing new equipment will also minimize the risk associated with second hand
market devices. Therefore the company need to have a clear budgeting process in place for
timely procurement of server hardware covering key costs such as initial cost, server
installation and configuration, cost of useful warranty, the price of maintenance and the cost
of replacement.
b. Hardware selection.
When selecting hardware for server upgrade, the key emphasis should be placed upon the
current and future business needs. This enables the business to choose from a wide range of
server hardware configurations which include, but not limited to adequate memory, processor
and network resources, server form factor, power and cooling components, expandability etc.
c. Minimizing downtime.
in many scenarios , you might find yourself with a server that is running out of storage disk
space or hardware resources but the operating system might just be working well. To do a
hardware upgrade and at the same time minimizing downtime’s , we need to shut down the
server during off-peak hours, upgrade the server to all new server hardware and have the
server in production during peak hours. All this is done without have to touch every client
computer. It should be noted that since office down time is expensive, we minimize it by
performing standard hardware upgrades.
2. Mount Kenya University is planning to expand its data center due to increased data storage
and processing demands. Analyze the hardware and software considerations such as server
racks, cooling systems and power requirements, operating system, network, ISP and
propose a plan for the expansion.
A data center is a facility that is dedicated to providing uninterrupted service to business
critical processing operations. Features of data centers are ;

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 All time availability throughout the year.
 Failsafe reliability and continuous monitoring.
 Power management and network communication, redundancy and path diversity.
 Network security, physical access control and video surveillance.
 Zoned environmental control.
 Fire suppression and early warning smoke detection system.
Hardware and software considerations when expanding data centers include; servers
racks, cooling systems, power requirements, operating system, network and internet
service providers.
Server racks: data centers employ a wide variety od racks, enclosures and pathway
products such as cable trays and ladder racking. Such facilities must all support key
areas, which include climate control i.e. cooling and humidity, power management,
cable management, security and monitoring etc. configurations vary between internet
data center and corporate data center models. Racks and cabinets must often meet
seismic requirements, load bearing and server depth specifications.
Cooling systems: The increase and acceptance of blade servers has created a
challenge to provide adequate cooling for high density equipment cabinets. Due to
high density of servers, power consumption is have been very high, leading to
emission of a lot of heat equivalent to power consumed. To solve this problem
manufacturers have introduced cabinet designs that address cable management and
heat dissipation. Along with the new thermal sensitive cabinet designs, work is being
done to enhance cooling capabilities of new and existing data center air conditioning
system. To gain control of excess heat, according to standard practice, is to
reconfigure the cabinet layout into a hot aisle and cold aisle arrangement. According
to the ANSI/TIA-942 data center standard, when a raised floor is used to provide
equipment cooling for the data center, the minimum aisle width should be at least 3ft.
Cold aisle are usually 4ft wide to allow for two fully operated floor tiles in front of
cabinets with active components, while hot aisles should be wide enough to allow for
unrestricted access to data and power cabling. To ensure sufficient cooling,
installation of air dams in the front of the cabinet is recommended to block hot air
from sipping around the sides of the mounted components and mixing with cool
intake air.

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 Perforated tile Perforated tile

Telecom
Telecom cable
Power cables cable
trays Power cables
trays

Power requirements: