Course Project

James Douglas

October 12, 2009

MIS-535-17435

Professor Nolan Johnson

Course Project

Table of Content

1. Abstract

2. Brief Company background

3. Discussion of business problem(s)

4. High level solution

5. Benefits of solving the problem

6. Business/technical approach

7. Business process changes

8. Technology or business practices used to augment the solution

9. Conclusions and overall recommendations

10. High-level implementation plan

11. Summary of project

References

Abstract

The world is changing daily and many companies are looking to develop ways to save on production and hardware. The idea of having a system that allows a company to store files away from the main server will help a company to store more and free space on the main server. As companies are using more and more technology, the hardware (servers and website space) and Infrastructure is having problems with available space to help free up hard drives and server space. Many computer owners have issues with trying to find a place to store files and other media. The idea is to allow one to place a file in a central location away from the main computer, or cloud storage.

A main server that is big enough to route files in it for storage can help a computer and website run faster. Just as an external hard drive can store data on it away from a computer to free up the main hard drive can help a computer run faster. Cloud storage operates in the same concept, instead of having a hard drive, there is a huge server with a lot of storage. In this paper, the company that I have chosen has issues with server space and need a newer solution to developing a better service to the company and its production facilities. I will explain what it will take to boost service speed and help the company to ship products out faster with just a solution in server space.

Brief Company background

Mimeo.com is an online printing company with advance technology that allows a customer to have a document printed and delivered overnight. Mimeo .com is an innovator of the online, on demand document printing and distribution. Mimeo is one of the first companies that print products and offer to have them delivered overnight. Mimeo print for many different companies of all structure sizes. Founded in 1998 as a technology company that prints, success started with the deployment of a cloud based model we call PaaS (Printing as a Service), which places direct access and control of the Mimeo.com solution into the hands of customers and partners. With an Internet based connection to an ever expanding set of capabilities, efficiencies are gained which make it un-necessary for customers to invest in digital print infrastructure and staff.

Today, Mimeo.com operates over 200,000 square feet of digital print capacity, across three strategically located facilities. Two of the three facilities were opened in the past 2 years. Our "open" architecture provides multiple ways for customers and partners to utilize the network as if it were their own. Services and solutions developed by a team of over 40 engineers are introduced monthly to ensure that new technologies are quickly integrated into the platform. Mimeo strives to push the envelope in the printing business. What makes Mimeo a certain giant is its guaranteed that if a customer place an order before daily cut off time can have their documents delivered overnight. We have one of the fastest turn around services in the country and stand on what we promise.

Discussion of business problem(s)

Mimeo is a world class printing company which has issues that will constrict their service with every customer. As an online printing company, timing is its strong point and service follows right after. The company has periods when the consumption of files are overwhelming. When business is booming, many companies decide to invest in our company to have their documents printed and shipped on time. The main issue is that when it is too much, our system slows down. As an employee of the company, I have seen the company go from being a small business to a company with three different facilities in different locations across the world. The issue that I have notice is Mimeo does not use technology such as cloud computing. With server slowing down, it causes work to slow down and sometime data becomes missing

Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities. (Knorr, Gruman) With cloud computing, the company can save on time with the system not becoming overwhelming. I have talked to people in the IT department and every six months they have to dump old files to free space on the main server. Because of this, sometimes the system, our production tools, slows down and causes a chain of decrease work. A lot of the time, the server has to be service because of the increase of files. Due to the fact that our facility is the hub or central located facility, our server is overwhelmed with many files.

High level solution

For some computer owners, finding enough storage space to hold all the data they've acquired is a real challenge. Some people invest in larger hard drives. Others prefer external storage devices like thumb drives or compact discs. Desperate computer owners might delete entire folders worth of old files in order to make space for new information. But some are choosing to rely on a growing trend: cloud storage. (Jonathan Strickland) With cloud storage, the files can be placed on a central server that will act as a central location for storage only. Cloud storage is like a having each facility's server and place them in one central location were the files can be stored and pulled. This will