An It Proposal for Network Management of the College of Computing and Information Sciences(Makerere University, Uganda)

AN IT marriage proposal FOR NETWORK MANAGEMENT OF THE COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SCIENCES(MAKERERE UNIVERSITY,UGANDA) Introduction The College of Computing and breeding Sciences (COCIS) Makerere University in Uganda was established on 13th December 2010. It is made up of the take aim of Computing and Informatics Technology (CIT) and the East African School of Library and Information Science (EASLIS). COCIS is one of the largest reckoning and ICT training, information science, look into and consultancy colleges in Africa.It cuts across as a world class College and has maintain its place as an icon of excellence on the continent. It is committed to delivering keen attends in the argona of Computing, Library, Records and Information Sciences and attracts both local and world(prenominal) students. COCIS boasts of the state of the art infrastructure including lecture theaters, giant computer laboratories, alter computer laboratories and a college library.The establish ed academic staff strength of the College is just about 300 teaching staff including 30 visiting and local professors. everyplace twenty of these staff members hold doctorate, with many others in advanced stages of end their PhD studies. This merger has seen a pool of resources and facilities wish computer laboratories, specialized laboratories, go for libraries, journals, cameras, and personnel both administrative and academic staff.To maximize productivity and efficiency, the college of computing and informatics technology(CoCIS) routinely relies on the mesh to support its operations ranging from E-learning activities on the E-Learning environment(Muele) to support services offered to students and staff ,services same(p) advance to wireless internet, addition to the internet through the Domain(CoCIS domain) The meshing topology used by the college is an wide star LAN that is used with net perish devices that filter frames or packets, like switches, and routers.This topo logy significantly reduces the traffic on the wires by sending packets hardly to the wires of the destination. This mesh is managed by just four people or staff. This communicate is too creation managed using tools like Nagios and solar winds for monitoring devices. Problems set affecting the communicate Insufficient resources Under this there is limited kind resources which include support staff and network administrators . there ar only four network administrators for the whole college of which some of the be incompetent or not always avail up to(p).Limited number of Computers, most of the computers in the labs at the college be dwindling in numbers repayable to technical problems, a few switches and insufficient number of Ethernet cables of which some dont work, one of the servers at Block A has issues and It has re anyy disrupted the network mainly during the access to the domain by the students. Low bandwidth The bandwidth that is provided for the college by the s ervice providers (UTL) is not luxuriant to put up for the students and staff that are the end users of the network.Delayed wait on delivery and network instability There is slow network connectivity in the labs and other areas of work in the college for example these days lecturers rarely access Muele(Makerere E-Learning environment) to upload Notes for students due to this problem. Network intrusion / unauthorized usage There is increased network access by unauthorized users on the Wireless network that increases the network traffic and hence slowing down of the network which deprives the rightful users who are the students of the college from fully utilizing this resource.Security issues The College faces guarantor problems which include theft of network devices like cables, mouse, keyboards et cetera. to a fault to note that much as there are stairs for security like cameras in some labs and strategic areas of the buildings, security men for the two blocks they are not eno ugh Proposed Solutions to the above mentioned Problems at CoCIS Network management being a complex and broad component in networking, it can be achieved through a number of networking frameworks.So we recommend that if this college can use the pursual approaches, its network management can be eased and improved tremendously. erroneousness management The college network administrator should be able to identify all the network faults like no corporation or slow connection , locate where the fault is ,restore the service ,identify the root cause of the fault and and then find a resolution for the problem. This can be make proactively or reactively. Hence the network down while is minimized highly. Configuration managementThe network administrators of the college should be able to capture network and system configuration information of all network elements. (local, remote, automated and manual) ,Map the network topology, Set up configuration parameters in management agents ,track a nd document what changes are made to the network, where they are made and why they are made , Identify where upgrades need to be made so as to manage the network efficiently as they curb problems of delayed Service delivery and network instability (physical and logical configuration).Accounting management Since there are limited resources like computers, human resources that is to say administrators of the network ,distribution of these resources can be done optimally and fairly on the college so as the network is managed well . This makes the most effective use of the systems available, minimizing the cost of operation. Security commission Security measures should be adopted so that the network is protected against unauthorized users, and physical or electronic sabotage hence mitigating issues of network intrusion.The security systems should also allow network administrators to control what each authorized student or staff can and cannot do with the system. Other security measure to adopt can be -Physical security This can be done by providing enough security cameras in all the labs and other areas in the buildings of Block A and Block B, locking the computer labs and mounting servers on cabinets or racks that have locks.Proposal to the top administrators to purchase enough Bandwidth to suit the evolution numbers of users at the college. If theres enough bandwidth provided, it will cater for the slow connections on the network as earlier indicated. Purchase of call for network equipments like extended servers, routers, better tools for monitoring the network should also be done to stabilize the network infrastructure. CONCLUSIONThe college of computing and information sciences involve to aim at putting the above mentioned measures into consideration and practice where practicable so as to enable full utilization of resources which minimizes redundant resources, gives high chance to students and staff to access resources on the network without inconvenie nces, quick service delivery for the students and staff will be guaranteed reducing on the downtime go through on a slower network and also curbing time delays in all the network operations.References CIS. (n. d) Retrieved from Cis. mak. ac. ughttp//cis. mak. ac. ug/about-cocis/history-a-facts/the-college. html Makerere E-learning Environment (n. d) Retrieved from Muele http//muele. mak. ac. ug/