MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2012)

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Browsing MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2012) by Author "Ateya, Ismail Lukandu"

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    A model for estimating network infrastructure costs : a case for all-fibre LAN networks
    Maina, Anthony Mbuki; Ateya, Ismail Lukandu
    The 21st century is an era that has been characterised by phenomenal growth in data rates at the local area network (intranet), extranet and the Internet.This trend has been pushed by the widespread deployment in organisations of “bandwidth-hungry” applications such as VoIP, security surveillance systems, video conferencing and streaming of multimedia content. Due to demand placed on network resources by these applications and services,physical layer cabling solutions have had to evolve to support faster, improved LAN technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet.Although new network architectures (such as Centralised Fibre networks) address current and long term demands of the modern networking environment, concerns have been raised about its cost viability. The key problem identified in this study was an inadequacy of suitable tools that aid decision making when estimating the cost of a network infrastructure project. Factors of importance in this regard were collected in a survey and used in development of a cost model. The model is aimed at being a tool to assist network planners in estimating LAN infrastructure costs. A network was designed based on two architectures – centralised fibre (allfibrenetwork) and hierarchical star (UTP for horizontal cabling and optical fibre for backbone cabling). Thereafter, cost of implementing these two architectures was calculated using the model. Based on the results computed from the cost model, the all-fibre network (centralised fibre architecture) was found to be more cost effective compared to the hierarchical star network
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    Adoption of ICT innovations for reduced TCO and overall capital expenditure
    Adongo, Mark; Ateya, Ismail Lukandu
    Compared to other industries, the pace of evolution in the field of Information Technology (IT) has been on an ever increasing upward trend for the last decade or more. This evolution can and has been witnessed both in the realms of hardware and software development, the advancements,bringing with them both positive benefits and negative effects. The benefits, in many instances do outweigh the negative effects particularly with regard to acquisition and operating cost, efficiency, effectiveness, resulting impact on end user processes and products, the list is endless. Surprisingly enough, the rate of adoption of these positive ICT innovations in the workplace and business workplace environment has not matched the rate at which the ICT industry has been churning the advancements. Much as the revolution has made it possible to deploy IT solutions at a lower cost, reducing by more than half each year for the same functionalities, statistics collected indicate that industry adoption has not matched the rate of innovation. This research sought to establish the factors that influence the adoption of ICT innovations; and hence propose a framework that can assist organizations match the rate of this evolution with an overall aim or reducing operational costs.A survey that was conducted across five local financial institutions indicated that most respondents felt and did concur with the fact that adoption of ICT innovations did indeed result into reduced total cost of ownership of IT. Results of the study also pointed to the factors that promote the adoption of ICT innovations in the financial institutions and from that, a framework for the adoption of ICT innovations was developed and validated.The framework, if applied in the manner proposed, would go a long way in assisting organizations continuously identify opportunities for reducing overall IT expenditure by embracing industry advancements in ICT that bring along these advantages.
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    Framework for adopting green IT in Kenya
    Kirimi, Onesmus Mburugu; Ateya, Ismail Lukandu
    Green IT, also known as green computing, is an umbrella term referring to environmentally sound information technologies and systems, applications, and practices. It refers to supporting business critical computing needs with least possible amount of power or sustainable computing. In Kenya, IT operations have a significant impact on the environment, and organizations have an obligation of minimizing the negatives environmental impact of their IT operations. However, Green IT adoption requires a holistic approach in order to benefit from Green IT initiatives and practices that are increasingly becoming a focus even to government regulators in the developing countries following the signage of the Kyoto protocol in 1997. Organizations lack the understanding of having a holistic and sustainable approach in providing their services while at the same time, being environmentally friendly as they execute their business processes and strategies. This has lead them to having a more keen interest on their bottom lines while forsaking their environmental obligations in a bid to build a sustainable future by embracing green computing initiatives in the core of their business models and strategies. This research gives a perspective to this crucial need and endeavor to provide a localized framework with relation to other frameworks done across the spectrum with similar objectives in a bid to guide organizations towards a greener sustainable future. It has been established evidently from the research that policy factors, attitude and top management support have significant impact on adoption of Green IT within organizations. Moreover, it is indisputable that technology infrastructure can facilitate Green IT initiatives, but it should not be seen as an absolute answer to Green IT adoption, since it is just a tool that drives the initiative. Hence all the critical factors discussed in the validated framework in the research are interdependent and determines the adoption of Green IT initiatives in organizations. In conclusion, it is clear that all IT service providers in the region have a moral and environmental obligation to adopt new innovative Green IT approaches to stimulate the industry to not only become contributors to emission of green house gasses, but to also lead in providing localized solutions that can have impact in a achieving a sustainable environmental future.