Date of Award

8-2021

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems and Technology

Department

Information and Decision Sciences

First Reader/Committee Chair

Conrad Shayo (PhD)

Abstract

This project introduces a business problem in which a water utility company – known as H2O District – was forced to discover and implement a solution that would enable the IT Department to effectively manage and secure their endpoints in a telework environment. Typically, an endpoint is defined as any device that is physically connected to a network. For the purposes of this project, the endpoints that the IT Department was concerned with consisted of Windows 10 PC’s, Laptops, and Apple iOS devices that employees use to access company resources while working outside of the corporate network. To properly manage endpoints, the IT Department was focused on being able to carry out their responsibilities for providing software deployments, software updates, operating system support, and remote support or troubleshooting. Regarding the security of their endpoints, the IT Department was concerned with being able to properly ensure endpoint compliance and provide adequate threat protection.

Ultimately a decision was made to utilize various cloud services from Microsoft to assist the IT Department with carrying out their responsibilities in the new telework environment. The project analyzed the cloud technology used, e.g., Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Endpoint Manager, a Cloud Management Gateway, Intune, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint; and examined some of the current on-premises infrastructure technology such as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, Active Directory, VPN, and Group Policy. The project also documented the implementation steps for configuring the cloud services and onboarding the endpoints to be properly managed and secured.

The contribution of this project is: (i) to show how the H2O district examined the H2O district’s current infrastructure, (ii) identified any shortcomings with their current technological solutions, (iii) developed an understanding of the IT Departments service level agreements, and (iv) ultimately created a solution that allowed H2O to carry out its core responsibilities in the new telework environment. The project proved successful upon implementation and the IT Department was able to gain significant benefits by migrating some of their workloads to the cloud. The project also reports on some of the potential challenges the organization may face. Those include keeping up with the growing trend in hybrid remote work, managing the flow of information, and establishing zero trust. The solution implemented in this project can serve as an example for IT Departments facing similar challenges; namely, effectively managing and securing their endpoints in a telework environment.

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