Objective 1: Analyze the business needs of an organization while applying appropriate tools and frameworks to create solutions.
Objective 2: Develop cloud infrastructure using appropriate orchestration tools that focus on emphasizing the best benefits of remote infrastructure.
Objective 3: Integrate software development frameworks designed to exploit the horizontal scaling of cloud computing.
Objective 4: Develop communication skills that facilitate the understanding of complex technology-related topics by laymen, as well as being able to provide technical writing when appropriate.
Objective 5: Design communications environments that incorporate all facets of enterprise needs to include traditional networking but also account for needs and security within IoT, mobile devices, and integration of non-enterprise-owned devices.
Objective 6: Develop all solutions with a security-first attitude while using best practices such as test-driven development.
Objective 1: Analyze the business needs of an organization while applying appropriate tools and frameworks to create solutions.
NTS435: An implementation plan for a mock problem that utilizes the NIST framework FIPS-191.
Frameworks are often used in the industry to stay on track when solving problems. In this case, the FIPS-191 framework published by NIST is used in a plan to strengthen an organization's security when a potential risk of a data breach is presented. The main focus of the plan is the configuring of encryption for servers that hold sensitive data.
NTW275: A document that performs a risk assessment for a given organization's environment.
For this assignment, details were given for an insurance organization's network environment, including their servers, clients, printers, and amount of employees. This assignment aimed to identify possible risks and implement changes while allowing the organization to still function as intended, such as updating outdated servers and splitting up the network with the use of VLANS.
Objective 2: Develop cloud infrastructure using appropriate orchestration tools that focus on emphasizing the best benefits of remote infrastructure.
NTW440: A document that details the use of cloud services to recover lost data for a given environment as part of a larger plan for business continuity and disaster recovery. The full BCDR plan can be viewed here.
As this assignment is mostly a 'plan', there were no tangible configurations made for cloud infrastructure, but it does go in-depth about what would need to be done should it be needed for real world use. The assignment goes over: the specific cloud solution/infrastructure used, the types of data backed up using this infrastructure, how the initial transfer would be done, and how often backups would be performed.
NTS336: A document that describes the steps taken to configure and deploy an EC2 instance in AWS.
EC2 is one of the many services provided by AWS, and is arguably the backbone of most 'cloud computing' done using AWS. Essentially, EC2 instances are personal systems that are setup and, much like regular systems, can have numerous applications and services installed to perform functions from the cloud. This assignment goes over the initial setup of an EC2 instance and the configuration of its 'session manager', which allows users to access the system directly from the AWS browser interface.
Objective 3: Integrate software development frameworks designed to exploit the horizontal scaling of cloud computing.
NTS336: A document that describes the steps taken to configure a CI/CD pipeline in AWS using CodeBuild and CodePipeline.
A CI/CD (Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment) pipeline is often used in software development to streamline the development process in a DevOps environment: code building, testing, merging with repositories, and then deploying to production. In this case, AWS provides a CI/CD pipeline service that operates entirely in the cloud, which the assignment goes over configuring and testing. It should be noted that AWS no longer provides their repository service CodeCommit to new members, so a different provider needed to be used to source the code repository while the rest of the pipeline uses AWS.
NTW216: A short document that demonstrates the usage of Docker in Windows PowerShell by creating a Docker image and pushing it to a repository.
Docker is a service that allows users to upload their own scripts/applications to repositories, where other users can pull these applications and use them in virtualized packages called containers. Docker is often used in servers that need to run specific applications. Since Docker containers are virtualized and contain everything needed to run a software package, they can be used on many different operating systems. They're also much more efficient than virtual machines. The assignment here showcases using Docker from PowerShell on a Windows server by creating an image that runs a Windows command, and then uploading that image to a Docker repository for others to use.
Objective 4: Develop communication skills that facilitate the understanding of complex technology-related topics by laymen, as well as being able to provide technical writing when appropriate.
NTW102: An overview of the different types of physical network topologies.
A network topology is meant to show the arrangement of different network components, and how data travels through them. This assignment goes over some common types of topologies, and tries to explain how data moves in an easily understandable way, with an associated image for each one.
NTW216: A document that discusses the different options for Windows domain environments that Microsoft provides, and weighs their benefits.
For Windows domains, there's 3 main choices for the type of environment: on-premise, hybrid, and cloud. This assignment tries to go over each of these 3 options, and explains what service Microsoft provides for the environment type, and how the environment type differs from the others.
Objective 5: Design communications environments that incorporate all facets of enterprise needs to include traditional networking but also account for needs and security within IoT, mobile devices, and integration of non-enterprise-owned devices.
NTW216: A presentation that shows the network topology of an organization that operates in two locations, with additional screenshots of some Active Directory configurations.
For this assignment, we were given some parameters for an organization's 2 locations, and tasked with designing their networks from the ground up, as well as configuring the services that the networks would need using Active Directory. In the assignment, each network is designed to handle all of the employees' clients, as well as VoIP phones and personal/guest devices, and the subnets are split up for each of these devices appropriately. Each network also has their own servers should the link between the 2 sites go offline, and the specific configurations of these servers are shown in the assignment using Active Directory.
NTW440: A document that contains the network topology for a mock organization as part of a larger plan for business continuity and disaster recovery. The full BCDR plan can be viewed here.
Similar to the last assignment, a network was designed for a given environment to handle a set amount of employees, the devices they need to perform their tasks, and the servers that the network would need to operate. The subnets for this network are also split up based on the device and their function.
Objective 6: Develop all solutions with a security-first attitude while using best practices such as test-driven development.
NTS201: A research paper that discusses three different security controls often used in network environments.
In this assignment, we had to choose 3 security controls that are utilized in data centers and perform research on both how those controls are implemented in environments, and why they are successful in maintaining security. The assignment here covers the 3 security controls: password management (minimum requirements and regular resetting), anti-virus software (scanning systems and updating 'dictionaries' so malware can be flagged appropriately with example providers), and intrusion detection systems (monitoring traffic on individual systems or across a whole network, and the different methods used to detect malicious traffic).
NTS103: A short checklist one can follow to harden a system that uses Windows 10.
System hardening is the process of reducing vulnerabilities for a given software or device. In this case, it's done on a typical desktop system running Windows 10. The checklist covers a handful of settings that one can easily replicate to harden their personal system, such as: disabling remote desktop access, disabling telemetry, properly configuring the Windows firewall and Windows Defender, and scheduling automatic system restore points.