Chapter 2
The Requirements
This chapter describes the business and technical requirements for Telco’s Java ES deployment.
These requirements are one possible set of requirements for a medium-sized telecommunications service provider. These requirements might be similar to requirements developed by other telecommunications providers planning to deploy and use Java ES services. Compare the requirements information in this chapter with your own business requirements to determine points of similarity and points of difference, and to determine what aspects of the Telco deployment are applicable to your business requirements.
Capacity Requirements
Telco is a medium-sized telecommunications company that provides regional telecommunication services. Telco provides email and calendar services to three classes of users. The services available to each class of users and the approximate number of users in each class are listed in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1 Number of Users of Telco’s Services
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Service Class
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Services Provided
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Number of Users
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Internal User
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Email, calendar, and file access
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1,000
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Business User
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Email, calendar, and file access
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15,000
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Individual Consumer
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Email
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250,000-300,000
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The deployed system must be scalable to accommodate an increasing number of users. The growth rate for business users is expected to be 3-5% annually. The growth rate for consumer users is expected to be 7-10% annually.
Detailed Service Requirements
Telco offers mail, calender, and file access services to its customers. The detailed requirements for these services, which must be met by the Java ES deployment, are listed in Table 2-2:
Table 2-2 Detailed Service Requirements
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Service
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Requirements
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Email Service
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50MB default mailbox size
User-controlled ability to increase mailbox capacity to the system-wide maximum size (subject to limits based on users’s service class)
Attachments up to 15 MB allowed
Vacation message service
Forwarding service
A web browser-based client that provides the following features: send and receive mail, personal address books, group address books, spell check, message search, return receipts, multiple attachments, folder management, message signature, access to shared directory, change passwords
Multi-language viewing capacity, with the display language selectable by the user; languages to include English, French, and Spanish
Portal-based access to mail services (internal and business users only)
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Address Book Requirements
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The address book is completely integrated with the email and calendar features
Address books can be created for and shared by defined groups or special interest groups
User can resize column headings, to the extent of hiding and revealing columns
Address data can be imported from thick-client address mail clients and other software packages
User can print and export address book data
User can upload photographs of contacts to the address book
Customer can add customer-defined fields, display and sort the customer-defined fields
Customer can set up email lists dependent on administration rights
Customer can create mailing lists based on information in the user profile (for example, supply a department name and create a mailing list of all users in that department)
Portal based access
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Calendar Service (Available Only to Internal Users and Business Customers)
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Support for the user’s local time zone
Display the calendar by month, week or day
Summarize weekly and monthly calendars in easily printed formats
Set reminders for calendar events
Ability to share workgroup calendars
Organize multiple calendars within the user’s workgroup per user with various privacy options (for example, separate work and family calendars)
Group and resource scheduling, including the ability to invite other users to events, accept or decline invitations to events, designate events as either public or private, view available times for potential invitees, and view group schedules within the user’s assigned group
Ability to propose meeting options based on invitees schedules
Ability to schedule repeating meetings
Send meeting invitations by email that are localized to time zones, including multiple time zones for a single invitation
Meeting organizer can easily address memos to all invitees, invitees who have accepted the invitation, or invitees who have not responded to the invitation
Event notification, with notification delivered by email, pager, wireless, or SMS (short message service) device
Interoperable with approved desktop clients such as MS Outlook and selected mobile devices
Portal-based access
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File Access Service (available only to internal users and business customers)
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Web access to file systems
Drag and drop user interface
User can select multiple files and send these files in a single e-mail as multiple attachments.
User can delete and rename remote files
User can search for files and display the list in a separate window.
User can manage folders such as establish, delete, and assign folders rights to others in the same workgroup.
10MB shared storage per user in the customer group. This shared storage should be user-scalable to a preset default maximum.
Administrator or user defined shared folders
Administrator can limit the size of the upload
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Customer Usage Patterns
Based on experience, Telco expects their business customers to be most active during the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. working hours, although there will be some activity by business customers outside those hours.
Based on experience, Telco expects their residential customers to be most active during the evening hours, although there will be significant activity during daytime hours.
Availability Requirements
Telco requires that the Java ES deployment be highly available. They specify 99.995 availability.
Performance Requirements
Telco requires that the Java ES provide good response time. They specify 1-2 seconds response to a remotely installed thick client at peak load.
Serviceability Requirements
An important aspect of Telco’s Java ES deployment is that business customers be able to administer their own domains. An administrator at a business customer should be able to perform the system administration tasks listed in Table 2-3.
Table 2-3 Serviceability Requirements
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Serviceability Category
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Requirements
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Business Customer System Administration
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Provision account aliases and custom aliases, as permitted by domain or workgroup role
Add and delete users, increase mailbox size, change passwords, and other similar functions
Reroute mail from terminated or suspended accounts at the domain, delegate, and workgroup delegate levels
Create, modify, and delete domains
Create, modify, and delete mailing lists
Perform tiered or layered administration of the following
- User roles, groups, privileges, and access controls
- Web access to admin
- Single Sign On/Sign Off
- Display of services per user
- Migration tools/support
- Automatic settings for single or multiple customer users (privacy issues)
- Self up-selling – customer control for adjusting the tier of service at their domain
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Scalability Requirements
As described in Capacity Requirements, Telco expects their user base to grow. For various reasons, Telco has adopted a strategy of horizontal scalability, or adding more computers to the system as user activity increases. The architecture for Telco’s Java ES deployment must allow for horizontal scalability. The exact configuration of Java ES components that supports horizontal scalability will be developed when the deployment architecture is developed. For more information, see Planning for Scalability in the Architecture.
Security Requirements
Security is an important consideration for a system accessed by a large number of users over the public Internet. Telco has developed the security requirements listed in Table 2-4.
Table 2-4 Security Requirements
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Security Category
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Requirements
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Physical
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Must be in controlled environment conditions within a core computer room.
Must be housed within a secure data centre which includes:
- Only authorized personnel are allowed access. Authorized personnel will only be granted access after fingerprint screening is verified
- All authorized personnel have undergone a security scrutiny
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Firewall
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Must have redundant firewall protection, for example, Cyber Guard UNIX firewalls.
Provide secure transfer and storage of data.
Provide administrative options to customize security settings (explicit policy control).
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Transport
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Compatible with SSL-enabled web browsers and Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Provide 128-bit encryption for mail transfer between client and server.
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Virus and Spam Protection
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Provide Server Side Virus Scanning
Provide unrequested bulk email (UBE) control including the ability to add server side spam control with tiers of administration of the tool down to the user level
Provide the ability for the user to establish e-mail filters on the server based on sender, subject, etc.
Provide the ability for the user to choose all spam automatically deleted or quarantined by an administrator/user for a set period of time in a spam/junk mail folder. This folder would automatically empty at the administrator and/or user defined periods.
Provide the ability to have content filtering including the ability to add server side content filtering with tiers of administration of the toll down to the user level
Provide the ability to manage e-mail with white and black list functionality. White list functionality allows only selected senders to send e-mail, the remaining are filtered. Black list functionality disallows selected senders
Provide the ability for the user to establish individual or specific filters.
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Backup And Recovery
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All software and configuration will be backed up weekly or nightly incremental backups
The operating system will be backed up weekly
Backups will be stored for 2 weeks
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Disaster Recovery
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Provide a distributed architecture that will be housed in multiple data centers with failover capability
Provide for a 3 day recovery in a disaster situation
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Privacy
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All data must be stored in a manner that follows applicable regulations, Telco’s company security policies, and adheres to Telco’s privacy policy
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