Contents
Overview 1
Determining Current User Data Strategies 2
Determining the Organizational
Requirements 7
Categorizing User Data Management Needs 9
Identifying Available User Data
Management Options 15
Selecting Appropriate User Data Options 28
Lab A: Meeting User Data Management
Requirements 33
Review 40

Module 4: Designing a
User Data Management
Strategy
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
Determine the organizational requirements for user data.

Categorize user data management needs.

Identify available user data management options.

Select the appropriate options that would meet the organization’s needs.

Materials and Preparation
This section provides the materials and preparation tasks that you need to teach
this module.
Required Materials
To teach this module, you need the following materials:

Microsoft
®
PowerPoint
®
file 2410a_04.ppt

Module 4, “Designing a User Data Management Strategy”

Trainer Materials compact disc

Preparation Tasks
To prepare for this module:

Read all of the materials for this module.



Determining Current User Data Strategies
In this section, students learn how to gather the information that is required
for the analysis of the current user data management environment. In
addition, students learn how to assess the organization’s current methods
and technologies used for managing user data. Take the following actions:
• Emphasize that each user will have different types of information—each
group will have different amounts of office documents, e-mail, database
information, and data relating to custom applications. It is not always
easy to establish where the information resides and, perhaps more
importantly, what the impact would be if the information were lost or
damaged.
• Establish that a backup strategy is only as good as the recovery
procedures. There may be minimal gain in taking backups because
information is difficult to recover (for administrative or technical
reasons). Discuss anecdotal cases in which recovery procedures were
never tested, and when recovery was finally required, it was discovered
that backups had never been working.

Determining the Organizational Requirements
In this section, students learn how to identify the organization’s needs for
the management of user data and to address those needs in a plan for user
data management.
It is difficult to determine exact storage requirements. Recognize that
storage needs inevitably increase over time.

Categorizing User Data Management Needs
In this section, students learn how to classify users’ computing needs
according to job requirements and location. Students also determine how to
combine these categories with any organizational considerations to create

Lab Strategy
Use the following strategy to present this lab.
Lab A: Meeting User Data Management Requirements
The lab is designed to assist the student in applying the information presented
in this module. Students are expected to have:

Basic experience or knowledge of the Active Directory
™

directory service.

Basic experience or knowledge of Group Policy.

The knowledge and skills necessary to define and implement a user data
management plan.

The lab consists of three scenarios, each of which is based on a company that
requires facilities for user data management. In this lab, students review each
scenario and determine organizational requirements. They then use information
from the module to make a number of design decisions concerning the user data
management plan. Students are also asked to explain how they arrived at those
decisions.
To conduct this lab:

Read through the lab carefully, paying close attention to the instructions and
to the details of the scenario.

Divide the class into groups of two or more students.

Present the lab and make sure that students understand the instructions and

Selecting Appropriate User Data Options

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As the administrator or designer of your network, you must provide a plan for
the management of user data for the client computers on your network in the
overall Change and Configuration Management (CCM) infrastructure plan.
The management of user data in a Microsoft
®
Windows NT
®
version 4.0
network often involved no more than roaming profiles and home folders stored
on a network share. In a Microsoft Windows
®
2000 network, Microsoft
IntelliMirror
®
offers greater flexibility for user data management. A business
can ensure that important data is available to users, whether the user is
connected directly to the local area network (LAN), connected though a slow
link, or working remotely with no network connection.
In this module, you will examine the current user data management methods
and future requirements. After you assess these methods and needs, you will
identify the most appropriate technologies to address those needs and to include
in your user data management plan.
After completing this module, you will be able to:

Determining Current User Data Strategies

Determining Current User Data Environment

Determining Current User Data Management Methods
Data
Users
Users

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To create the user data management plan, you must assess and analyze the
existing methods and management strategies for your users’ data.
In this section, you will learn how to gather the information required for the
analysis of the current user data management environment. In addition, you will
learn how to determine the organization’s current methods and technologies
used for managing users’ data.
Topic Objective
To identify the steps
required to determine the
organization’s current user
data management
environment.
Lead-in
It is important to determine
your existing environment to
identify where and how

What Is the Current Use of Roaming Data?
What Is the Current Use of Roaming Data?
Personal data
Personal business data
Shared business data

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Before you can implement a user data management plan, you must be aware of
the current user data environment. Document this information clearly so that
you can reference it at crucial decision points during the implementation of
your CCM infrastructure plan.
For your plan, you need to be aware of the current data storage characteristics.
Consider the following issues when documenting your plan for managing users’
data:

What is user data?
User data is data that is created and used by a user and not shared between
other users. Word processing documents or spreadsheets are good examples
of user data. User data is stored independently on the user’s local hard disk
or on a network share that belongs specifically to that user.
An example of data entered by a user that is not considered user data would
be data that a user enters into a database. This kind of data is entered by a
user but does not belong to that user.

Which user data is currently stored?
You must determine the type of information that users store and the amount

You must identify whether you have any users who need access to their data
while disconnected from the network. You must assess whether and in what
way you currently support this capability.

What is the current use of roaming data?
You need to be aware of any requirement for data to roam with users and to
follow them from one workstation to another. This is common practice
when users either move between multiple client computers in their
department or regularly travel from one office location to another.

Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy 5 Determining Current User Data Management Methods

Current Data Storage Technologies Used

Roaming profiles, network-based home folders
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Current Backup Methods for User Data

How, frequency, by whom?

Current Data Recovery Procedures

How is data protected and where is it stored?

Current Data Security Procedures

Security and privacy of confidential data

What are the current data recovery procedures?
You must identify how you provide data protection to your users to ensure
that important data is available to them whenever they need it. This might
involve the use of data replication technologies to make copies of data and
to store them on a network resource.
Topic Objective
To determine the
organization’s current
methods and strategies for
user data management.
Lead-in
To create a successful user
data management strategy,
you must determine what
methods the organization
currently uses for managing
user data.
6 Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy 
What are the current data security procedures?
You must identify how the privacy and security of user data is ensured, to
protect against unauthorized access to, or tampering with, the data.

Are there any drawbacks with the current environment?
To understand how your new user data management plan will provide
benefits to your organization, you must be aware of the drawbacks of your
current methods and environment. These drawbacks might include the extra
time spent by your Information Technology (IT) staff ensuring that users’

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It is important to have a good understanding of the organization’s requirements
for the storage and management of its users’ data. From these business needs,
you can identify the benefits that Windows 2000 technologies can bring to the
organization.
In this section, you will learn how to identify the organization’s needs for the
management of user data so that you can address those needs in your CCM
infrastructure plan for user data management.
Identify User Data Needs
User data management requirements can be divided into four distinct areas:

Data accessibility. The requirement for data to follow a user, even when the
users work at different computers on the network.

Data availability. The requirement to ensure that data is always available to
users regardless of whether they are permanently connected to the network,
intermittently connected to the network, or disconnected from the network
for extended periods of time.

Data protection. The requirement to provide protection of your users’ data
by ensuring that it is regularly backed up, regardless of whether it is stored
locally or on the network.

Data security. The requirement to ensure the security of your users’ data
through the implementation of suitable mechanisms.

Topic Objective
To determine the
organization’s requirements
for user data management.


How much network storage space do users require?

Which users require extended network-based storage, and how much?

Do you want to provide any upper limits to these storage capabilities?

Do you have any needs for users to share some user data?

Do you require any of your users’ data to be backed up centrally to the
network?

Client Computer Storage
For your local storage requirements, you must identify the following:

How much local disk space will users require for their own working data?

Which users will require extended local storage space, and how much?

Do you want to provide any upper limits to these storage capabilities?

Do you require any users to back up their own data locally?

Do you want to prevent any users from saving data locally?

Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy 9 


Classifying users’ computing needs can be a three-step process. Categorize
users by their job requirements, further categorize users by their locations, and
then determine how to combine these categories with any organizational
considerations to create standard configurations.
To create a more highly managed environment, identify the services that
different users require from your organization. Although there are many ways
to categorize users, this section focuses on categorizing users by their need for
IT services and administration in relation to user data management.
Topic Objective
To provide a way to easily
categorize data
management needs by
different classifications.
Lead-in
To analyze your particular
user data management
needs, categorize your
workforce into distinct
worker types, by user
location or by the type of
computer the workers use.
10 Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy Categorizing Data Management Needs by Job Type
High-Performance Worker
High
High
-
-

-
Entry Worker
Entry Worker
•Bank tellers
•Data-entry personnel
•Factory line workers
•Bank tellers
•Data-entry personnel
•Factory line workers

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Several worker types can be used to describe the majority of job roles in most
organizations. Each worker has specific needs concerning data management.
Note that these types are considered as roles, for example, a high-performance
worker may also perform the tasks of a knowledge worker.
The following user data options are common for each type of user.
High-Performance Workers

Users store data on corporate servers, although they might also need access
to local storage on a disk for performance reasons. However, it is not usual
for local data to be backed up.

Users require permanent access to their data regardless of location.

Knowledge Workers


workforce into distinct
worker types.
Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy 11 Categorizing Data Management Needs by User Location
Stationary User
Roaming User
Mobile Worker
Remote User
Telecommuter

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Having categorized users according to their IT service requirements, the next
step is to identify the locations from which workers perform their tasks. You
can identify data management needs by using the following categories.
Note that location types are largely independent of worker types.
Stationary Users

Stationary users gain access to the corporate network through LAN links
and have relatively predictable work schedules.

They have permanent LAN connections and high-speed links to connect to
their data on local servers.

The nature and volume of their work is fairly predictable. Therefore, their

using dial-up connections, varying LAN connections, or across a wide area
network (WAN) link. Therefore, network services must be accessible at any
time.

They are often connected by slow or intermittent network links.

The bandwidth, quality, and consistency of their network connections are
highly variable.

They need to save data and settings locally (these may be synchronized to a
file server).

The availability of different types of services depends on whether the users
are connected to the corporate network and the speed and reliability of their
connections.

Remote Users

Remote users are often connected by slow or intermittent network links, but
they connect by using the same link each time.

They need access to the corporate network at their convenience. Therefore,
network services must be accessible at any time.

They need to save data and settings locally (these may not be synchronized
to a file server).

Module 4: Designing a User Data Management Strategy 13
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Can save data locally or on network servers.

Can be configured to allow users to disconnect from the network without
logging off or shutting down and synchronize data files automatically.

Lightly Managed

Users can customize most settings that affect them but are prevented from
making harmful system changes.

Users can log on to any computer and access their data.

User data is saved on server shares and is not stored locally.

Computers have features that reduce help-desk costs and user down time.

Topic Objective
To provide a way to easily
categorize data
management needs by the
role of the computers that
your users use.
Lead-in
To analyze your particular
user data management
needs, categorize your
workforce by the roles of the
computers they use.