This introductory course uses a layered methodology to teach the fundamental operation of a desktop computer. The first layer exposes the student to the operation of a simple microprocessor. There will be simple microprocessor programming exercises designed to complement instruction regarding the internal operations of the microprocessor. The student will learn to examine and manipulate the ways microprocessors work with other components in a computer. The next layer of instruction focuses on the primary components of a desktop computer. These components will include mother-boards, CPUs, memory, drives and interface devices. The next layer of instruction focuses on the installation and configuration of primary components in support of various end-user applications. This layer will also examine the use of supporting software, maintenance plans and provide an introduction to disaster recovery. Particular emphasis will be placed on the energy profiles of desktop and laptop computers as well as the rapidly emerging "smart devices". This will be supplemented with information regarding the latest developments from the manufacturers regarding technology designed to reduce the energy profiles of computing technology. Instruction for this course will be lecture based and supplemented with hands-on lab exercises.

This course introduces basic concepts involved in the electronic transmission of data from one computer system to another utilizing local and wide area networks. The major types of network topologies, protocols, and infrastructures are discussed and students are presented with various networking models and standards. Topics covered will include; the OSI model, TCP/IP, 802.3, Protocol Data Units (PDUs), physical and logical network topology, IP addressing, variable length subnet masking (VLSM) , networking components and basic network design. Students will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to implement, administer, and troubleshoot basic networking systems and hardware. Students are introduced to configuring network routers using command line tools.

This course introduces students to installing, configuring, managing, and supporting a network infrastructure using the most current Microsoft server platform. This course includes topics such as: installing and configuring Domain Name Service (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), network security, Certificate Services, Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), Software Update Services, Routing and Remote Access, File Services, Print Services, and network maintenance.

This course introduces students to the Linux operating system and develops core skills in configuration and installation of the operating system on an Intel-based computer. Topics include effectively using, customizing, and scripting common command line utilities. Students develop an understanding of file systems, users and groups, the Bash shell, process management, text editors, searching and organizing data, and various applications.

This course builds on the fundamentals taught in CISA 1110. The purpose of this course is to provide the student with an understanding of both the logical and physical movement of data through computer hardware. This instruction will be delivered through both lecture and hands-on lab exercises. The student will study the logical movement of data through the stages of creation, transmission, receipt and action. The interaction of hardware and software in the control of data flow will be examined. The student will study physical technologies used for interfacing or connecting external devices to individual computers to expand functionality. The course also examines the physical technologies used to interface individual computers to each other to form networks. The topics covered in this area will include serial ports, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Biometrics, Ethernet (802.3 standards and revisions), Wireless (802.11 standards and revisions), Structured Cabling standards, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA). Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 1 with minimum 60% grade point average.

Building upon concepts from CISA 1120, this course introduces routing and router configuration, explores networking protocols, and applies routing concepts within a lab environment. Topics covered include routing concepts and theory, Cisco operating system management, variable length subnet masking (VLSM), classless inter-domain routing (CIDR), routing protocols, and access control lists (ACLs). Routing protocols covered include Routing Information Protocol (RIPv1, RIPv2), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). Students will learn how to configure routers, interpret routing tables and troubleshoot connectivity issues. Students will have extensive hands-on experience with routers and switches in a networked lab environment. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 1 with minimum 60% grade point average.

Building upon concepts and skills from CISA 1130, students will learn how to install, configure, and administer Active Directory Services on the most recent Microsoft server platform. This course teaches students through lectures, discussions, demonstrations, textbook exercises, and classroom labs. Students learn to plan for, implement, and maintain forests, sites, domains, and organizational units that meet the accessibility, performance, and security goals of a production network. Students will use Group Policy to deploy software and configure a computer or user environment. In addition, students configure Name Resolution Services and Certificate Services. Finally, students learn troubleshooting techniques that are valuable for the maintenance of a network environment. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 1 with minimum 60% grade point average.

Building upon knowledge from CISA 1140, this course advances the student skills to effectively administer Linux systems. Students will master tasks such as hardware and device configuration, file system management, user and group administration, network configurations, kernel services, attaching new Linux systems to a corporate network, configuring the new systems for end-users, and troubleshooting. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 1 with minimum 60% grade point average.

Building upon theory from CISA 1110 and CISA 1210, this course provides an understanding of the physical operation of the enterprise server. Students will explore the basic architecture of the server and the components of that architecture. The server data storage technologies of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) will be presented. There will be a review of the elements of effective Disaster Recovery. Industry standard methods of service performance monitoring will be explored. Instruction will be supplemented with hands-on lab exercises. The course will also examine recent advances in server I/O subsystems, CPU architecture and memory. These advances and others will be used to understand the concepts involved in improved data centre performance, reliability, simplicity and flexibility. The course will place emphasis on the advantages of designing a data centre as a unified computing system. There will be an examination of the impact of the data centre on the electrical grid. This will include comparisons of the electrical impacts of cooling methodology. Students will research energy reduction technologies offered by both server and component manufacturers. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 2 with minimum 60% grade point average.

Building upon skills from CISA 1220 and CISA 1120, this course extends the student's knowledge and practical experience with routers and switches with a focus on enterprise switching and wide area networking (WAN) technologies. Topics include virtual local area networks (VLANs), spanning-tree protocol, rapid spanning-tree protocol, virtual trunking protocol, Inter-VLAN routing, network address translation, point-to-point protocol, Frame Relay, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), WAN connectivity options and network troubleshooting. Students will gain hands-on experience with routers and switches in various local area networks, virtual local area networks, and wide area network topologies. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 2 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course prepares students to be responsible for planning, installing, configuring, managing, and supporting a network infrastructure using the most recent Microsoft server platform. Building upon topics in CISA 1130 and CISA 1230, this course focuses on planning server deployment, infrastructure services, and active directory deployment. Topics also include planning application services, file and print services, storage solutions, high availability, server and network security, managing and monitoring servers, and backup strategies. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 2 with minimum 60% grade point average.

The Linux operating system provides robust networking and security features. Building upon knowledge from CISA 1240 and CISA 1140, this course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to implement network services and access control (security) mechanisms. It includes core system administration, TCP/IP configuration, application of access control lists and firewall features, networking services, and integration of Linux systems into a network services infrastructure. Network services include Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Network File Services (NFS), web services (WWW), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and more. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 2 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course allows students the opportunity to work in small groups to complete case studies which provide a review of the concepts and topics covered in previous courses. Students are also encouraged to write the industry certifications and have full access to the laboratories and instructor expertise to work through related case exercises. Working in groups, the students are also required to create a presentation on an industry related topic. In addition students develop a personal portfolio that includes a resume, career goals, and notes on interview preparation. Teamwork and interpersonal skills are key elements emphasized in this course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 2 with minimum 60% grade point average.

In this course, students learn to install and configure a Microsoft Windows Active Directory Environment in preparation for messaging services deployment. Students then learn to install, configure, and administer an enterprise messaging system that is integrated with Active Directory. Students will study the theory behind messaging systems, and through hands-on activities, they will learn to install, maintain, customize, and troubleshoot Microsoft Exchange Server and clients. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 3 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course introduces Windows Server virtualization technologies. Student will learn why virtualization is important and about the different forms of virtualization available using Microsoft products. The focus will be on the Microsoft virtualization solutions. Topics will include server, application, desktop, presentation, and user state virtualization as well as Microsoft’s overall virtualization solution and how to build a virtualization infrastructure. This will provide a foundation for using virtualization technologies in industry as well as in other courses in this program. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 3 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course provides students with hands-on experience working with more complex and integrated system administration concepts in the Oracle Solaris Operating System for both SPARC and x86/x64 systems. Students will be instructed in essential system administration skills including: describing the Solaris OS directory hierarchy, managing local disk devices and interface configurations, managing UFS and ZFS file systems, performing mounts and un-mounts, installing and removing Solaris packages and patches, and performing system boot procedures. The course also covers user administration, controlling system processes, and performing installation and upgrades. Students will also build their knowledge and skills by configuring network interfaces and managing swap configurations, crash dumps, and core files. The course also covers configuring NFS and AutoFS as well as system messaging, managing storage volumes and ZFS file systems, and setting up naming services. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 3 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course introduces students to Oracle VM virtualization technologies using Oracle VM Server, xVM VirtualBox and Oracle Solaris Containers. Students will learn to rapidly deploy Oracle products as pre-configured templates, make critical decisions such as hardware or paravirtualization, and learn to take full advantage of the management, reliability and availability tools which come with Oracle VM Server. Students will gain hands-on experience with server pool management using Oracle VM Manager, VM configuration, administration, and management of fully virtualized datacenters using Oracle VM's high availability features. Students will also be provided with an introduction to Oracle xVM VirtualBox, describing how the software enables multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single desktop, allowing users to access other operating systems within a native OS environment. Students will also work with Solaris Containers, the Oracle virtualization feature comprised of Solaris Zones and Solaris Resource Controls. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 3 with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to design and implement security in Microsoft network. It begins with the subject of security policies and discusses the risks associated with enterprise networks systems. Students will consider how computers and servers on an enterprise network are at risk, how they are typically compromised, and how to respond to a compromise through investigation and clean up. Students will be exposed to concepts such as operating system hardening, secure network design, security incident response plans, firewall system design, intrusion detection and prevention techniques. During the course, students will install software based firewalls as a tool to explore security issues. Implementation training includes the configuration of security features such as access policies, packet filters, server publishing, web proxy caching, public-key infrastructure, and cryptography via Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions, and troubleshooting security problems. Ethics will be an integral part of the discussions on network security. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 4 (NSA option or ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

System management is an important consideration in enterprise networks. In this course students are exposed to a number of software based tools that allow management of enterprise networks. This course focuses on the Microsoft System Center family of products which are loaded onto network servers. The core products covered will be System Center Essentials, System Center Configuration Manager, System Center Operations Manager, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Students will install, configure, and manage these software packages. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 4 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary for configuring common network services and security administration using Oracle Solaris. The course will focus on network and security administration concepts and topics such as Internet Protocol (IP) routing, Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), IP version 6 (IPv6), Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Solaris IP Filter firewall. Prerequisite: Successful completion CISA Level 4 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course introduces students to Oracle VM virtualization technologies using Oracle Sun Ray technology and software administration. Along with installing the Sun Ray Server Software, students will be introduced to the architectural features of the software. These features include session mobility (hotdesking), the use of Server Groups for failover and load balancing, and device management of USB devices and printers. Additional virtualization topics are also introduced such as the Sun Ray Connector for Windows OS, which allows access to Windows desktops and applications, and Oracle Secure Global Desktop Software, which allows access to applications and platforms on various systems through a web browser. Students will also explore the Oracle VDI Software technology and software administration including: Oracle xVM VirtualBox desktop broker, Sun Ray Software (SRS) and Oracle Secure Global Desktop (SGD) for the display of user desktops and Oracle VDI administration tools. Students will learn how to use devices such as Oracle Sun Ray thin clients and web browsers with SGD, and will learn how to configure host virtual desktops. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 4 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course is an overview of various Microsoft server side technologies including Microsoft Terminal Services, SharePoint portal services, IIS, File and Print services, and Media services. The focus will be on using the most recent Microsoft Windows Server for these roles. Students will install, configure, monitor, and manage these software applications. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 5 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

This course introduces the key concepts involved in data center planning, including site selection, mission critical functionality, security, operations, and disaster recovery issues. Students will learn about the hardware infrastructure and server architectures of workgroup and enterprise systems. The course provides students with the skills necessary to plan and design server architectures for optimal availability, scalability, and fault tolerance. Students will be introduced to the principles of enterprise cluster technologies and management systems. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 5 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

The course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to configure extensive security features relevant to system and network administrators. In the lab, students will implement, administer, and maintain a secure Oracle Solaris operating system. Topics will include minimization and hardening, intrusion detection, trusted extensions, monitoring and logging, file system security and securing networks. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 5 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

The course explores installation, configuration and management of VMware’s suite of virtualization technologies. Students will work with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server components, configure and manage networking and storage, and deploy, manage and migrate virtual machines. Students will manage user access to the VMware infrastructure and use the vCenter Server to monitor resource usage, increase scalability, apply patches and manage higher availability and data. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 5 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.

In this capstone course, students will complete an industry level project by applying the skills and knowledge gained in all previous courses. Students will implement various systems, such as messaging, thin clients, web, clustering, directory, security, and network, together with internet application development, to produce a complete enterprise system environment. Students will then configure, deploy, administer, maintain and document this complete hardware and software solution. In addition, students will participate in a short self-directed study of a technical topic related to industry. Prerequisite: Successful completion of CISA Level 5 (ESA option) with minimum 60% grade point average.