Week 14: Clear

Welcome back! This week I want to talk to you about Enterprise Storage and the ways large corporations with countless terabytes (possibly even petabytes) of information record, store, maintain, and organize their data.

To start off, most large business use something called a Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) system that takes all of their data, stores it, maintains it and organizes it for them. It does this in a number of ways. It can take old files that aren’t used and put them into less expensive storage, freeing up the more expensive storage (which is usually faster) for information that is more readily needed for the day-to-day business transactions, it can backup important data so that it won’t be lost in the event of a crash, and it can, in the long-run, SAVE YOUR BUSINESS MONEY when used correctly and efficiently to reduce the costs involved with the loss of information.

Also, to add to this vast amount of data businesses can use Storage Area Networks (SANs) to share storage. These SANs are dedicated high-speed networks, detached from general network bandwidth, used to move information between the users and the storage resource. Information that was previously shared across conventional SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) connections, can now be shared across high-speed fiber channels instantaneously! While SANs are most likely not going to replace HSMs they will absolutely aid in the way your HSM works; and how proficiently it works at that. SANs can lower total storage management costs, provide greater data security and create a faster access to higher priority data.

In general it doesn’t matter how you look at it, you wouldn’t want to be in charge of running a large corporation’s data without first learning the basics of how HSM/SANs work and their direct correlation to the running of a successful business.

Secure Email Project

NSA Whistleblower Indicted for Leaking Classified Information to Reporter

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_59399.shtml

The article above is a great demonstration of the power secure email has and why someone would need to encrypted emails. However, that doesn’t mean you should use it to send things not deemed acceptable. Thomas A. Drake, a National Security Agency (NSA) met with in-person and emailed hundreds of encrypted emails to an unnamed newspaper reporter about “the inner workings of the super-secret spy agency. Drake set up a free email account and then paid for a premium Hushmail account that allowed users to exchange secure emails without disclosing the sender or recipient’s identity.” He is currently being charged with 10 felonies!!!

Now, after learning how to send encrypted emails and how well they work I can see why he thought he might be able to get away with what he was doing; but that doesn’t make it right! I’m sure Mr. Drake was very well trained on the art of stealthy emails, being that he was an NSA agent, so maybe now he’ll have plenty of time to re-think ways of making his emails more secure while he sits in prison.

Database Project

First I want to start off by saying; this was a very difficult project and I ran into many problems throughout. On the other hand, I did learn A LOT about Access and see how it can be helpful in a business world. The options you have are pretty much endless and it gives you so many options for organizing, analyzing, and reviewing. Another thing I learned is that you could use this software for more than just business. It would also work for workout routines, calorie counting, and even establishing an agenda for school.

My ABSOLUTE biggest problem with using Access was the no “undo” feature. I created over five different databases in the beginning because I kept messing small things up and could not fix them. I finally started using “copy XYZ” and editing it that way so I could make a mistake and still be alright. That is the one thing I would change about the databases functionality. It may be something that after some time using the software you could adjust to it, but right off the bat it gave me problems non-stop.

Week 12: Clear

For this week’s blog I will be discussing the System Development Cycle (SDC) and the effect it can have on you as a business person. To begin, the system development cycle consists of five individual stages: (1.)Planning, (2.)Analysis, (3.)Design, (4.)Implementation, (5.)Operation, Support and Security.

In the Planning Stage of the SDC the whole object is to prioritize, organize, and establish what projects you should or should not take. You need to look at the problem from a third perspective and define what if your business needs to undertake it or not. Next is where the analysis phase comes into play. This is where you decide if the cost of taking on the project is going to be worth it through doing a preliminary analysis. If it doesn’t seem feasible or the project requires more inputs than you’ll receive in outputs, you’d abandon the project. However, if it does seem feasible you would move onto the design stage. This is the stage where you figure out how to implement the features and make your final reviews; although it takes a lot of time to do, it is well worth it. Following this is your actual implementation stage. This is where the action takes place. The four major activities in this stage are: Develop programs and documentation, install and test, train, and convert. Now once the ball has started rolling you run into the last stage; operation, support and security. This is where you maintain the project, support your employees through the change and monitor performance. And there you go, an overview of how System Development Cycles work in the business world.