COIT 20246 ICT Services Management

Discusses conventional binary computing architecture.However, an emerging field of research focuses on the development of quantum computers. Find and summarise a resource that explains why there is so much interest in this type of computing (for example, the potential applications).

briefly makes mention of the Linux operating system, an open-source Unix variant developed in the 1990s. There are many popular Linux distributions (look up “Linux Distribution” if you don’t know what that means). Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and advantages of ONE of these distributions.

Discusses the concept of virtualisation. There are several “type 2” or hosted virtualisation products (software) on the market (both commercial and open source). Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and advantages of ONE of these products.

Briefly mentions crowdsourcing which is a form of social business that organisations employ to engage with the public to achieve a goal.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of an organisation using crowdsourcing and the outcomes of the engagement.

Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of an organisation that failed to adapt to changes in technology and explain what the organisation failed to do/respond to.

Business sectors, agencies, components and activities cannot function in today’s date without the presence of either computer system or network. Changes in technology and the advancements in the same area are taking place at a lightning speed. There are new developments, innovations and advancements that are being executed and carried out every day. One of the latest offerings of such efforts is quantum computers. Number of applications and the activities that can be executed and can be done on these computers is huge. Also, there are applications that can be developed using this computing technology which have not yet been developed or used by any of the entities in the current times. It is encountered that the airplanes suffer from certain mis-happenings such as crash or faulty equipment which can be detected through the applications using this technology. Also, there can be applications designed so that the safety quotient can be increased. Healthcare is an area that can be improved through quantum computers. There can be activities such as advanced research in the area of drug development, detection of severe health conditions etc that can be done through this computing technology. Traffic study and analysis can also be done for better control and management of the road and rail traffic through the applications designed using this technology. These are the reasons that have assisted in the rise of the quantum computers and the increase in the demands of these systems among the end system users.

A computer system is of no use if there is no operating system installed in it and the same goes for the mobile devices. Users look for using and adapting various software for their systems and have show immense interest in Linux as the operating system. There are various components and derivatives of Linux that have been released in the market and one such system is Fedora. Speed and quick results are desired by the customers in any of the software and it is offered by Fedora as it takes no time to get started with it quick boot ability.

Innovation and implementation of latest technicalities is also necessary to ensure that advanced mechanisms are available. Fedora fulfills this requirement as well as it includes and supports virtualization concepts and technologies. User control is one of the essential properties that is demanded and desired. This ability is offered by Fedora as the users can easily track their activities and can also modify and customize the system as per their liking and demands. User interface that is provided also does not compromise in this system as it offers an advanced level of visual appeal. Every operating system is associated with certain sets of security attacks which are designed specifically for these systems. Some of the operating systems do not have in-built features to deal with these attacks while some such as Fedora have a strong internal security that is present.

Efforts to improve the state of technology and the benefits that can be earned through the application of these efforts is a non-stop and a continuous process that is being carried out with the aim of improvement. Technology has seen many developments and evolutions since its existence. In the recent years, there have been some extremely quick transformations because of the advancements and increase in the number of options. Virtualization technology is the offering of these transformations and latest enhancements in the field. As a result, many firms have launched their systems and packages in market with Microsoft being a front runner in the race with its product as Microsoft Virtual Server. Automatic loading during the start up of the machine and the ability to have excellent memory management are some of the unique features of this package.

These packages and systems are not designed for a single user; however there are hundreds of users that demand access at the same time which is fulfilled by this system without any lags or so. The resource reservation policy that is implemented in this product makes it attract more number of customers. None of the tools, packages, software and systems is present that are not exposed to security risks and virtualization technology is also affected by it. This package from Microsoft makes sure that the security is always maintained and there are no violations.

The networks cannot run and function properly without the presence and implementation of certain rules or guidelines. These guidelines cannot be verbal or theoretical and are required to be implemented in the form of codes and programs. These defined standards that have the guidelines implemented for the functioning of a particular system or network are termed as protocols. These are necessary in the transport layer as well so that the network connections and communication channels work effectively and efficiently. SCTP which stands for Stream Control Transmission Protocol is one such norm that is widely used in the layer 4.

There are several IP addresses that are present in the networks and these addresses also require the ability to have strong connections built up. The transmission on the network in the form of the selection of the routes is done by this protocol and there are also some of the advanced features that can be executed such as detection of errors along with their control and prevention. There may be many errors or deviations that may take place on the networks and these errors can be prevented by the use and applications of SCTP. The presence and use of the SCTP protocol in layer 4 is mainly because of the reasons such as acknowledgement in terms of the connections, reliability and quality of the connections, enhanced performance of the networks and the availability of the connections that come along with this particular protocol.  

Information is such a vital element and component of the organizations and applications that it cannot be avoided and the presence of the same bring in many risks and concerns. There are many security attacks that take place even after the set up of advanced security tools and packages. Information that an organization or a Government agency deals with is extremely critical because of the reason that comprises of the details about the agency/organization, its customers, projects, employees, partners, new offerings and a lot more. This makes it vulnerable to the security risks and attacks. Russian Government became the sufferer of such an occurrence and it happened last year.

Cyber security of the website of the Russian Government was compromised as the attackers could enter and impact around twenty firms and agencies connected with the Government. The attackers were tracking the activities since long through unauthorized measures and with the help of a spyware. Data breach that resulted as an implication of the attack violated privacy and led to the severe impacts on the information and the users. The severity of the attack was also huge as the downtime of the sites impacted was considerable and the availability was poorly affected. Attacks and occurrences like these lead to a lot of infrastructural along with operational damage to the affected party. Also, there are abundant economical losses that cannot be ignored either.  

There are two types of disasters that can occur as natural disasters and the ones that are man-made. Some events and occurrences cannot be controlled and are not in the hands of the human. These occurrences take place and are controlled and executed by the nature itself. Some of the negative occurrences can be equally negative impacts on nature and the human life along with the property. ICT cannot refrain or be safe from such events that are either in the form of cyclones, earthquakes, floods, lightening and many others.

Nepal earthquake in 2015 was one of the massive natural disasters in the history that led to the devastation of the entire country and the border countries as well. The impact also came upon Tibet which is the neighboring country of Nepal and the ICT services of Tibet were poorly affected. The communication channels were damaged and it took a lot of time and effort to bring these channels and services back to normal. Network were damaged and broken due to which availability and continuity of the services could not be maintained.

Infrastructural loss that came out as a consequence took a lot of time to be revived back in the regular and normal conditions. Information is such a vital element and component of the organizations and applications that it cannot be avoided and the presence of the same bring in many risks and concerns. There are many natural hazards and disasters that take place even after the set up of advanced security tools and packages. These mechanisms do not have the potential to control the damage resulting from a natural hazard.

Good market performance, positive customer feedback and large customer base are the factors and points that are desired by every organization. The competition among the companies and firms has increased a lot because of the set up of many organizations in a similar nature of work and line of business. Customers are entities for which the organizations work and the success or failure of an organization depends upon the customer behavior and the level of satisfaction. It is due to this fact that firms make sure that they leave no stone unturned to make the customer happy and satisfied with the offers and services that they provide.

Many techniques, strategies and policies are executed in this direction with Crowdsourcing being one such method. It includes the people that are usually the customers and other stakeholders to have maximum information regarding the offers and services provided by the firm. For instance, the popular coffee chain, Starbucks used this measure to understand what its customers wanted by using social channels and networks to gain details and information. There were developments that were implemented on the basis of the results and the profits also went up. Starbucks provided the customer what they wanted and succeeded in establishing its mark on a global platform. Starbucks adopted a strategy and a policy that enabled it to gain a competitive advantage from the rest of its competitors.

Organizations monitor, process, exchange, transfer and manage a lot of information on a per day basis which makes it a valuable asset for the firms and agencies all over. Information is such a vital element and component of the organizations and applications that it cannot be avoided and the presence of the same bring in many risks and concerns. There are many security attacks that take place even after the set up of advanced security tools and packages. Private agencies and firms suffer from many vulnerabilities and attempts to violate the privacy and security through mechanisms such as illegal capturing and breaching of data, stealing of information and its loss or leakage through malevolent measures.

The employees and the members of staff of a particular firm have the privilege to access its data and also share it will other employees and resources. There is a lot of misuse that is done by the staff members which leads to the loss and damage to information privacy. Wipro BPO became the sufferer of such an occurrence in 2016 when three of the members of staff of the firm were charged on the case of the violation of the security and privacy norms. Wipro BPO has close connections and professional terms and projects with TalkTalk which also had to go through information breach in 2015 and once the investigation was carried out it was found that the two occurrences were linked. The accused were responsible for the violation of security at TalkTalk as well.

Web applications and mobile applications are being accessed by the users in every part of the globe and a basic requirement to make use of these applications is the presence of a computer system or the mobile device. Companies and agencies cannot run successfully and satisfy its customers if they do not have the ability to innovate and implement the latest offers and elements of technology. Many firms have experienced a downfall because of this reason and one such name in the list is of Nokia. It was a firm that provided the users with the cell phones and accessories and was a name that was at the top for many years. The launch of Smartphones in the market led to downfall of Nokia as the operating system that was being demanded by the customers was Android or iOS. However, Nokia phones were all based on Symbian or Windows as the operating system.

The hardware of the phones was excellent and was unmatched with the rest of the phones available in the market. But the users are mainly interested in what they can see and observe which are the interface and the operating system. Nokia did not agree to include Android based cell phones to be developed and soon vanished completely from the market. The case of Nokia supports the fact that existence and maintenance of performance in the market with absence of innovation cannot be achieved

Companies and organizations that succeed in offering innovative service and solutions to the users stay in the market longer than the others that do not adapt this strategy. Firms have their own success and failure stories that are based upon the responsibilities and projects that they take up. Some of the projects experience massive success and profits as a result. However, there are a few of the initiatives that do not achieve their objectives. One example of such a failure is an IBM project that was started by the name of Stretch. It was a supercomputer that was supposed to be designed by IBM and was started in 1950s.

Supercomputer and supercomputing technology were untouched and novel at that time. IBM invested a lot of money, effort, time and resources for the success of the project. However, it could not achieve its goals because of inadequate planning, unrealistic expectations and scope and too many variations in the journey. Somehow the firm managed to complete the design of the system but the expectations from it could not be met. Project missed out on the elements of effective planning which is the root for the success of the projects and because of this factor it is considered as the massive failure till date. It is required for the firms to innovate and create something new so that they may offer the customers the latest elements in every field. However, there shall be a feasibility analysis that shall be conducted first before launching or deciding to take up any such responsibility.