Tasks For Ten Weeks

Week 1

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

Quantum computing: A simple introduction – Explain that Stuff

Explain that Stuff. (2017). Quantum computing: A simple introduction. [online] Available at: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/quantum-computing.html [Accessed 15 May 2017].

Summary:

The journal has clearly stated that the traditional computers possess some tricks helping them to perform very well. They have been able to store numbers in the memory. Additionally, they have been able to handle the stored numbers with simple numerical operations like the additions and subtractions. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that they could accomplish more complicated things by hanging together the straightforward operations into the series known as the “algorithm”.  For instance, multiplication is possible by the series of adding numbers. Both the fundamental tricks namely string and processing have been refined utilizing switches referred to as transistors. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that the issue with conventional computers has been that they depend upon the traditional transistors. The author explains that the quantum computing concentrates upon hypothetical computation systems or the quantum computers. These have been   directly using the quantum-mechanical phenomenon. For example the superposition and the entanglement might be considered, to perform operations on information. Quantum computers have not been quite the same as the “binary digital electronic-computers” on the basis of transistors. Despite the fact that individuals frequently accept that quantum computers has been consequently superior to the customary ones. Up until this point of the resource, pretty much the fundamental thing known for sure is that a quantum computer could show better factorization, finding of two obscure prime numbers that, while multiplied together results in a known number. I have found that aside from Shor’s calculation, and the searching method of Grover’s calculation, scarcely whatever other calculations have been found that would be better performed by quantum strategies. Sufficiently given time and processing power, ordinary computers have the capacity to tackle any issue that quantum ones could solve, in the long run. These are highly vital advances.

Week 2

The text 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.

10 of the Most Popular Linux Distributions Compared

Howtogeek.com. (2017). 10 of the Most Popular Linux Distributions Compared. [online] Available at: https://www.howtogeek.com/191207/10-of-the-most-popular-linux-distributions-compared/ [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Summary:

According to the journal, the Arch Linux has been the more old school than the other Linux distributions. It has been intended to be adaptable, lightweight, insignificant, and for “Keeping it Simple.” Keeping it straightforward never meant that Arch gives huge amounts of graphical utilities and the configured automatic scripts to help people set up their framework. Rather, it implies Arch gets rid of that stuff and escapes the user’s way. 

The journal claims that, the developer has been responsible for designing their framework legitimately and installing software they have liked. Arch never gives an authority graphical interface for the manager of package or the complicated tools of graphical configuration. Rather, it has been delivering clear configuration files intended to simple editing. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that the installation disc dumps the user at a terminal, where they have needed to enter the suitable commands for configuring the system. There has been further segmentation of discs and installation of the OS by themselves.

The resource has claimed that the Arch utilizes a model called “rolling release”, which implies any installed image has been only a preview of the present software. All of the software would be refreshed after some time without the user expecting to move up to another release of Arch. 

I have come to know from the article that this appropriation has a bit just the same as Gentoo, which was a mainstream at one time. Both the Linux distributions are intended for clients who know the manner how their systems have been working. The author explains that this also includes those who are in any event ready to learn. Notwithstanding, Arch uses paired packages while Gentoo had a superfluous concentration on arranging every part of the software from the source.  This implies it has been fast to introduce programming on Arch as the users do not need to invest CPU cycles and time period by waiting for programming to get compiled. 

Week 3

The text 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.

Top 10 benefits of server virtualization 

Marshall, D. (2017). Top 10 benefits of server virtualization. [online] InfoWorld. Available at: https://www.infoworld.com/article/2621446/server-virtualization/server-virtualization-top-10-benefits-of-server-virtualization.html [Accessed 16 May 2017]. 

The article claims that the server virtualization over x 86 platforms is around for over ten years.  Numerous still think of it as another innovation. Server virtualization is the game changing innovation here for IT. It has been giving efficiencies and capacities that simply have not been conceivable as obliged inside a physical world. The article has reminded that the server virtualization been developing and propelling itself. However, some virtualized associations are as yet not taking full favourable benefit of the offering. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that they have been slowing down their virtual scenario at something very much less than 100 percent virtualized “data center” of the core virtual server. It suggests saving energy, become environmentally viable. The physical servers over have been moved to virtual machines and combining them in much less physical servers. This has been implying bringing down monthly powers and cooling expenses in the data center. It helps in decreasing the data center impression. The article points out that notwithstanding sparing a greater amount of the organization’s green with a littler energy impression, server combination with virtualization would likewise lessen the general impression of the whole data center. As stated in the article, virtualization has been enabling to effortlessly work out an independent lab or test condition, working in an all alone segregated system. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that it has also been useful in speedier server provisioning. Server virtualization has been empowering versatile ability to give framework provisioning and sending immediately. It has been moreover helpful in increment of uptime. Most server virtualization stages has been now offering various propelled highlights that simply have not been found on physical servers. This has been helping in continuity of the business and expanded uptime. The author explains that the virtualization has been enhancing disaster recovery.  Virtualization offers an association with three imperative segments regarding the solution of disaster recovery. One of it has been the capability of hardware abstraction. The most important feature that the article helped me in learning that the virtualization has helped in moving things to the cloud. With virtualizing the servers and abstracting endlessly the underpinning hardware, the organization is prepared fully for moving into cloud.

Week 4

TCP and UDP are examples of two Layer Four (L4) transport protocols that are discussed in the text.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and uses of ONE other L4 protocol that is not discussed in the text (i.e. NOT UDP or TCP).

 What is Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP Lite) 

Techopedia.com. (2017). What is Lightweight User Datagram Protocol (UDP Lite)? – Definition from Techopedia. [online] Available at: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30159/lightweight-user-datagram-protocol-udp-lite [Accessed 16 May 2017]. 

Summary:

Apart from the TCP and the UDP, the article discusses about the “Lightweight User Datagram Protocol” also known as the UDP-Lite. It has been a two layer transport protocols like the TCP and UDP. It has been connectionless convention like the UDPs. 

The article states that it likewise might serve the environments of network that has been error-prone. Here the mostly harmed payloads have been preferred to be conveyed as opposed to the disposal of by the station accepting it. 

According to the article, this has been saving money on the bandwidth or transmission capacity and time. This has been because information does not should be sent again and information integrity decisions are left over receiving application also called codec. 

The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that the UDP-Lite permits usage of halfway checksums that cover just a piece of the datagram and in this way conveys the packets corrupter partially.

The article points out that this convention of was implied for the multimedia functions like the streamed video or the VoIP.  Here the receiving of the undermined or harmed packets have been helpful as contrasted with not accepting any whatsoever. 

The article has also helped in understanding, that the checksum algorithm for both sorts of UDP has been similar. Still for Lite, it is just executed somewhat beginning from the UDP-Lite header. This should dependably be secured by the checksum. 

It is understood from the article that that some UDP-Lite packets have not been disposed of. For instance, packets with the checksum value of coverage of one to ten might be disposed of. It should be zero or over eight. Additionally, those with scope more prominent than the IP length likewise should be disposed of.

Cyber-attacks on governments or government assets are receiving increasing publicity and media attention.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE recent cyber-attack (within the last 3 years) against a government website or asset.

Government websites hit by cyber attack

O’Reilly, S. (2017). Government websites hit by cyberattack. [online] TheJournal.ie. Available at: https://www.thejournal.ie/cyberattack-government-ddos-2561772-Jan2016/ [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Summary:

The article describes the event when the administrative services like the “Central Statistics Office” and the “Courts administration of Ireland” has been down by the direct result of an attack of DDoS. They were forced to go offline due to a vast scale cyber-attack. None of the individual or any team has assumed liability for that attack. The article points out that it has been trusted that the attacks are being completed at an extensive scale on the infrastructure of the government. Those issuing the attacks have altered focuses to proceed with interruption. 

The “Office of Public Expenditure and Reform” announced over the attack by saying that various DDoS attacks at that time has been focusing on the “Government Infrastructure”. They have brought about “occasional disturbance” for some of its administrations. 

The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that these attacks have brought about intermittent disturbance that has resulted in various Government sites getting to be noticeably inaccessible to people in general. With all DDoS attacks has been impractical to distinguish the exact origin of this crime. 

The article discussed that DDoS attacks has been overpowering administrations with fake activity from different sources. It was clearly understood form the article that such attacks make online administrations back off or encounter downtime as it tries to adapt to the vast traffic influx.

The author explains that the websites of the government were one of various Irish destinations which experienced the DDoS attack. Prior that week, the “National Lottery” encountered a two hour blackout on account of comparative attacks while Boards.ie encountered the same problem.

Flood, fires and earthquakes are events beyond our control, yet impact heavily on ICT infrastructure.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of an organisation’s ICT infrastructure being impacted by such an event and the resulting effects on the business and/or its operations.  For example, you might want to search for “data centre fire” or “network cable earthquake” to find suitable resources.

Taiwan Earthquake Damages Undersea Internet Cables

Nystedt, D. and Service, I. (2017). Taiwan Earthquake Damages Undersea Internet Cables. [online] PCWorld. Available at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/190887/article.html [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Summary:

The article describes a noteworthy earthquake and a few aftershocks in Taiwan. This has harmed many individuals and brought about a few fire incidents. It has likewise sent Chunghwa Telecom specialists scrambling to fix the “fiber-optic telecommunication” links under the sea. This has been done to anticipate disturbances of services around Asia.

The author explains that Taiwan’s greatest telecommunications organization claimed that the underlying 6.4-extent seismic tremor, which struck close to the southern Taiwan city of the Pingtung, harmed four undersea links in six different places. This has been thumping out services. Worldwide communications and the Internet services over every network was been re-established. This has been done basically by rerouting the services over undamaged links.

The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that the SWM-3 or the “Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 3” link amongst Taiwan and Guangdong Province of China went down at around 5:26 p.m. , a few hours after the main quake. The organization rerouted the service by 8 p.m., as indicated by an announcement from Chunghwa.

The project has helped in knowing that the fiber-optic links under the sea convey the main part of the world’s Internet and the communications traffic. Links around Taiwan have an unpleasant life. The article points out that the island is frequently battered by the tropical storms and quakes that could thump them out or cause undersea avalanches. This sends rocks giving down on them. In the past the remote ocean avalanches brought on by Typhoon Morakot harmed no less than three undersea fiber-optic media communications links and damaged three others. This has been creating communications and Internet service disturbances all through Asia. 

Week 7

The text 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.

5 EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES INNOVATING WITH CROWDSOURCING

Blog.innocentive.com. (2017). 5 Examples of Companies Innovating with Crowdsourcing. [online] Available at: https://blog.innocentive.com/2013/10/18/5-examples-of-companies-innovating-with-crowdsourcing [Accessed 16 May 2017].

The article reviews the examples of various companies using crowd-sourcing. The fast exchange of information important to keep up operations of competitive enterprise requests access to numerous, fluid sources of data. Crowdsourcing utilizes the contributions of the individuals outer to an association. This has been to determine the vital problems or complete jobs once allocated inside to any explicit corporate individual or office. The article points out that the generally scattered benefactors obtained through an open call for the participation pinpoint information or offer conclusions fundamental to accomplishing a particular goal for an assigned issue. The article has been helpful by discussing that the open advancement for new items is additionally energized. Crowdsourcing members have been incorporating a populace from every part of the place, with every foundation. The current versatile usage has made the potential contributor’s assembly really worldwide in extension. 

The article has also discussed about the general mills or “GenMil” as an instance. This significant company for food-processing has created the “General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network” or G-WIN to vivaciously create imaginative ideas from crowdsourced accomplices within various merchandises, commodities, or the service categories. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that this includes items fitting the concept of GenMil- brand, bundling of those items, changes to assembling, for administration or for showcasing forms, fixing recommendations for the food products. It also has incorporated innovation recommendations for IT-methods of GenMil’s. This has also included ideas for developing the computerized efficiencies and execution of the company. 

The author explains that the GenMil looks for thoughts that would help the company in conveying achievement development in any of these operational zones. The G-Win open call has been adequately obliging that anybody is been able to access the site. Then they are able to tap the tab of “Submit a Novel Proposal” to recommend item or technical innovation valuable to GenMil along with its businesses.

With the advent of mass data collection and storage has come a surge of instances of data theft.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example where data has been stolen from a private company or corporation and explain the impacts on the customers.

 Three Mobile cyber hack: six million customers’ private information at risk after employee login used to access database 

Steven Swinford and McGoogan, C. (2017). Three Mobile cyber hack: six million customers’ private information at risk after employee login used to access database. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/17/three-mobile-cyber-hack–six-million-customers-private-data-at-r/ [Accessed 16 May 2017]. 

The article explores the event when one of Britain’s greatest cell phone organizations admitted to a noteworthy digital security break. This has put the individual information of huge number of clients in risks.

Three Mobile conceded that programmers have effectively intruded to its client updated database subsequent to utilizing the employee login. 

The article has been helpful by discussing that the sources acquainted with the occurrence disclosed to the Telegraph that private data of 66% of the organization’s nine million clients could be in risks. 

The organization affirmed the attack. However, it declined to state whether clients’ information was stolen or what number of it have been influenced.

The resource has provided relevant information about three people who disclaimed that the information intruded to included names, telephone numbers, addresses and date of births, yet included that it did exclude the monetary data.

The article points out that there have been more than nine million clients. It is comprehended that the cyber criminals, who utilized organization access codes to get into the network, approached substantial parts of the update database. 

The author explains that the robbery has provoked worries that the personal data of a huge number of clients could be sold online to the criminals. 

The organization lost 95,000 endorsers subsequently of the attack that cost it about £60million. 

The failure to adapt business processes and embrace technology, particularly ICT, has led to the downfall of many previously successful companies.  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.

 10 Companies That Failed to Innovate and What Happened to Them 

Vocoli. (2017). Big companies that werent innovative. [online] Available at: https://www.vocoli.com/blog/july-2014/10-companies-that-failed-to-innovate-and-what-happened-to-them/ [Accessed 16 May 2017]. 

Summary:

In this article various case studies are discussed. However, I have chosen the Blackberry. This company was unable to adopt the innovations. There has been a period when the essential method of business correspondence was the BBM and everybody needed to know the PIN. The CrackBerry was the telephone to possess this in the mid-to the late-2000’s.Be that as it may, on June 29, 2007, the iPhone has been released in the market. The article has been helpful by discussing that to begin with, the Blackberry disregarded “touch screen” based innovation. This was done by demanding their telephones would remain the accepted standard for the enterprises. This has to be particularly since the iPhone battled ahead of schedule with strong email security of enterprise. In any case, by overwhelming in the market of consumer and gradually advancing “Bring Your Own Device” or BYOD measures inside organizations, Apple reclassified the market and left Blackberry lurching and blinded by its own prosperity. The resource has provided relevant information about their primary inaction snowballed in a progression of failing attempts to improve. Blackberry presently possess 0.8% of the market share of the Smartphone as per IDC. The article has also talked about the rumor that they has been currently taking a shot at a Siri-Like element known as the “Blackberry Assistant”. The article points out that they may be a tiny bit failing to meet expectations over that one.

Large, complex ICT projects are more likely to fail than succeed.   Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of a large ICT project that failed and explain the impacts of the failure.

IT’s biggest project failures — and what we can learn from them 

Widman, J. (2017). IT’s biggest project failures — and what we can learn from them. [online] Computerworld. Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2533563/it-project-management/it-s-biggest-project-failures—-and-what-we-can-learn-from-them.html [Accessed 16 May 2017]. 

Summary:

From the article I have chosen the IBM’s Stretch venture that has failed miserably. In 1956, a gathering of researchers at IBM embarked to fabricate the world’s quickest supercomputer. After five years, they created the IBM 7030 also known as the Extend. The author explains that it was the organization’s initially transistorized supercomputer, and conveyed the principal unit to the “Los Alamos National Laboratory” in the year of 1961. The resource has provided relevant information by mentioning that for taking care of a half-million directions for each second. Stretch was the quickest PC on the planet and would have remained so till 1964.

By and by, the 7030 has been viewed as a disappointment. The article has been helpful by discussing that the IBM’s initial bid to the Los Alamos has been to build up a PC that was 100 times speedier than the framework it was intended to supplant. The Stretch came in just 30 to 40 times quicker. Since it neglected to meet its objective, IBM needed to drop Stretch’s cost to 7.8 million dollars from the arranged 13.5 million dollars. This implied the framework was valued beneath the cost. The organization quit offering that 7030 available to be purchased. Just nine of them were ever manufactured.  The article points out that was not the finishing of the story. The resource has provided relevant information about in any case a great deal of what went into that exertion was later to what was left to the industry. The Stretch presented pipelining, the memory security, the memory interleaving and different other technologies that have formed the improvement of PCs as we probably have been aware of.