CHAPTER CAPSTONE CASE: SOFTWEAR LIMITED

In the case study we are asked to:

1. Suggest software products that can provide network management
features for a network with 25-50 users.

Wireless networks enable multiple devices to use the same internet

connection remotely, as well as share files and other resources.
They also allow mobile devices, such as laptops, tablets and ipods to move
around within the network area freely and still maintain a connection to the
internet and the network.

2. Research for the TCO of the project, including the cost of hardware,
software installation, and maintenance.

3. What would be the benefits of a cloud computing architecture? What

would be the disadvantages? Give examples of cloud computing
services that are currently available.
Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote
servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data,
rather than a local server or a personal computer. Cloud computing
increases efficiency, helps improve cash flow and offers many more
benefitsHere's ten of the best.
1. Flexibility
Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with growing or
fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your needs increase its easy to
scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the services remote servers.
Likewise, if you need to scale down again, the flexibility is baked into
the service. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud
computing a real advantage over competitors its not surprising
that CIOs and IT Directors rank operational agility as a top driver for
cloud adoption.

2. Disaster recovery
Businesses of all sizes should be investing in robust disaster
recovery, but for smaller businesses that lack the required cash and
expertise, this is often more an ideal than the reality. Cloud is now
helping more organizations buck that trend.
3. Automatic software updates
The beauty of cloud computing is that the servers are offpremise, out of sight and out of your hair. Suppliers take care of them
for you and roll out regular software updates including security
updates so you dont have to worry about wasting time maintaining
the system yourself. Leaving you free to focus on the things that
matter, like growing your business.
4. Capital-expenditure Free
Cloud computing cut out the high cost of hardware. You simply
pay as you go and enjoy a subscription-based model thats kind to your
cash flow. Add to that the ease of setup and management and
suddenly your scary, hairy IT project looks at lot friendlier.
5. Increased collaboration
When your teams can access, edit and share documents
anytime, from anywhere, theyre able to do more together, and do it
better. Cloud-based workflow and file sharing apps help them make
updates in real time and gives them full visibility of their
collaborations.
6. Work from anywhere
With cloud computing, if youve got an internet connection you
can be at work. And with most serious cloud services offering mobile
apps, youre not restricted by which device youve got to hand.
Businesses can offer more flexible working perks to employees so they
can enjoy the work-life balance that suits them without productivity
taking a hit.
7. Document control
The more employees and partners collaborate on documents, the
greater the need for watertight document control. Before the cloud,
workers had to send files back and forth as email attachments to be
worked on by one user at a time. Sooner or later usually sooner you
end up with a mess of conflicting file content, formats and titles.
And as even the smallest companies become more global, the scope
for complication rises. According to one study, "73% of knowledge

workers collaborate with people in different time zones and regions at

least monthly".
When you make the move to cloud computing, all files are stored
centrally and everyone sees one version of the truth. Greater visibility
means improved collaboration, which ultimately means better work
and a healthier bottom line. If youre still relying on the old way, it
could be time to try something a little more streamlined.
8. Security
Lost laptops are a billion dollar business problem. And potentially
greater than the loss of an expensive piece of kit is the loss of the
sensitive data inside it. Cloud computing gives you greater security
when this happens. Because your data is stored in the cloud, you can
access it no matter what happens to your machine. And you can even
remotely wipe data from lost laptops so it doesnt get into the wrong
hands.
9. Competitiveness
Wish there was a simple step you could take to become more
competitive? Moving to the cloud gives access to enterprise-class
technology, for everyone. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster
than big, established competitors. Pay-as-you-go service and cloud
business applications mean small outfits can run with the big boys, and
disrupt the market, while remaining lean and nimble. David now packs
a Goliath-sized punch.
10. Environmentally friendly
While the above points spell out the benefits of cloud computing
for your business, moving to the cloud isnt an entirely selfish act. The
environment gets a little love too. When your cloud needs fluctuate,
your server capacity scales up and down to fit. So you only use the
energy you need and you dont leave oversized carbon footprints. This
is something close to our hearts at Salesforce, where we try our best to
create sustainable solutions with minimal environmental impact.
Any three of the above benefits would be enough to convince
many businesses to move their business into the cloud. But
when you add up all ten? Its approaching no-brainer territory.
Disadvantages of cloud computing
1) Downtime

This may be one of the worst disadvantages of cloud

computing. No cloud provider, even the very best, would claim
immunity to service outages. Cloud computing systems are internet
based, which means your access is fully dependent on your Internet
connection. And, like any hardware, cloud platforms themselves can
fail for any one of a thousand reasons.
2) Security and Privacy
Any discussion involving data must address security and privacy,
especially when it comes to managing sensitive data. We mustnt
forget Code Space and what happened to it after its AWS EC2 console
was hacked and its data eventually deleted, forcing the company to
close doors forever. By leveraging a remote cloud based infrastructure,
a company basically outsources everything it has.
Of course, your cloud service provider is expected to manage and
safeguard the underlying hardware infrastructure of a deployment,
however remote access is your responsibility and, in any case, no
system is perfectly secure. Youll have to carefully weigh all the risk
scenarios.
3) Vulnerability to Attack
In cloud computing, every component is potentially accessible
from the Internet. Of course, nothing connected to the Internet is
perfectly secure and even the best teams suffer severe attacks and
security breeches. But since cloud computing is built as a public
service and its easy to run before you learn to walk. No one at AWS
checks your administration skills before granting you an account: all it
takes to get started is a valid credit card.
Best practices to help you reduce cloud attacks:
Identify threats by correlating real-time alerts with global
security intelligence
Proactively protect information
Automate security through IT compliance controls
Prevent data exfiltration
Integrate prevention and response strategies into security
operations
Discover rogue projects with audits
Authenticate identities
These practices will help your organization to monitor for the exposure
and movement of critical data, defend crucial systems from attack and
compromise, and authenticate access to infrastructure and data. And

they keep away you from further risks and disadvantages of cloud
computing.
4) Limited control and flexibility
To varying degrees (depending on the particular service) cloud
users have limited control over the function and execution of their
hosting infrastructure. Cloud provider EULAs and management policies
might impose limits on what customers can do with their deployments.
Customers are also limited to the control and management of their
applications, data, and services, but not the backend infrastructure. Of
course, none of this will normally be a problem, but it should be taken
into account.
5) Cloud Computing platform dependencies
Implicit dependency, also known as vendor lock-in is another of
the disadvantages of cloud computing. Deep-rooted differences
between vendor systems can sometimes make it impossible to migrate
from one cloud platform to another. Not only can it be complex and
expensive to reconfigure your applications to meet the requirements of
a new host, but migration could also expose your data to additional
security and privacy vulnerabilities.
Best Practices to decrease dependency:
Properly understanding what your vendors are selling can help avoid
lock-in problems in the cloud. In fact, under the hood, many vendors
use the same open source components, building proprietary solutions
from their own unique recipes. Knowing whats really going on and
planning ahead can make a big difference.
6) Cloud Computing costs
Cloud computing especially on a small scale and for short term
projects can be pricey. Though it can allow you to reduce staff and
hardware costs, the overall price tag could end up higher than you
expected. Until youre sure of what will work best for you, its a good
idea to experiment with a variety of offerings. You might also make use
of the cost calculators made available by providers like Amazons
AWS and Googles GCP.
Disadvantages of cloud computing: conclusion

Even with all of the above disadvantages of Cloud Computing,

the environment has immense potential for many business models. As
platforms mature and the economies of scale continue to grow, costs
will continue to fall and reliability and security standards will improve.
Expect more of the same, but never fail to do your research and
planning.
TYPES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Major corporations including Amazon, Google, IBM, Sun, Cisco, Dell, HP,
Intel, Novell, and Oracle have invested in cloud computing and offer
individuals and businesses a range of cloud-based solutions.

Social Networking
Perhaps the most famous use of cloud computing, which does not
strike people as "cloud computing" at first glance is social networking
Websites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and many,
many others. The main idea of social networking is to find people you
already know or people you would like to know and share your
information with them. Of course, when you share your information
with these people, you're also sharing it with the people who run the
service.
While the primary purpose of social networking previously was
connecting people, businesses can use social networking too. By
creating a Facebook fan page, a business can connect with its
customers, and at the same time, those customers will be promoting
your business. Also, viral marketing tactics can be used in
combination with social networks. There are public relations experts
who specialize in social media marketing.

o E-Mail
Some of the biggest cloud computing services are Web-based email. As of January 2009, over 500 million people used Microsoft's Webbased e-mail, Hotmail or Windows Live Mail. Using a cloud computing
e-mail solution allows the mechanics of hosting an e-mail server and
maintaining it to be taken out of your hands. It also means that your email is accessible from anywhere
Document/Spreadsheet/Other Hosting Services
As made famous by Google Docs, a number of services like Zoho
Office exist on the Internet that allow you to keep and edit your
documents online. By doing so, the documents will be accessible

anywhere, and you can share the documents and collaborate on them.
Multiple people can work in the same document simultaneously.
A new online project management tool, Onit, is for "anyone and
everyone who manage projects big, small, business, legal
o Backup Services
Even if you do use services to keep all your documents and
photos, chances are you still having data on your personal computer.
One of the biggest problems with personal computing has been the
tendency to lose that data if your computer is stolen, destroyed, or the
storage device damaged. This is where backup comes in. Sometimes,
even backing up to media you have isn't good enough -- you need to
store the data off-site for more complete protection. Services
like JungleDisk, Carbonite, and Mozy allow you to automatically back
up all your data to servers spread around the country or world for a
suprisingly low price. Of course, your data is then susceptible to
security breaches.
Similarly, services like Syncplicity and Dropbox (both offer free
versions) make it easy to keep local copies of files on multiple
computers synchronized while keeping a copy in the "cloud." Some of
these services will even keep previous versions of files or deleted files
in case you happen to delete or mess up an important file.
o Banking and Financial Services
Consumers store personal financial information to cloud
computing service providers. In addition, consumers store tax records
using free or low cost online backup services.

MANAGE THE SWL PROJECT

We have been asked to manage SWLs new information system project.
Identify project tasks and determine when they will be performed.

1. The team should begin the project by reviewing the entity-relationship

diagram they previously prepared.
2. Identify the tables and review the relationship among them, and
analyze and record designs they have developed.
3. Review output requirements, input screen designs, processing
considerations, backup and recovery procedures, and controls that
must be built into the new system.
4. Start planning by defining the tasks that the new system would
perform, including a list of all reports and other required outputs.
5. Consider all possible security issues affecting the new system design.
6. Review all the ERDs and verify if the record designs are in 3NF.
7. Verify the new payroll system if it permits cross-platform access
because the ESIP system requires data from the payroll master file.
8. For the user interface, design a main form, or switchboard, that would
display automatically when the ESIP application started.
9. Create a prototype of the input screens to show up.
10.
Complete the system design phase by writing the documentation
and designing backup and recovery, file retention and start up
procedure.
11. Develop a system design specification for the ESIP system.