Week 14 Enterprise Computing: Clear

This week's lectures were interesting. I could tell that Professor Olsen really liked the subject as well. It built upon the storage knowledge from weeks 2 and 3 and gave some specific hardware  and software examples of ways to meet computing needs for business.

Regarding thin client virtualization, I believe our company uses a form of this for our funeral directing software. All of the data and software is kept on servers in our main offices in Houston, Texas. We log into client computers with our personal login to access the system. If there is any loss of connectivity to the Internet we lose all functionality with the program, which happens very rarely. Other than the client machines used specially for video and sound production, there is very little memory needed locally to run the system.

I really got a lot out of Professor Olson's descriptions of how hardware would be setup for Hierarchical Storage Management, and Storage Area Networks to insure redundancy and safe and efficient data storage.

I also think that in many businesses thin client virtualization could be the answer for the efficient use of data storage. Purchasing storage as needed and being able to divide the space needed for clients in more exact quantities sounds ideal.

Email Security Project

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20013451-266.html?tag=mncol;txt

http://sify.com/finance/rim-confident-of-resolving-security-concerns-news-technology-klvakeehbjc.html

One difficulty international companies face is complying the different laws and regulations in the countries in which they do business. Recently Research In Motion, the developer of the popular Blackberry smartphones, has had trouble in India regarding their communication security.

India threatened to ban RIM's email and messenger unless the government could gain access to the encryption of these services. India claimed that unmonitored communications posed a security threat in their country. RIM's enterprise service has global security policies, and does not have custom encryption policies for individual corporate or government clients.

The threat of the proposed ban was avoided and according to RIM in a customer statement a mutual agreement is in the works. India is the fasting growing market in mobile communications.

Week 12: Communication and Networks

This week’s lectures were totally unexpected. The difference between the material in the textbook and the greater depth of the lectures shows that Professor Olsen has a passion for networking. I enjoyed comparing the concepts from the material to my limited knowledge of the network at work.

This week at work we switched around the layout of our office. I had to run new cable for one workstation and a printer that was previously connected to a workstation by USB. This also required manually configuring IP addresses to the printer under the direction of our network administrator. At the time I was just following the instructions of the administrator at the time. I wish I had been through this material before I did the move I think I would have a better understanding.

I also wish I had checked the cables before I ran them! I ran them over a drop ceiling per my manager’s instructions. Who knows how old they are and of what bandwidth they will support. First thing tomorrow I'm going to check and make sure it is at least CAT5e. I'm guessing not. 

Week 11: So-so on Systems Management

This week’s lectures and material were relatively new to me compared to the rest of the course up to this point. I feel that I have a better understanding on what systems management is about and can relate many of the terms and the roles of people to the systems i use at work.

The system we use for managing the finances and other aspects of our funeral home is called CFSS (Carriage Funeral Service System). Our parent company, Carriage Services, Inc. operates 144 funeral homes nationwide. CFSS is used to generate purchase contracts, manage inventory, and print documents.

As an end user of such a comprehensive system, it's easy to point out the system's short comings. After this module of the class I have a deeper respect for those that manage the system. Developing a system with thousands of users at different security levels,  must account for differences in laws from state to state, and securely handle sensitive information must be an enormous task.

The third generation of CFSS is increasing integration with other programs such as the software that we print stationery for services and update our website. We also have the ability to add pre-arrangement contracts in the system when they are purchased. These features reduce the time we spend entering data and save us a lot of time.

Carriage Services Website

Database Project

I am proud of myself for getting this project done early. Especially since It looks like I will be installing a garage door on my house instead of working on school this weekend.

I was introduced to Microsoft Access in the Intro to computers class I took as a prerequisite for the Online Business Program. I learned more about what a powerful tool this could be in business, especially in the hands of a database specialist. I learned about the different delimiters and text qualifiers of text files and how to import them to Access. I had been familiar with the Query, Form and Report Wizards from the last class. During the database project I familiarized myself with manipulating these objects in Design View. I found that it was not very intuitive, but with some trial and error I improved.

As for how the database could be made more functional, Iwould use lookup fields for all of the data that has a specified number of responses. In my project I formatted the Gender and Membership types only, but the State Field could be done as well. This would enable new records to be entered with less keystrokes.

Week 10: Databases, Clear

I was looking forward to this weeks assignments as I am not very familiar with Microsoft Access. The lectures were a little dull until I opened access and tried working with data along with them. This made them much easier to understand the processes and hopefully will help me finish my project on time.

After I took the prerequisite computer class for the Online Business Program, I found a way that Access can be used at our funeral home. For the last 30 years, every time someone passed away, we would type (on a typewriter!) The name of the deceased, date of death, file number and method of disposition on a 3 x 5 index card which would be filed alphabetically in a card catalogue. This is ridiculous, not only because of the archaic method of record keeping, but because the information is of very little value. It is only used to make it easier to look up records in our archives by name.

I proposed and designed an access database had more valuable fields such as buyer names and contact information, and contract numbers. Access allowed the user not only to look up decedents by name, but the information could be sorted by any of the information in the record. The database was available to the four funeral directors and the office manager, and since it contained more more info, sometimes we could avoid having to pull the physical record from the archives.

I am met with a lot of resistance when trying to update or change the processes at my job. When demonstrating the new database to my boss, another employee turned my computer off during the demonstration, thinking that a power failure would be a reason not to use it. To demonstrate it's superiority I pulled an shredded a random index card from the old catalog and turned my computer back on. Guess what? My database was still fine, but I still am working on updating our office.

Week Nine: Is anyone not clear on the internet at this point?

I was so wrapped up in the Presentations in Web 2.0 project before  leaving for the weekend that I forgot to post before I left. Glad I checked Blackboard before hitting the sack!

The internet...I'm not really sure what to write on this one. This the first week that I feel I was already familiar with the material.

The search engine has replaced many information resources. Email is now the main form of communication in most businesses. I stay connected with people all over the world through forums on topics that interest me.

I think you can even take classes online now...