Friday, November 16, 2018
Answers fro case study questions and planning for disaster recovery
Chicago Tribune's Server Consolidation a Success
1. The order of the characteristics of infrastructure
Infrastructure architecture is the hardware; software as well as the telecommunications equipment that are combined to offer the underlying foundation that supports the goals of an enterprise. The solid i9nfrstactur architecture as highlighted in the case includes flexibility, scalability, reliability availability, and performance. The correct order is as follows.
1) Performance
2) Availability
3) Reliability
4) Flexibility
5) Scalability
2. A disaster recovery cost curve. Where the Tribune should operate on the curve
A disaster recovery costs curve shows the cost an organization occurs due to the unavailability of technology and information as well as the cost incurred when the organization is recovering from a given disaster over time. That is to say that the cost recovery curve is used to show how much it will cost a company to recover from a disaster and the amount it will cost the company in case of unavailability of critical technology and information. The curve should take into consideration the costs of losing technology and information in each department as well as the entire organization. In the first few hours of the disastrous event, the costs may be low, but as time goes, they begin increasing. In case a disastrous event occurs and causes failure of the data center, there will be high costs incurred, but that may also mean faster recovery (3-minute delay in our case) that can, in turn, lower the costs (Baltzan, 2009). That means Tribune ought to operate on the left side of the optimal point in the disaster recovery curve.
3. Backups and recovery. Risks to Tribune’s business due to lack of an adequate backup
A backup is data copy that is taken from the database and is useful for reconstructing the data. Recovery, on the other hand, is the ability to get a system back to its normal functioning after the event of a disaster that causes failure of that system. If Tribune fails to execute a backup plan properly and it loses its servers, that can handicap the company’s operations. For instance, it is shown that a 5-hour intermittent operation led to $1 million loss of revenue and expenses (McMeekin, 2004). The lack of an adequate plan can also make the organization to lose its reputation, court sanctions, compromised legal position, bankruptcy, and fines.
4. Why a scalable and highly available EA is critical to Tribune Company’s current operations and future growth
Scalable enterprise architecture is the one that increases in performance after the addition or removal of hardware. On the other hand, availability of a system is the percentage of time that the system normally works and attempting to reduce any unscheduled outages. High availability will help Tribune to have agility and flexibility in changing as per the changes in business needs. High availability to the company would mean new servers, redundant data centers, virtualization, among others. Scalability of their systems would help the company to change appropriately and meet the demands of the ever-changing competitive industry.
5. Need for information security in Tribune Company
The company is one of the top media companies in the US, meaning that it if prone to the man-made harm of its information system (McMeekin, 2004). A natural disaster is also common, and they may occur anytime and disrupt the company’s operations. It is, therefore, crucial to have information security in the company.
6. How the Tribune Company use classified Web services across its businesses
The company had to write a Web service code and then use it across the different businesses. In Web services, one only writes a code once and reuses it as many times as they may want.
Planning for Disaster Recovery
It is crucial for Beltz to develop a disaster recovery plan due to its location in an area that experiences hurricanes. A disaster recovery plan provides the strategies that are essential to restoring the hardware, data, and applications in time so as to meet the company’s business objectives (Snedaker & Rima 2014). The vulnerability of the company to hurricanes and other natural disaster means that it is operating in an unsafe environment. The loss of its data and information and assets through the disasters can threaten the survival of the company. The disaster recovery will help the company to recover quickly from disasters with minimal loss of operations.
Disaster Recovery Scenario
The scenario specifically addressed in this disaster recovery plan is the loss of access to information, the computer center and the data processing capabilities resulting from the hurricanes and natural disasters. The disaster recovery plan will only entail the recovery of the critical information systems. In the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster, key personnel will have to take immediate action of alerting the disaster recovery center (Factor, 2002).
Recovery Strategy
The strategy for recovery addressed here is the relocation of the critical information systems to the alternate site. The recovery services will have recoverability at the DR services provider location of the hot site. It will be the responsibility of the DR services provider to ensure that the information system configurations and the network related requirements are correct and technically feasible all the time.
The Recovery Phases
Phase 1
In the event of the declared disaster, the operations will have to be moved to the DR backup site as well as the emergency operations center. That activity should commence with the DRP activation. The period that will be allowed for the organization as well as the turnover of the backup site is only 24 hours. The recovery operations will be under the guidance of the disaster recovery manager.
Phase 2
The second phase will entail the recovery of critical business functions, the critical network connectivity and recovery of the critical applications. The goal, in this case, is to recover critical systems so that the company’s clients can continue business. Before the restoration of the critical business functions, the secondary site should be thoroughly tested so as to ensure that it is safe and that all the facilities like technology are working properly (Factor, 2002). The testing of technology and other facilities will be led by the technical officer.
Phase 3
The third phase will involve the returning of data processing operations to the primary facilities after it has been ensured that the primary site is safe from the disaster. The disaster recovery manager should ensure that the disaster recovery team performs their tasks as required so as to have a successful recovery within the recovery time objective.
Phase 4
The fourth phase will entail highlighting the lessons learned from the disaster and the recovery activities so as to make the necessary changes to the plan. The lessons learned will help to refine the DRP and make sure that in the future in case such a disaster occurs; the recovery will be much easier (Snedaker & Rima 2014).
References
Database Backup & Disaster Planning
Abstract
Database Backup and restoration of a database in information technology are essential to ensuring business continuity in the event of a failure. Disaster planning in an organization ensures that a business survives in the event of a catastrophe as well as enjoys other different benefits. This research paper discusses extensively database backup and disaster planning in enterprises. The paper also covers the importance of the integration of both backups and disaster planning and the impact if both do not get executed effectively.
Database backup
Database Backup in Information Technology (IT) entails of the copying of data so that it can get used to restore a database in case of information systems failure. The restoration of a database is essential for ensuring business continuity in the event of a failure. The database administrator in an organization undertakes the functions of preparing for possible system failures as well as recovery of the database during a disaster. The database administrator must ensure that the data is available to users in the shortest time possible and at the same time ensure that no data gets lost. Several checklists get considered when setting up database backup and recovery procedures.
It is essential to develop a comprehensive backup plan that includes all the types of Oracle relational database management system with the business. It should cover the data that requires getting backed up either through an online backup or an offline cold backup. In the event of a hardware failure, the entire system will get required to get restored completely. It hence requires backing up of the database server operating system initially. The superuser passwords should get backed up since they may get needed during recovery.
When setting up database backup procedures and practices, it is also necessary to consider the available backup types. Oracle database backup types include logical backups, physical offline or cold backups, and physical online or hot backups. Logical backups get executed through Oracle utilities “exp”. It backs up the entire database, individual schemas, tables or tablespaces. The restore gets performed using “imp” or Data Pump. Physical offline or cold backups entail the shutting down of the database and making a copy of all useful data files as well as other components of the database. Hot backups, on the other hand, back up the database while it is still up and running. SQL Server databases comprise of logical backups and physical backups. For logical backups in SQL Server, individual schema objects get backed up to flat files in any supported files and restoration takes place using bcp utility, the Import and Export Wizard, or the SQL Server Integration Services tools. For physical backups, all user databases get set up for full recovery model and both database and transaction logs get backed up to restore the database.
All databases backup procedures should also ensure they develop a strategy for handling very large database backups. In Oracle, database administrators can minimize the backup window for this type of backups by allocating multiple channels and fine-tuning backups. The administrator can also save disk space by utilizing compressed backups. The administrator can block tracking with incremental backup techniques with the latest versions. It is also vital to establish a suitable backup schedule and window. The location or store for backups should get considered adequately. It is a good database backup practice to backup data to disk, transfer to tape and later store tapes offsite for disaster recovery. The database administrator should also develop a backup retention policy.
Disaster Planning
For organizations, a disaster refers to any natural or manmade event in the organization that results in the disruption of the normal operations of a company or adverse impacts. These events include hurricanes, fire, storms, earthquakes, hardware failure, software bugs, etc. Disaster recovery planning is the measures put in place by an organization to prepare for and for response in the event of a catastrophe. The core objective of disaster recovery planning is to ensure the survival of the business.
When developing a disaster plan, it is essential to set the objectives that the particular technology must achieve. It is vital that the technology is simple so that recovery gets achieved easily and in a simple manner. Simplicity in a technology gets achieved by requiring automation, comprehensive fit, availability and reliability, and simple restoration of complex applications, in the recovery plan. An automated recovery process eliminates and reduces manual intervention.
When compiling a disaster plan several crucial elements should get considered as described below;
a) Singular and community-wide disasters
It is essential that a disaster plan takes into consideration the needs when responding to either a singular or a community-based disaster. The planning process of the disaster recovery must incorporate the needs and resources in both circumstances.
b) Notification procedures
When planning for disaster recovery, it is essential to list the persons to get notified and those to notify them in the event of a disaster, identify the notification channels, determine how regularly the list should get modified, and where to keep the list.
c) Delayed Access
The plans made for disaster recovery, and business continuity should take into consideration the actions to get implemented in case of an extended recovery time frames including delayed access to the operation building.
d) Relocation
The business continuity plan should take into consideration at what time frame, and state is it necessary to undertake temporary or permanent relocation (Moore, 1995).
e) Emergency authorization procedures
The disaster recovery plans should also consist of the emergency supply and acquisition requirements.
f) Insurance
The disaster recovery plan should incorporate an appropriate insurance plan that takes into consideration all the potential disaster events (Moore, 1995).
g) Public relations
The plans made for disaster recovery, and business continuity should address both internal and external public relations so as to ensure that workers and the community have adequate and correct information regarding the recovery process (Moore, 1995).
Disasters occur of varying magnitudes and result in various detrimental adverse impacts to buildings, IT systems, and equipment. The following are the common adverse effects of a hazard. First, catastrophes result in direct destruction to buildings, equipment and IT systems hence rendering equipment no operational and buildings uninhabitable. Disasters also affect people directly as they lead to loss of life, cause injuries and also leads to displacement. These impacts lead to loss of productive staff in a business as well as high medical expense. Second, disasters render buildings inaccessible due to their unsafe nature after catastrophes. Third, hazards result in utility outage such as interruption of water, natural gas and electric power hence rendering systems unusable and buildings uninhabitable. Fourth, catastrophes cause major transportation disruption by interrupting movement by roads, water, rail and air. These transportation disruptions have significant negative effect to economy as workers cannot report to work, receipt of supplies gets prevented and leads to the halting of shipment of products. Fifth, catastrophes result in communication outages as the direct damage of communication infrastructure prevents data and voice communication that is crucial for daily operational needs. Six, many of the hazards necessitate for evacuations to safe grounds Lastly, disasters result in increased level of employee absenteeism due to disruption of transport infrastructure, disruption of power and utility outages (Gregory, 2011).
Effective disaster management entails of various phases namely; preparedness, mitigation, recovery, and response. Preparedness phase entails of the activities that take place ways before the occurrence of a disaster. The core elements include resource assessment and acquisition, threat assessment, drills and exercises, plan documentation, and inter and intra-jurisdictional cooperation. Response phase entails of the execution of the plans and allocation of resources determined in the preparedness stage. The core elements are medical assistance and first aid, shelter and evacuation, search and rescue, secondary damage reduction and activation of emergency protocol. The recovery step entails of establishing, coordinating and undertaking service and site restoration plans for both immediate and strategic perspectives. Mitigation involves the efforts applied to minimize the impacts of subsequent disaster incidences. The core elements are legislative planning and enhanced reconstruction.
Importance of the integration of both backups and disaster planning and the impact if both do not get executed effectively
The integration of disaster recovery planning in an organization is useful since it brings numerous benefits. The business is adequately prepared for any occurrence of a disaster as well as has robust strategies to respond to the disaster; hence, ensuring business continuity in the event of a hazard. The organization also enjoys enhanced business processes as the processes undergo analysis and scrutiny, thus assisting system analysts to identify weak areas. The organization often gets involved in improving of IT systems, hence, ensure improved technology. The organization also encounters fewer disruptions due to improved technology, stable IT systems and system architecture changes that meet recovery objectives for previous outages hence preventing there repeated occurrence. Improved processes and technology in an organization leads to higher quality services thus enhanced customer satisfaction. The organization also acquires a higher competitive advantage in the market as its services are easily available and reliable.
When a disaster occurs in an organization that does not have a proper disaster plan, there are several adverse events that are likely to take place in the organization. For instance, the occurrence of disasters that lead to infrastructure damage and system outages such as earthquakes, hurricanes and severe weather, may lead into total loss of a business or the extended recovery time. Sabotage, severe crash and data corruption in an organization may result in several days outage to rebuild data from backup media or even total loss of essential company information.
References
Gregory, P. H. (2011). IT disaster recovery planning for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Moore, P. (1995). Critical elements of a disaster recovery and business/service continuity plan. Facilities, 13(9/10), 22-27.
Management
Customers are the most integral component that promotes the survival and success of any business establishment. The overall reason that a business exists is in ensuring that they serve and consequently meet the needs of their customers. Thus, it is the overall satisfaction of the clients’ b y a business that promotes their success through the ability to retain these clients following their satisfaction with the products and services that business offers. The assignment tasks itself with the assessment of the positive as well as the negative aspects that are related to the customers. The ability to adapt and consequently handle the customer concerns fast; the customer becomes vital component of the business establishment. The positive customer aspects include the fact that customers are a major source of business profits through their purchase of goods and services that the business is offering. Through the access to these profits, the business can attain their expansion agendas, promote their advertising to reach more customers as well as to engage in diverse corporate social responsibility endeavors to assists the community they serve (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry & Loh, 2014).
The other positive aspect of the customers is the fact that the feedback they give acts as a major informative attribute for the businesses. Constant feedback from the customers makes it possible for the business to assess the various issues; especially the complaints that the customers would like addressed and resolve them to enhance the satisfaction of these customers. The customers additionally serve as one of the most effective advertising strategies that a business can use. Testimony of a satisfied customer to a friend, colleague or neighbor gives the individuals a guarantee that the business is offering quality products and services. Thus, it is more likely that the individual who hears of the goods products and services that a business offers from a friend is going to purchase from this business than from the other one that they are have not heard of the products and services quality (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry & Loh, 2014).
Conversely, there are the negative customer aspects that end up affecting a business adversely, such as the fact that the customer with attitude issues can be a major demoralizing attribute for the employees. The customers who keep on yelling at the poor employees demoralize them, and in the adverse the employees quoting an attribute that increases the business’s operation costs. Additionally, the costs related to the satisfaction of a customer are expensive for any business establishment as the management has to keep on conducting industry research, training and retraining the employees. The employment of corporate social responsibility as an attraction customer strategy additionally is an aspect that ends up eating into the profits that a business could have made as they try to please and recruit additional customers (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry & Loh, 2014).
A customer who is not satisfied can be the major detriment to business as other than the fact that they are no longer customers of the business, the ruin their reputation by discussing the poor products and services with friends. The attribute has the additional impact of costing the business establishment prospective customers as the testimony of the poor services acts as an attribute that discourages these prospective clients to access the services or products from the business (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry & Loh, 2014).The loss of profits is the additional negative aspects that customers have on a business they poor quality products or services from a business leads to fewer customers, translating into lower services and the consequent lower profits for business. The overall impact of this aspect is that the business is going to engage in a survival mode that sees it start reducing their operational costs by cutting the number of employees as well as the employee training.
Reference
Charlie Chi Cong, M., Perry, C., & Loh, E. (2014). Integrating Organizational Change Management and Customer Relationship Management in a Casino. UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal, 18(2), 1-21.
Formal Analysis
Formal Analysis
The artwork is a result of the creativity of the artist about an idea or an item and intends to portray a particular message to the viewer. The analysis of a piece of work requires a thorough examination of the artwork as well as the incorporation of the formal details of the art. In the essay presented, the focus of discussion lies in a single western sculpture located at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The museum has a collection of artworks in the form of sculptures, paintings, and architecture. The discussion dwells on a sculpture labeled as the Minster Jug created in c. 1845 by Charles Meigh & Co. The sculpture falls under the Ceramic classification and located in the Department of European Sculpture and Dec Arts. The sculpture is outstanding among others and captures the attention of the eye due to its color selection and design.
The sculpture is free-standing as evident from the round bottom section. It stands freely without any support and appears to be on a flat surface. Jugs usually have varied uses of holding fluids and would be appropriate to have it with a flat bottom for stability. The sculpture is a high relief since the carving is much further from the background where the figures appear to be more on top of the background rather than part of it. As observed from the selected sculpture, it has conspicuous features and above the level of the background. It is easy to visualize the full sculpture from far and has a distinction from the background. It does not embed with the background, hence making it easy to identify all its descriptive elements. As observed, the minister jug stands out from the background by its design and colors. The viewer can identify the sense of space, linear perspective, and aerial perspective, as well as foreshortening. The sculpture is three-dimensional due to the ability to visualize the space, linear, and the breath elements.
Placement
The sculpture appears that it was meant to be placed on a pedestal and preferably a table or in a cupboard. The use of the sculpture makes it suitable to be placed on a pedestal other than on the ground. The position of placement should be moderately high to allow easy reach by the user, but at the same time not easily accessible to children who might destroy it. In the museum, the sculpture is placed on a pedestal and at a relative height for easy viewership. The position of placement should align with the elevation of the eye so that the viewer can have a clear focus on all its features. The position of the sculpture affects the notion of the viewer in certain aspects. Sculpture placed on a pedestal sends a clear message that the viewer should not tamper with it. It can be brittle, or liable to get damaged hence necessary to secure it from close handling. Also, the viewer may think that the sculpture is made of a high-value material, hence restricted for close mishandling. Placing an object on a pedestal and choosing an appropriate height develops particular perceptions of concern on the work.
Proportion and Scale
The presentation of a piece of art requires a consideration of the size and the proportion as either life-size, over life-size, or under life-size. The different aspects define an artwork as either assuming the original size of the object, smaller, or bigger than the actual size. For the sculpture selected, the size is under life-size since a normal jug is bigger in size in comparison to the art. However, the difference in size is small and helps to fit the sculptor within the presets of the artist. The size of the parts of the sculpture is comparable to a normal jug, but more concern lies in the proportionality on the entire artwork. The handle, the hollow part, and the base are proportional to the whole size of the sculpture and contribute to its stability as it rests on a flat surface.
Viewpoint
The sculpture is free-standing as earlier mentioned and hence have multiple vantage points. The viewer can position themselves from any side and still identify all the minute details of the sculpture since it is three-dimensional in geometrical perspectives. Whichever the vantage point selected by the viewer, it is easy to have an overall view of the sculpture. For the sculptor selected, different vantage points may not result in significant variations on the viewership since the sculpture has a uniform body and base. The only section to be affected is the mouth and the handle that have a unique design. Hence, a viewer may not have a full view of all the features of the mouth and the handle section depending on the vintage point selected.
Composition
The freestanding sculpture has a composition that distinguishes it from the other artworks in its vicinity. It is monochrome in appearance having a single color code for uniformity. However, the depicted color appears to be as a result of a combination of different colors mixed to produce the final shade. The sculpture is ceramic in classification but is a stoneware and smear glazed to produce the elegant appearance. The piece of art is easy to recognize the color code since the artist ensures that it is uniform throughout the visible sections. Being stoneware makes it susceptible to wearing upon exposure to adverse weather conditions, hence necessary to coat it with a thin smear of glaze. The coating does not erode the originality of the stone ware characteristics but makes it more elegant and conspicuous to the eye. Thus, painting is unnecessary on the stone ware since the smear glazed coating serves the purpose. The different materials used in making a final artwork affect the response to light. For the sculptor, the use of a thin coating of the smear glaze makes it more reflective to light. Thus, it maintains moderate temperatures to the material making up the sculptor. In essence, stoneware tends to absorb much heat and light hence necessary to have an external covering to counter the effects. Stoneware is made from natural materials whose response to light differs from one material to another. The sculpture selected response by reflecting, but others may absorb or pass the light through.
Texture
Texture describes the surface quality of the artwork. It is perceived from the visual and the physical properties of the object in focus. The use of texture alongside other elements of the design of an object helps to convey different messages and emotions. The feeling upon touching makes the viewer identify the texture of artwork with ease. For the sculptor presented, the texture is rough as evident from the external design. The artist intended to decorate the sculpture with uniform and unique projections and to curve on the outer surface. The bottom section has a rough texture drawn from the small ridges on the round base. The middle section of the sculpture has images of human beings in full appearance of two-dimensional geometry. The upper section near the mouth of the jug has decorations in the form of flowers that make the texture rough. The same scenario is evident on the handle which has projections and ridges to provide a firm grip to the user. The design of the external surface of the sculpture makes it make it have a rough texture that enhances the appearance. The rough texture affects the play of light by producing hues and tones that give space its identity. The reflection of light from various parts of the sculpture develops the hues and tones that make the object conspicuous. A rough surface allows light to interact with it in different ways thereby enhancing the visual element to the viewer. Some sections are curved, others protruding, and others inverted that make light reflection produce a good visual ability.
Conclusion
The formal analysis of the selected sculpture develops a different perspective about the understanding of pieces of artwork. From the sculpture analyzed, the aspects of composition and viewpoint elicit the original thoughts about the artwork. The description of the materials making up the sculpture and the blending of the color codes make it easy to identify with the artwork. The analysis of the viewpoint of the sculpture helps to understand why some objects are conspicuous from any angle, and others are not. Formal analysis of the sculptor helps to learn more about a piece of art through critical thinking.
Charles Meigh & Co, Minster Jug: A Formal Analysis
Management 430
With the current competitive nature of the business environments, businesses are engaging in tactics that will assist them to attract and consequently promote their businesses. The common assertion, in this case, is that the ability possesses quality customers is the main aspect that dictates whether a business is going to be a success or a failure. It is thus correct to argue that customers are the foundation of any business and that it is the customers who are the integral building blocks of the contemporary businesses (Taeshik, Jin Nam & Murdy, 2016).
As states realize, customers are the most integral component of business, and thus this assignment focuses on the assessment of the positive as well as the negative aspects that characterize customers. One of the positive customer aspects is the fact that that they can assist to promote a business’s products and services through the word of mouth marketing. One the clients to a certain business receive quality and satisfactory services; they engage in discussion on their social networks which results in the direct publicity as well as the increase in the popularity of the business. The business is thus able to attain free advertising from their most reliable ambassadors, an aspect that will promote their sales and the consequent profitability (Makanyeza, Macheyo & du Toit, 2016). The customers have a direct impact on the satisfaction of an organization’s shareholders as the increase in their purchases produces an increase in the satisfaction of the stakeholders of a certain business. The common attribute, in this case, is that the increase in their sales promotes the investment desires of the investors which lead to the ROI of the business improving in a dramatic manner.
The customers additionally have a direct impact on the motivation of the employees as the satisfaction of the customers impacts the organization’s working environment. It follows that the decrease in the pressure of meeting their targets as well as the other financial stability makes it possible for the employees to work in a comfortable corporate atmosphere and as a result promoting them to work to the maximum capacity.
The most common customer aspect relate to the fact that they always seek the best while using the least amount possible, which always makes them leave a certain business when they receive poor quality products or services. Thus the loose of customers by a business lead to lost profits as well as the fact that the inventory they had in storage is not going to be bought increasing their operational costs. In the same way, that customers promote a business that meets their needs, they also spoil the name of the company that offers poor quality of services or products. The vast growth of the social media sites implies that the company losses numerous numbers of prospective clients once the client shares the dissatisfaction online (Taeshik, Jin Nam & Murdy, 2016).
The common desire to satisfy the customers is an additional attribute that makes it impossible for some businesses especially the small ones stay in business. The rationale behind this assertion is the fact that that the customers will always be going on what is most efficient and at the lowest costs. With the current rapid growth in technology, new and better products and services are coming up on a daily basis, implying that a business has to invest a lot of resources in acquiring the technology as well as training their employees on the use of these technologies (Taeshik, Jin Nam & Murdy, 2016).The small businesses as well as those that little resources are unable to remain competitive and as the customers go out seeking better products and services, they are forced out of business.
Reference
Makanyeza, C., Macheyo, R., & du Toit, F. (2016). Perceived product necessity, perceived value, customer satisfaction and affective attitude: an integrative model. Journal Of African Business, 17(1), 69-86. doi:10.1080/15228916.2016.1112709
Taeshik, G., Jin Nam, C., & Murdy, S. (2016). Does Customer Value Creation Behavior Drive Customer Well-Being?. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 44(1), 59-75. doi:10.2224/sbp.2016.44.1.59
Comments
Post a Comment