Cloud Computing

At first the term could computing can be quite a difficult term to comprehend – what is is the cloud? What dos it do? And where does it exist? Now the answer seems to be quite simple; the ‘cloud’ is merely another term for the internet. Cloud computing basicaly involves third parties providing businesses with the use of software and facilities via the internet so that the business does not need to own this software themselves. Software does not exist in servers at the location of the business but rather in the cloud. There are many benefits to managing IT in this way and with many market leaders such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo getting involved it is set to be the way of the future. There a number of glaring advantages.

First off, not having as many servers on-site can vastly reduce the workload of the IT department, giving them more time to spend on benefitial activities such as aquiring new licences rather than spending hours de-bugging software problems and conducting maintenence. These problems are taken off the hands of the business.
Also reduced costs involved at start-up offers easier access to the market for new businesses. Licencing costs amount only to fraction of the huge cost of installing vast IT harware services. Costs are not only cut at the initial stage but also in the future through depreciation and out-dating. With cloud-computing, users always have access to the most recent software versions.

The mobile capabilities of cloud computing are one of the most exciting, especially in our current mobile computing orientated environment. What will excite managers is the notion of being able to access all their business applications through a web browser from any location. This would only previously been achievable through very high powered devices.

However as with all relaively new computing concepts there are a few incorporated issues. For example, one such issue for the business is how to integrate the data stored on their own servers with the data that existists within the cloud. For a business the idea of having data on their own servers and possibly differing corresponding data at another location will be a nightmare. Luckily companies such as Informatica are currently providing integration solutions to this problem.

References:
www.informatica.com
www.informatica.com

Social Networking - hype or not?

In Ireland, until mainly the mid naughties we as a nation had been pretty ignorant to the notion of social networking. The idea of people who preferred to communicate online electronically rather than ‘down the local’ seemed quite odd. To put it bluntly, social networking had a bad image; it was viewed as a tool which only catered for nerds and pimply techno-kids to allow them the dignity of remaining in comforting surrounds of their bedrooms when they needed to make contact with members of the outside world! That was of course until the infamous Bebo revolution! Now social networking has hit the mainstream and brands such as Facebook and Myspace are as recognisable as those of Coca-cola and Nike. To investigate if they are here to stay I believe we must look at the people who use them, why they use them and inevitably their benefits to business.

Users
In 2008 the most comprehensive study of social networking surveying 49.3m people between the ages of 14-74 was carried out by Rapleaf. It revealed some unsurprising and also some interesting statistics. For example the world’s most popular social networking site Facebook, is dominated by the youngest demographic of user i.e. 14-24; it also stated that the demographic of users of a given social networking website varies greatly for the functionality offered by that website. This shows that the old generation of social network users has been replaced by a younger, more informed group.

Why use social networks?
For me the popularity of social networking is glaringly obvious- giving a person their own personal webspace where they can control the content, control who views the content and offers them the opportunity to be put them in contact with people of their own interests who they have not and possibly will not ever meet is an experience which i believe cannot be equalled, certainly not in the near future. Social networking’s impact on society has been immense and is most noticeable each day in the faces which appear on our TVs and in our newspapers. At the very least it offers the humble everyday user the chance to catch up with friends and follow their interests, at any time they wish.

Benefits to business
As with any fad the commercial viability of social networks has a huge part to play in whether or not they will be around in times to come. We always hear about the success stories arising from sites such Youtube and Myspace, but offering professionals a forum where they can communicate and share their work can offer similar success for the business. Exploiting the advertising and customer relationship management potential of a social network which has reached peak usage in its lifecycle can be very beneficial to the business.

References:
www.rapleaf.com

Emerging threats to business security

While electronic security has always been an issue for businesses to deal with, many may have found a false comfort in the impressive development of internet security and anti-virus software in recent times. Along with our ever increasing technology landscape comes new ideas and opportunities for criminals to attack. These facts are backed up by an FBI report published in February 2009 which stated that cyber criminals have stolen more than $433 billion, which in itself translates to 6% of the US economy.

1. Emerging opportunities for attack.
In a statement released this year, WatchGuard, a leading network security company claimed that due to the ever increasing 'mobile workforce' and 'the exponential growth and development of Web 2.0' a new and innovative security solution was requried. They also estimated that threats of this nature will triple in 2010. These types of attacks result from the growing number of mobile devices and their use of features such as 'always-on' internet access which allow attackers more opportunity and scope for disruption.

2. Malware.
Although in existance for many years malware remains a constant issue in business security. This can by proven by the fact that a type of autorun based malware is currently topping the 'BitDefender’s Top Ten Threat Report for November'. This is a report issued by BitDefender each month outlining the top current threats.

3. Insider misuse.
Although like malware in the sense that it has been an issue for many years, negligence of authorised users continues to emerge as the leading cause of security breaches.
A February 2009 Ponemon Institute study reported 88% of data breaches were attributable to staff negligence or lack of awareness.




References:

. http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/

www.WatchGuard.com

www.bitdefender.com

Can neural networks be useful for business?

Growing since the day that Alan Turing introduced the world to the idea of the artificial neural network in his 1948 paper "Intelligent Machinery", neural networks have evolved as a useful and dynamic tool which offer an efficient and effective business solutions to common problems for modern businesses; problems such as fitness approximation, data processing, and robotics .They are particularly effective in situations where complexity of the data or task makes providing a solution impractical by hand.

Real life applications:

• In 2005 Sirakaya, Delen and Choi published a paper which investigated community support for commercial gaming in the United States. They utilised an artificial Neural Network to conduct the research and used variables such as geographic space, proximity to population centres and church membership to make their assessment.

• Amir F. Atiya in 2001 publised his article entitled “Bankruptcy Prediction for Credit Risk Using Neural Networks: A Survey and New Results”. This paper was written for the corporation he was working for namely IEEE. Using the neural network which he developed he was able to provide a corporate bankruptcy prediction model with an accuracy from 81.46% to 85.5%.

Neural Networks provide an alternative to conventional techniques which are often limited by strict rules of normality, linearity, variable independence etc. Because a neural network can capture many kinds of relationships it allows the user to easily show or explain phenomena which otherwise may have been very difficult or impossible to explain.

Workings of a Genetic Algorithm

Facts about the genetic algorithm:

1. Inspired by Darwins theory of Evolution or the notion of ‘survival of the fittest’. We will see below that when a new population is being created the two fittest chromosomes from the previous population are selected for the creation of the new population.


2. Each feasible solution to the problem can be plotted as point on a graph which represents the search space or fitness landscape. Thus the search space contains all feasible solutions.
   
3. For any problem we are always looking for the best possible solution available, as the genetic algorithm utilises a formula this will usually be either a maximum or a minimum value. On the graph, the optimum point or the highest point always represents the fittest solution.
   
   How it works:
   1. A random population of chromosomes (possible solutions to the problem) is generated.
   2. The fitness of each chromosome (solution) is evaluated.
   3. A new population is then created by: 1) selecting two chromosomes in the population according to their fitness, 2) performing crossover probability on the parent chromosomes to create two new chromosomes (offspring), 3)then using mutation probability randomly change the gene values of the offspring 4)and finally placing the offspring in the new population.
   4. The new population is used to run the algorithm again.
   5. Check if the fittest possible solution has been found (highest point on the graph) and if not steps 2, 3 and 4 are repeated until it is.

History of Artificial Intelligence

Since Karel Capek's play in 1921, ‘Rossums Universal Robots’ coined the term ‘Robots’ in the English language as a term to describe the young inventor Rossum’s artificial version of humananity, the idea of robots and indeed artificial intelligence have been a fascination of mankind. The ancestry of modern artificial intelligence can traced far into ancient times, with the notion of artificial beings blessed ‘with conciseness and being’. It was after the invention of the programmable computer in the 1940’s that the idea of building a computer to mimic the workings of the human brain became a plausible theory to scientists.

In 1950 the father of modern computer science Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test in his paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’. This test worked on the basis that if a person could not tell the difference between communicating with a machine and communicating with human in another room, then we can call that machine an intelligent machine.

In 1956 John McCarthy coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ at the ‘Dartmoth Conference’ – the first conference dedicated to the idea.

In 1957 The General Problem Solver was demonstrated by Newell, Shaw & Simon. This was a machine which offered logical solutions to problems such as theorems and algebra.

In 1962 the first industrial robot company, Unimation, was founded. It produced a materials handling robot used mainly in the manufacturing industry.

In 1969 Shakey was built by SRI International. It became the first robot to apply reasoning to its own actions, and respond to commands.

In 1979 the Stanford Cart. This was the first computer controlled vehicle and required room sized computers for operation. The Cart’s main function was the ability to follow a white line drawn across a floor using its TV camera and other methods.

In more modern times robots have begun to capture the imagination of society more and more. The was most evident when in 1997 ‘The Deep Blue’ chess program took on and beat the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in a widely followed match. This brought real life robotics to the masses.

Since then people have become familiar with many commercially available robotic toys which utilise the wonders of artificial intelligence. Examples include ‘Furby’ and the phenomenon which was the ‘Tomagotchi ‘.