Information Technology infrastructure for businesses Essay

Information Technology infrastructure for businesses - Essay Example Moreover, which would be the needs of such plan, meaning especially the people, organization and technology issues related to the specific business initiatives. Also, the implications of choosing hardware and software for the IT systems of a particular organization would be taken into consideration by the organization’s managers at an early stage, i.e. while planning the specific project, aiming to limit the chances of a potential failure. Choosing hardware and software for the organization can be a critical decision. IT systems have a key role in the development of each firm’s operations. However, their involvement in daily organizational activities can be differentiated across firms in accordance with the sector in which the firm operates, the business culture and the funds available for the support of the organization’s IT infrastructure. ... At the same time, choosing the appropriate hardware and software could affect the development of the organization; a highly performing IT system can result to the increase of the quality of customer services and the improvement of communication – exchange of information – across the organization; in other words, an effective IT system can lead to the increase of organizational performance offering to the organization a competitive advantage towards its rivals. However, in order for the above choice to be successful, it is necessary for certain people, organization and technology issues to be taken into consideration. More specifically, the managers involved in the specific decision have to ensure that the organization’s employees have the skills and capabilities required for handling the chosen software and hardware. Without the appropriately skilled staff, the new hardware and software would be of no value for the organization. Of course, it would be possible fo r the organization’s employees to be trained accordingly – a scheme which would be necessary in any case, under the terms that the chosen software and hardware would have specific requirements and the firm’s employees could not be aware of all of them (Kangas 2003). At the next level, it is required that the technology chosen to be compatible with the firm’s existing IT systems; if the replacement of the firm’s IT network is decided, then it would be made sure that the chosen hardware and software could cooperate – for example, a common operational environment would be chosen for the firm’s computers. Moreover, the cost of the software/ hardware chosen should be taken into consideration; this cost would include: the cost of the system’s

Team and leadership ip 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Team and leadership ip 2 - Essay Example On the other hand, leadership is a concern with bringing the team to the vision, which is through inspiration and good communication. They do this so that the team they lead can work harder and achieve the targeted goals. An effective leader needs to have leadership skills, and the knowledge that a leader possesses is influenced by factors such as personality, values, attitude, cognitive differences and charisma (Phipps and Prieto, 2011). Personality has been considered to influence as a major element in what makeup leadership style of a person. The personality trait of every leader has an impact on the dynamic of the team; therefore, indicating the way the leader must approach their working. It greatly affects how a leader interacts with his team members, and how the leader will act. A person’s charisma is a divine grace and is a source of authority for a leader to do good deeds (Phipps and Prieto, 2011). Hence, it makes people being led believe in the remarkable quality of a leader. Leaders who have charisma, they have an extraordinary personality, character, focused on their work and behaviour. Leaders attract people through interacting with them in discussions and arguments. Values of a person greatly affect and shape their decision-making and behaviour. In addition, personal values serve as a driver on the methods one uses in creating value. They influence how a leader perceives the external environment a nd shapes the choices they make and organizational performance. A leader’s attitude towards his team should be friendly, but of serious working to meet the goals set. A leader with a bad attitude towards his team members will not lead effectively. The cognitive difference between leaders includes the processes that these individuals use in making decisions and not just the decisions they make (Caruso, Mayer and Salovey, 2002). Leaders have

Reflective Writing Study Skills Essay Example for Free

Reflective Writing Study Skills Essay At the beginning of the task no one took the initiative of introducing themselves. Our initial concern was getting started on the jacket. This seemed to be of more importance to everyone. This could be viewed as unsociable, but on reflection, previous to this task we all took part in an ice-breaker session, whereby we had to introduce our selves by name, followed by a descriptive word, this meant we were already acquainted with one another, so concentrating on the task in hand seemed most appropriate. I believe we were all very wary of taking over as we were always asking one another do you think this is a good idea? and shall we do this?, rather than just doing it without the opinion of other team mates. Although this was the case it is possible we were being very agreeable to any idea put forward in order to keep peace, and put over a likable persona. Upon reflection the organisation of our group to begin with was very inefficient, we did not consult one another about how we would make the jacket, before getting on with the task, this meant the sleeves were being made by myself, whilst the body of the jacket by another, with no idea how they would fit together. I believe this is because we all wanted to have a share in making the jacket and help as much as possible, but no one wanted to adopt the role of task leader. On the other hand our team displayed great efficiency in the way we worked together, at one point we had a production line, where one would pass the Sellotape, then one would hold the piece in place, while the other stuck them together. We became a more efficient team the more we worked together on the task. Communication between us became more important. On the whole and on the basis of the finished product, it is evident that our team did work together efficiently, as we finished the task in good time and all of us had an input in the overall finished product. I believe I took on many different roles within the team. Initially I took on the role of energiser. This was evident by my enthusiasm, I was eager to get started and began listing many different ideas I had about how to put the jacket together, Jake was also an energiser as he had many different ideas he wanted to express and was fully involved in the task. Ricky initially  took on the role of relaxer as he was contemplating how things would work out and managed to condense our ideas to form a jacket. In these kind of situations I would usually put forward a good argument as to why my idea should be used above someone elses. I did not adopt this attitude in this instance because my team mates were new acquaintances so I wanted to leave a good impression, I was more conscious of their thoughts and ideas and accommodating them was important to me. With this in mind I would conclude that we worked as a collective rather than a hierarchy. Further into the task I took on the role of nurturer. I wanted to make sure that everyone had an input on the finished product and that all of our ideas had been listened to fairly, and put in place if all agreed. This was evident in that I was asking my team members what other ideas they had, and finding ways of accommodating them. I did not want anyone to feel left out or less involved. Rickys mathematical mind meant that it was easier for us to measure out the different parts of the jacket equally and in proportion. As Jake is used to working as a team when he plays football, this quality was evident in this task, as he was an up building and upbeat member of the team, trying to include everyone in the activities. Jake was soon nominated by myself and Ricky to be the model for the jacket, therefore it was up to me and Ricky to actually make the jacket. We both had an equal share in the labour, cutting, sticking and measuring different parts of the jacket at the same time, then finding a way to fix them together. This was important because if somebody was uninterested or just giving out orders the whole team could be affected and not want to take part. We all helped each other when needed and were happy in our individual tasks. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate the importance of achieving the task 6/10. This is because I did view the task as a competition, even though we were never told it was such. On reflection this would show I am a competitive person and I like a challenge. When a task is viewed competitively one will be more inclined and motivated to try their best and ultimately reach their potential. Initially the task seemed menial and pointless hence why I only  scored 6/10. I was aware the jacket itself had little importance and that rather the emphasis was on team work. Even though I was aware of this my competitiveness made me want to create an excellent jacket. With the prospect of becoming a teacher one day, this teamwork exercise has taught me that there are many different roles people can take on under a team building exercise. Everyone within my team had different skills and abilities. This exercise has taught me, not only how to identify these skills and abilities but also how they can be used in a beneficial way to complete a task. As a teacher I will have to cater for the needs of each student identifying their strengths and weaknesses and using them in a positive and up building way, so they can reach their potential. I have also seen how important these exercises are in terms of the class getting to know one another, for the student this can help by taking the emphasis of social fear and more onto learning. This is evident by more members of the class being involved in group discussions after the task. This could have the same effect on my future students.

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay Enterprises are increasingly deploying RESTful services for two reasons 1) to enable Web 2.0 integrations with data stores and backend systems 2) to allow RPC-style communication between client side web frameworks like GWT or YUI and backend systems. In addition, there are multiple frameworks to develop these services that are consumed internally and externally by different endpoints in different contexts. Hence, it is vital to provide simple and adaptable security that both integrates seamlessly with enterprise security and brings authentication, authorization and integrity to the services. This paper covers the pros and cons of various approaches of RESTful services security: 1) Transport level security (TLS/SSL) provides secure peer-to-peer authentication, but this technique is inadequate when requests for authentication are based on delegation (allowing sites to authenticate on behalf of the user). 2) The OAuth protocol enables consumers to access services through an API that doe s not require consumers to disclose their service provider credentials to access services. This is the most commonly followed approach used by Google AuthSub, AOL OpenAuth, and the Amazon AWS API. However, not all REST frameworks provide support to this protocol. 3) Token-based authentication developed for CA Technologies Unified Connector Framework (UCF) to expose services over REST or SOAP combines the advantages of these two without compromising standards and simplicity. Introduction Since RESTful web services are exposed using standard HTTP protocol and methods, they can easily be consumed in multiple ways, such as with direct access from browsers using URLs; through programmatic interface using HTTP client libraries; and from client side frameworks such as JavaScript,. If enterprise systems provide RESTful access to their data and functionality, the open nature of REST requires a strong security solution to prevent access by unintended users; to prevent sniffers on the network from reading messages; and to control the users who are allowed to interact with specific services and disallow certain actions for certain users. The question is what should be the strong security solution? The REST protocol itself does not specify any predefined security methods. Many people believe that HTTP security practices can be successfully applied for securing REST services. This can be true, depending on the scenarios where RESTful services are consumed. HTTP security may be ad equate if the RESTful services are intended for internal use only. One example is web applications using Ajax frameworks. Since they need RPC over HTTP or RESTful services for backend interactions, invocation of services is internal to the UI and transparent to clients who interact with the UI. In such a scenario, HTTP security may be adequate.. However, greater security is required when RESTful services are intended for external use, For example, CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform provides RESTful services that can be consumed by such mechanisms as mashups, ESBs, Ruby scripts, and many more, and requires a higher level of security. Although the security requirements greatly vary for these two scenarios, we need a simple and adaptable solution for both. This article describes the commonly used security methods for RESTful services and suggests a solution that mostly fulfills the security requirements for externally published services, including REST, SOAP over JMS, SOAP o ver HTTP, and other protocols. This approach was developed for and is used in the RESTful services of the Core API of CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform. Commonly available methods for securing RESTful services Container-Managed Authentication and Authorization: As RESTful web services are HTTP-centric, the most natural fit for authentication and authorization is container based authentication and authorization. The concept of realm places a central role in the Tomcat approach. A realm is a collection of resources including web pages and web services, with a designated authentication and authorization facility. The container approach to security also is declarative than programmatic that is details about the security realm are specified in a configuration file rather than in code. The container also provides option to enable wire level security. Refer [1] [2] for information about configuring realms for authentication and authorization and SSL/TLS for wire level security. The advantages of this method need not be specified explicitly here as they are proven and widely used. However, it has the following limitations when applied to RESTful services for enterprise use: With user credentials based authentication, the security solution is confined to identity silos. It does not support the Actas scenario. An Actas scenario involves multi-tiered systems to authenticate and pass information about identities between the tiers without having to pass this information at the application/business logic layer. Mutual Authentication: HTTPS with client certificate enabled performs two-way authentication. In addition to the client receiving a signed digital certificate representing the server, the server can receive a certificate that represents and identifies the client. When a client initially connects to a server, it exchanges its certificate and the server matches it against its internal store. Once this link is established, there is no further need for user authentication. Mutual authentication is perhaps the most secure way to perform authentication on the Web. This approach has the same drawbacks mentioned in the previous section. Another disadvantage of this approach is the managing of the certificates. The server must create a unique certificate for each client that wants to connect to the service. From the browser/human perspective, this can be burdensome, as the user has to do some extra configuration to interact with the server. Shared Key based authentication: This is the common method used by Amazon web services and Microsoft Azure services. In this method initially the client registers with the service provider. As part of registration, the service provider sends the client an Access Key ID and a Secret Access Key. When a client wants to invoke services, it prepares the request, performs a hash on the request using its Secret Access Key, attaches the signature (hash) to the request, and forwards it to the service provider. The service provider verifies the signature is a valid hash of the request and, if authenticated, processes the request ([3] [4]). This achieves requester authentication as well as integrity without SSL The problem with this authentication schemes is that the contents and ordering of the string to sign are different from one service provider to another service provider. For instance, though Amazons and Azures mechanisms are very similar, their differences make them incompatible. Perhaps due to this issue, the OAuth approach covered in the next section is gaining popularity as a standard security mechanism for RESTful services. OAuth Oauth is an open protocol allowing secure API authentication and authorization in a simple and standard method for web applications. OAuth allows users of a service to provide limited access to a third party account of theirs to the service without sharing credentials. OAuth is often described as a valet key that users can give to a service to access their accounts on other services. For example, a user of Flickr (the service provider) would provide Snapfish (the consumer) with read only access to their Flickr account. This lets Snapfish access photos in the users Flickr account so they can order prints. Refer [5] for more details about OAuth specification. OAuth has some distinct advantages: It doesnt require certificates By choosing the right token format, it can support claims based Token. A claim is a statement about a subject; for example, a name, key, group, permission, or capability made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are distributed by the issuer. It supports the SAML token. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a standard for exchanging authorization and authentication data between between an identity provider and a service provider regardless of their platforms or security systems. OAuth with SAML enables federated authentication and authorization. The only drawback is that not all RESTful services frameworks provide native support for dealing with OAuth based authentication. For example, Apache CXF does not support OAuth. Token based Authentication CA Technologies Catalyst4 integration platform includes the Unified Connector Framework (UCF) that provides a Java-based solution for connectivity and integration among CA and third-party products UCF has distinct security requirements: It should be able to support Actas scenarios; the platform should be able to invoke services from 3rd party providers on the behalf of clients Catalyst exposes services in several different protocols, including RESTful, SOAP over HTTP, SOAP over JMS, etc. Its security solution should work consistently in all the forms of the services. Its security solution should be extensible, simple and adaptable in different scenarios. To accommodate these requirements, UCF introduced the token based security solution using public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate for authentication and authorization of its services. This solution has the following components:. Domain Trust Certificate (DTC) is an X.509 v3 certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) or self signed owned by the DomainManager that controls the UCF domain. Trusted Certificate (TC) is a X.509 v3 certificate signed by DTC. A Node is either a service provider or service consumer who owns that TC signed by the DTC. Security Service is available per container2 which hosts several connectors1. This service issues a Token, validates the Token and sets claims retrieved from Token to the context so that they can be used by connectors or other entities in the container for Authorization or Actas scenarios. CertAuthService is an independent entity provides services like signing Certificate Signing Request CSR 5 and providing the DTC public key Token consists of set of claims signed by security service. Interactions on the Client side: The client generates a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) using keytool 6 and obtains a X.509 certificate signed by DTC from the CertAuthService. The signed CSR is called a Trusted Certificate (TC) in UCF domain. The client makes an addTrust() request to the Security Service at the service provider by passing its public key certificate. This step enables the Security Service to validate the certificate and add provided certificate to its trust store. Steps 1 2 are performed only once per client. The client makes a getToken() call with tokenRequest to the Security Service. The tokenRequest consists of claims and a signature computed using the clients private key. If client is using UCF API to make remote calls, then steps 1 2 are transparent to the client at the time of proxy creation to the service endpoint. The client prepares the request and adds the Token to the request header. If client is using the UCF API to make remote calls, then adding the Token to the request header is transparent to the client. The client makes a remote call Interactions on the Service side: The Security Service is hosted from a Catalyst container so that it is available to both external users and inside the container for security token validations. For addTrust() calls, the Security service validates the provided certificates signature to find whether it is signed by DTC or not. If it is DTC signed then the Service adds the certificate to its trust store. For getToken() calls, the Security service checks the signature against the available keys in its trust store. If it succeeds then a token is prepared and returned to the client. The token consists of claims, lifetime and the signature of the Security service. For all incoming calls to the services available in the Catalyst container, calls are intercepted at CXF handlers and the token is verified with Security service. If it is from a valid client then claims are extracted out of the token and sets to thread local context so that it may be used by connector implementation for further authorization or authentication with other service providers. Finally, the call is forwarded to the service. If the Security service is unable to validate the token, an unauthorized exception is returned to the client. Authorization is handled by any provider on service using claims. As described above, this solution supports authentication based on X.509 certificate and authorization is done by any provider using claims. The same set of claims is used for Actas scenario. For instance, services running in Catalyst container can use claims to talk to another services or endpoint on the behalf client. Conclusion The solution described in Section 3 is a better fit for platforms/products like Catalyst that need to make services available in more than one form such as REST, SOAP over HTTP and SOAP over JMS. It is a security solution that works consistently in all forms of services. Also, the solution is extensible to other modes of authentication like user credentials other than certificate based. This solution needs additional work to replace custom Token format to SAML based so that tokens can be consumed in third party software which understands SAML. This. Acknowledgments The solution described in Section 3 was contributed by entire UCF team which includes Sijelmassi, Rachid, me, GVN, Anila Kumar and Koganti, Naga. . Actas

The Unexpected Deaths :: essays research papers

Too much time on your hands can be self-destructing. It happens everyday, a woman with seemingly little to do with herself is able to sit and ponder her future; she is able to take a step back and examine where she has been and what could possibly lie ahead. Chilling to some who can’t even remember what they had for breakfast this morning and more disturbing to those who are not happy with the direction they are headed. But does it really matter in the end whether or not your toast had butter or jam on it or whether the things you have done in your time made you rich? The play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard examines the universal truth of the end of your days and the notion that what is in between really won’t count when it is all over.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Guildenstern, the more seemingly wiser of the duo, makes a comment in the first act to Rosencrantz, saying, â€Å"The only beginning is birth and the only end is death- if you can’t count on that, what can you count on?† (39). With this said, don’t you think that our two characters would do all they can to try and change the fate before them, to try to defy the laws of finality and probability, just as it happened in the flipping of the coins? However, it does not seem that these two men are capable of such higher thought. And, as said in class, the script has already been written, so wouldn’t any change you feel you were making already be in the script?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, in this play, whether you want to call it a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy, two men have basically seen the fate of all man and know that the end will come. There is nothing anyone can do about it. Moving along in the play though, they seem more and more naà ¯ve to the fact that they too will come to an end. They have refused to see deeper into the play acted out before them, the story that tells of their ending.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What does bring depth to these characters is the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do try to make sense of their existence and go through the play blissfully unaware of where it will all end. Ironic as that may sound, especially since Guildenstern did make a point to say that birth and death are the two things in life you can count on, the two men seem to think that just as the coin ended up on heads for ninety times, they too will defy the odds.

Cognitive Psychology Essay -- Papers Neurology Essays

Cognitive Psychology Psychology is defined as the study of mind, emotion and behaviour. One major perspective within psychology is known as cognitive psychology, which is primarily concerned with the explanation of thought processes through the development of theoretical mental systems. Cognitivism is somewhat broad in it’s approaches to psychology and only linked in it’s goal to create hypothetical mental structures to explain behaviour (â€Å"History & Scope Of Psychology†). The exact origins of cognitivism are difficult to pinpoint. Ideas that make up the perspective have been traced back to ancient Greece; however it is in modern times that it has developed to it’s prominent status of today. This period of time is referred to as the â€Å"cognitive revolution† of the 1960’s, lead by the work of those such as Piaget and Chomsky. Prior to this revolution, behaviourism (the study of cause and effect; environmental factors and their effect upon behaviour) was considered to be the dominant school of thought in psychology; however cognitivism soon emerged as the new dominant perspective. (â€Å"The History & Scope of Psychology†). It was in the 1967 publication of Cognitive Psychology by Neisser that a name was coined for the rising field of psychological science, and an outline of major research-to-date and significant concepts was offered. (Maclin & Solso, 2000) The goals of cognitivism are to attempt to understand the way in which the many processes of our minds work, through use of the scientific research method. It emphasises the importance of the mind in .. ...d adverse behaviour. Appleton Century Crofts: New York. Maclin, Otto H & Solso, Robert L. (2000) â€Å"Cognitive Psychology: History Of The Field† in Encyclopedia Of Psychology, Vol 2. American Psychological Association: New York. Neisser, U (1967) Cognitive Psychology. Appleton-Century-Crofts: New York. Piaget, J (1962) Play, Dreams & Imitation In Childhood. WW Norton: New York. Piaget, J (1970), Piaget's theory. In P. Mussen (ed) Handbook of child psychology, Vol.1. Wiley: New York. Ross, Suzanne L & Sharpe, Pete R. (1987) Living Psychology. Scribe Publications: Victoria Shannon, CE (1948) Mathematical Theory Of Communication in Bell System Tech. J. 27, 379-423, 623-656 Smith, E.E (2001) â€Å"Cognitive Psychology: History† in Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol 3. Elsevier: Oxford

Cell Phones – Boon or Bane

Is a knife useful instrument or a perilous weapon? It depends on how it is used. Same implies with the case of technology. The greatest invention are those which affect the mass of people; and of those greatest invention is cell phones . It would be very ungrateful on our parts not to recognise how imperative are they to us. Cell phones have revolutionised the human existence . This is possible only because they are getting cheaper and cheaper day by day. Discounted cell phones accessories have made it even easier to keep the phone intact and give it a longer life. Undoubtedly , if cell phones are in right hands ,then they are a marvel ! Firstly they are proved to be a gratuity on the account of uniting not only the country but the entire planet as a â€Å"global village†. No matter how far we are sitting we can gossip anytime anywhere! In fact it’s bliss to the parents as well as children . Parents can every time monitor their children and children are also safe. If anyone is in any kind of danger s/he can call for help immediately . It arrests mishaps. The delight of watching favourite tv shows, songs, etc is unmatched; as now cell phones are embedded with all high tech features. Also discounted cell phone accessories have added cherry on the top. Accessories such as wireless Bluetooth handset (can be used to talk without even locating the cell phone ) , cases and pouches (keeping the phone intact and out of harm's way ) , charger ,adapter battery covers ,screen protectors are so easily available that they help people to uphold their cell phone with an ease. There are always two sides of a coin . The Time creation aspect of technology has posed a peril which we keep ignoring . The cell phones have progressed rapidly at the rate of knots. Also at the same time they have provide us with a cushion to challenge more task than what we would have attempted if cell phones would have gone on a French leave! This invites element of multitasking. This deprives a person of enjoying his own hard earned money! Also when a person is multitasking rather than completing a single task he merely juggles between a huge number of tasks. This causes burden and hence results in Stress . Stress is a bane to the modern era. Due to our ill capacities of not understanding the correct usuage of resource, our life has turned into a Frankenstein’s movie! Also cell phones have made terrorist attacks in the world very easy. This has become a global matter of concern . Not going far beyond and viewing things aerially and focusing solely on our lives children are growing in precocious manner ,which is again a big matter of concern for parents . Also discounted cell phone accessories have made it easier for children to buy them and keep them unnoticed! They burn their time to ashes by playing games on it, listening songs etc. Instead of going out and playing, they stick to their easy chairs or couches and play games on their phones , which turns their reflexes into slow responses! We have heard of batteries blasting when they were put to charging. This is again on the account of using discounted cell phone accessories . The retailers replace the original piece with duplicate ones, to which customers are totally unaware of. Over utilisation of any resource is harmful . Now mobile phones have interweaved into our lives so much ,that some have started considering it as an inevitable part of their lives. They are addicted to it like a drug addict is addicted to drugs and some have gone even worse! This has consequently given rise to new phobias! Such as Nomophobia (the fear of being out of cell phone) ,Phantom ring (imagining call phone to be ringing when it is actually not) , Human antenna (holding phone high up in the air so that it can catch signal! )and so on. Not only this usage ,of cell phones driving have contributed 10% to the road accidents. We should always remember , that there lives a wise man between the valley of two mountains. Plain and pleasure are a result of modern technology . Usage of cell phones as a boon or a bane ; the answer lies in our hands!