Saturday, January 25, 2020

Before and After Cloud Computing in DPG Group of Companies

Before and After Cloud Computing in DPG Group of Companies About the company DPR Group, Inc., a full-service public relations, marketing and communications agency, was stuck in a technology rut that stymied productivity and limited their growth. DPG group broke free of the break-fix model of managed services and leaped ahead with cloud computing. DPR Group with a vision to open small satellite offices in technology hubs throughout the eastern United States. At the time of my technology challenge, DPG had expanded to two offices for nearly 15 employees with their headquarters in Germantown, Maryland, and a second office in Cary, North Carolina. However, providing expert public relations and marketing services to high-tech companies requires a strong technology infrastructure to effectively communicate with   clients. Without an on-site IT resource, one of their obstacles to growth was finding a way to keep all   in-house technology running smoothly. For four years worked with a managed services provider to help maintain their PCs, a Dell PowerEdge Server, and internal networks in both of DPG offices. Although the CEO of   managed services provider spoke eloquently about their companys preventative approach to computer maintenance, they actually spent far more time trying to fix things after they broke. What were the problems before moving to cloud Before moving   cloud number   of issues that challenged their ability to maintain the high-level client service that they offer. Downtime, latency, reliability, and accessibility were just a few reoccurring issues. For example,   managed services provider would frequently run software updates on Sunday nights and, due to compatibility issues with the updates and a lack of testing, the server would often crash on Monday mornings. This left   staff scrambling to work from back-up files, while the managed services provider attempted to fix the problem. Also, when working remotely, their staff used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) with severe latency and connectivity issues that caused delays and required additional time to complete basic tasks such as reconnection, file uploads, or even simply writing an email. Their managed services provider also experienced a lot of personnel turnover. Every time someone new started working on DPG account, they have to re-explain everything about not only the issue they were having, but also how our entire system was set up because the new expert staff was not familiar with their system. Not unexpectedly, DPG received daily complaints from my staff about how technology issues were making it difficult for everyone to do their job effectively. After discussing specific challenges with each of thier staff members, DPG calculated that every employee was losing from seven to nine days of productivity per year due to time spent waiting for a tech to fix the problems. What were the benefits of moving to cloud First they started   search for a new vendor by talking with a number of managed services providers that all promised to do a much better job of maintaining   computers and networks. More importantly, they started hearing the term cloud computing, and learned that it could streamline a lot of processes and significantly improve DPG productivity. Although cloud might be a better model for them, DPG also would need a local IT resource to maintain the basic hardware in our two different offices. After reviewing proposals from a number of providers within the Washington, D.C., metro area, DPG selected Virgina-based Cetrom Information Technology to take them to the cloud. This cloud computing service provider stood out from the rest for a few primary reasons. First, Cetrom offered a truly hosted cloud model. Other cloud providers would host data on the cloud, but install applications locally. It was either that, or they would have to use limited-functionality, software-as-a-service (SaaS) versions of their standard software. Cetrom, however, hosted the full, traditional versions of our software in the cloud and seamlessly mirrored a local environment. The Cetrom Hybrid places a small server on site in DPG headquarters that replicates the data to and from the cloud in real time. previously   they used to having all   IT within the office. Also, Cetroms senior-level engineers really took the time to understand DPG business goals and processes during roll out. From there, they designed   cloud solution for DPG-with strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and easy access to key applications-around all business, instead of making them adapt to a rigid, out-of-the-box solution. To avoid lost productivity hours, Cetroms engineers migrated DPG applications and data over the weekend .Working in the cloud provides numerous benefits. The primary benefit is the anytime, anywhere access to all the files and applications, with only an Internet connection. The ability to set permissions by users is also extremely beneficial as it ensures only authorized personnel have access to files, such as financials. Cetrom not only maintains its equipment and ensures the security of all its clients data, the company also constantly reviews the applications and services it provides clients to ensure they are the best available. Since moving to the Cetrom cloud, the company has changed spam filters for the email a few times, and each time they seen an improvement. The current version now catches about 99.5 percent of all incoming spam emails-an immense improvement over our previous provider. Perhaps the most important benefit of all is system reliability. Cetrom has a track record of zero downtime since its founding nearly 15 years ago. This one aspect returned nearly 10 hours of productivity back to DPG staff-equal to $50,000 annually-so they can focus on serving DPG clients. The cost savings from operational expenses in North Carolina-more than $70,000 annually-allowed them to move from   Germantown, Maryland, location to a larger, nicer office in Frederick, Maryland, with double the capacity for staff. Migrating to the cloud with Cetrom was one of the best business decisions DPG ever made. They have not had any downtime since DPG started with Cetrom, DPG data is available anytime, and they dont receive complaints from the staff about technology issues anymore.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Social Media on Society

Facebook the world. Since the beginning social networking sites, like Facebook has attracted several types of users, and in most cases, these people have incorporated these websites into their daily practices. While some sites support existing relationships, others help creating new relationships in different interests such as political views, religious, activities or even just gaming! While supporting Facebook on society is beneficial, one can find several factors that go against it, such as cyber bulling. Indeed, social networking provides society a lot of good tools, nonetheless people have taken social networking for granted.One of the main reasons and most popular because people use social networking sites is to keep in touch with friends and relatives while they are away. It aids the fact that several people who live away from their home receive continuous support from friends and people they communicate through Internet. According to a website article (ProCon. org, Page 2), 60 million of Americans received assistance with major life issues from people on their social network. â€Å"These people said social networking sites helped them connect with friends and experts who assisted on their decisions† (ProCon. rg, Page 2). With the technology developed by social networking, long distance communication has become much simpler and accessible to the average person; It has facilitated users to keep up with the face-to-face relationship with their friends and relatives. Not only does it facilitate the â€Å"virtual† contact between its users, but also it can be a technique to arrange personal meetings for different purposes. Taking into account the features social networking offers, it is also considered as a very potential tool that has even substitute traditional methods of communication.It has helped people getting to know deeper statistics about certain general interest topics such as politics. One day before the last US presidential election, the Democratic candidate had more followers than the Republican candidate in most of the social networking sites such as Facebook, My space and Twitter (ProCon. org, Page 2 & 3). I believe that since the majority of people that join social networking sites are a young crowd, their decisions and opinions have a strong influence and have a very solid word out in the world referring to any topic, in this case political.When the Internet boom started years ago, many schools considered the Internet a â€Å"distraction† that was not really necessary. Beginning with scholars, social networking has been playing a very significant system on today’s education. Parents have claimed that their children have improved their writing, reading and conflict resolution skills, and learned how to express themselves better, and meet new students around the world (Cassel, Page1)( Procon. org, Page 2). By expanding the sources of information and feedback students have the ability of gatheri ng more information and learn more about their interests.The fact that is very easy to communicate with their classmates through any chat or website makes their education fun and interactive. Incorporating social networking as a tool of learning, schools and different institutes have developed â€Å"safety policies† that protect users from any harm through Internet. Using social networking to enlarge your business opportunities is a great tool mostly used by young professionals. Getting into an unknown world in your career, young professionals see social networking as a guide and a way of easily targeting their interest in a professional level.Searching for a job or starting your own business requires exposing those services to several people in order to have success. With social networking professionals are a click away of letting the world know who they are and their services. It’s easier to tell your abilities to a large â€Å"virtual† group of people once, t han having to tell capabilities one hundred times individually. It’s time consuming, and a time is money. Because of that and other reasons, social networking has been used as an advertisement method.Big, medium and small size companies are utilizing social networking to deliver to consumers their product and facilitate the access for further information about their services (Accardi, Page 20). Besides companies, people are taking advantage of the â€Å"marketplace† offered by social websites to advertise personal items and make a profit. Just like everything, social networking has its down side as well. It can influence people, especially teenagers, in a negative and/or destructive way.An average of time spent on social networking is 9 hours per day, which could be applied to more productive activities such as sports, and education (ProCon. org, Page 1). Over-communication drives users to the release of confidential and personal information that can be easily taken an d manipulated by anyone. By displaying personal information opens doors to sexual predators, identity thieves, and cyber-bullying which can affect society in many aspects. â€Å"Department of Defense is considering a ban on social networking sites because of concerns over security threats and potential computer viruses† (ProCon. rg, Page 2). Even the government with all its security systems, has taken serious actions regarding social networking with their employees, and members to avoid any leak of information. Furthermore, companies are adopting this system of social networks to either recruit people or firing current employees. Social networking is also highlighted by the fact of joining groups of common interest. However, when people limit themselves to their interests only, they are preventing themselves of growth (Pagliarini, Page 1).Limiting yourself from acknowledging information in certain topics or groups could also isolate you from society that could benefit you int ellectually and professionally. Another harmful aspect of social networking is that it could affect your health, specially children’s brain development as well as mental disorders. â€Å"My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment† (Cassel, Page 1).It has also been stated that the personal contact with people is healthier that looking at a screen. Having more direct contact with the world also benefits the quality of relationships we develop. Sometimes people focus more in the virtual method of networking, rather than the â€Å"non-virtual† and it separates people from actual physical networks that could end up in a good personal or business relationship. Social networking has an enormous impact on today’s society. Many believe that social networking is beneficial, others don’t.Having the opportunity to investigate more into social networking brought up to my attention that it can be very beneficial as long as we can control the web and the web doesn’t control us. The power of social networking is very capable of putting companies on top of the list, or leaving people out in the streets without a job. The ability of shorten distances between families and friends has been the number one use of social networking, unfortunately many individuals take advantage of social networking and start persecuting innocent people and creating harm to society.The benefits provided by social networking have made society and individuals become more productive and updated with today’s world technology. It’s a magnificent tool with a lot of good outcomes, a tool that in some cases is very costly for the wellness of society. Bibliography Cassel, David. http://tech. blorge. com/Structure:%20/2007/08/07/schoolboards-net-dangers-over-rated-bring-social-networks-to-s chool/. 07 August 2007. 14 September 2010. Pagliarini, Robert. www. moneywatch. bnet. com. 6 April 2009. 28 September 2010 . ProCon. org. â€Å"Social Networking ProCon. org. † 24 Septemeber 2010. Social Networking ProCon. org. 28 September 2010.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Relationship Between Class Stratification And Sport

Introduction: This essay discusses in detail about the relationship between class stratification and sport in regards to two sociologists views; Karl Marx and Bero Rigauer. These theories specify that sports are shaped by unequal distribution of power in social classes demonstrated in terms of access, control, and social mobility. Karl Marx, was an 18th century German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was one of the first theorist to develop a conflict perspective on how society functions. His theory became known as Marxism, he saw that the ruling class represented and ruled the common interest of all social groups. Continuing with Marxism, it is a social class conflict within capitalism that†¦show more content†¦Moreover, he argues that the capitalist class has completely taken over the sport and have become pre-determined due to social categories. (Cashmore, 2000, pg. 95). Structures of social inequality among a group of people are called social stratification. Social stratification is an institutionalized system of power arrangements – of domination and subordination (wealthy vs. poor) because those who retain social power and resources can control and shape the lives of those who lack them (Sage, 1990, pg. 35). Due to each inequality there is an unequal distribution of power among social classes that shape the patterns of peoples social lives. Class stratification is driven by the economic and political system – capitalism. This system is empowered by private investors or individuals that become owners of a production and distribution of goods and services. Capitalist hold power over those who produce their goods and services, also known as workers (Sage, 1990, pg. 37). Furthermore, this means the capitalist class have more access to resources and power than the workers that lack productivity. This imbalance proves that the capitalist views of the world confine the lower-class views of the world which is not how it should be portrayed. Therefore, relating this to sport the structures of social inequality are displayed through the access, control and social mobility that is given. Some factors that we can take into account when studying sports in

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Religion As An Excuse For Violence - 1270 Words

Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without religion. Many of the ancient and historical conflicts are believed to be connected to religion in a various ways and proven that religion can be used as an excuse for violence. For instance, The Crusade Wars ended in the brutality of both Christians and Muslims during the mass dispute (Burton 1984). The Jews have perpetrated massacres through nations for the solitary reason to attain their belief. During the reformation of Christians thousands of people were killed because of their religion. In Yugoslavia, the war in 1991 pitted Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Catholics against each other in a brutal combat (Avalos 2005). Also, thousands of monks were being persecuted in BurmaShow MoreRelatedReligion In The Merchant Of Venice Essay1514 Words   |  7 PagesReligion is used as a rationale for violence, aggression, and mistreatment, because of how it can be a tool for dividing people and dehumanizing the outgroup. Religion gives these people the belief that their actions are mandated by God, which causes reasonable judgement to be clouded in favor of easy assumptions and hasty decisions. 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