CFPBUS006 - Integrated Professional Skills in the Digital Age

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 Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................... 3
“Identify any TWO collaboration tools and discuss how they have helped businesses to survive
the pandemic by reducing physical contact among the participants”........................................................4
“Discuss advantages, disadvantages, suitability, and applications of cloud storage and computing
in improving digitalisation”......................................................................................................................................... 6
“Identify privacy and security challenges and discuss what possible measures could be taken”...9
“Discuss the benefits and limitations of these networks”.............................................................................10
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................................ 12
References........................................................................................................................................................................ 13

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Introduction
Integrated professional skills in the digital age are of utmost importance for the growth of the
individual and the business. Digital Skills are essentially important in the digital age. Digital
skills are the potential to develop new information and knowledge as per the skills of the 21st
Century. It is vital to connect with the world (Starkey, 2020). Apart from digital skills, there
are other professional skills which are required in the digital age of the 21st Century. The
basic professional skills that are required in the digital age are communication skills and
critical thinking skills. An individual requires communication skills to interact and develop a
bond with people throughout the world on social media platforms. The individual and the
company can promote their business and brands through effective communication skills on
digital media (Tohara, 2021). Critical thinking skills are also significant skills as the
individual should have the potential to learn and apply new methods of technology (Warsah
et al., 2021). This report will discuss the advantages, suitability, disadvantages and
application of cloud storage. The report will also explore the privacy and security challenges
and their measures along with the benefits and limitations of the networks.

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“Identify any TWO collaboration tools and discuss how they have helped businesses to
survive the pandemic by reducing physical contact among the participants”.
The collaboration tools are the online software programs, platforms and apps that assist the
business and the people within them to streamline the creative process. It helps the business
to perform together and deliberately in a more productive way. The popular collaboration
tools that are useful for businesses consist of remote conferencing platforms, project
management applications and digital asset management (Prakash et al., 2020). The sudden
outbreak of COVID-19 throughout the world has extensively impacted the lives of an
individual to the largest companies and businesses. During the pandemic, the government
imposed certain restrictions on the business. The companies were forced to shut down or
close their businesses during the phase of COVID-19 (Greenberg et al., 2020). Thus, there is
no doubt that the pandemic has transformed the way and habits of both personal and
professional life. However, digital technologies have assisted businesses and individuals to
perform their tasks and duties conveniently and easily. The business executives adopted the
collaboration tools, such as Zoom Meetings and MS Teams to connect with their employees
without physical presence and contact (Sevilla, 2020).

Zoom Meetings

Zoom is an online platform of communication that allows users to connect through audio,
video, chat and phone. It is a cloud-based service of video conferencing that the user can use
to virtually meet with others through audio or video or both. The platform also lets the users
record the sessions for viewing later (Spathis and Dey, 2020). According to the reports,
around 500 companies of Fortune utilised Zoom in the year 2019 and during COVID-19, it
hit even greater heights. As “work from home” became the norm during the outbreak of
COVID-19, online meetings were done through Zoom video conferences. Several companies
from big to small switched to Zoom meetings more than ever before. As the app is easy and
convenient to use and it provided better and high-quality audio and video, the business
executives and the employees were also able to utilise it easily. In the difficult time of the
pandemic, Zoom not only help businesses but also helped the young people of the UK to
connect with their families and friends. The global pandemic increased the usage of Zoom
Meetings. Around 300 million meeting participants hit the Zoom Meetings on December
2019. The annual revenue of Zoom in 2020 was around €263.66 million (CNBC, 2021).

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Some businesses or companies suffered during the phase of the pandemic, while some
businesses have thrived during the pandemic as well. The business downloaded Zoom
Meetings for video conferencing programmes to stay connected with their investors and
stakeholders. According to some of the research, around 82% of employees used video
conferencing for attending meetings. Zoom Meetings also helped to reduce the loss of jobs of
around 550,000 globally in the phase of COVID-19. Out of which 2% accounted for the UK
workforce. The prevention of loss of jobs protected around 6% of the economy. 73% of UK
businesses accepted to continue their work through video conferencing tools like Zoom (UK
Parliament, 2021). The businesses were also able to reduce their rate of employee turnover by
keeping the employees engaged through online meetings. In the UK, the use of Zoom
Meetings for video conferencing was regarded as a key element for businesses to continue
with their operations during a pandemic. It was estimated that around 78% of the big
businesses in the UK could not have survived the pandemic without video conferencing tools
(UK Parliament, 2021).

MS Teams

Microsoft Teams or MS Teams is an online collaboration app which assists the members of
the org to utilise any equipment to stay in order and to have conversations. The individual can
make use of Microsoft Teams to have instant and quick conversations with the members of
the staff or guests outside of the organisation. MS Teams can help to make a private team for
sensitive or intuitive information and details (Martin and Tapp, 2019). It can also help the
leaders of the organisations to make an enterprise-wide team for discussing and
communicating with every employee and the people throughout the organisation. The
devastating outbreak of COVID-19 transformed the life and operations of businesses. To
prevent the spread of “corona virus” through physical contact, businesses implemented video
conference tools to continue with their operations. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, in
2019, Microsoft Teams users were around 20 million (Henderson et al., 2020). However,
when the world adopted the strategy of working from home, the number of users of MS
Teams increasingly rose to 115 million. Microsoft Teams generated revenue of around €5.56
billion in 2020 (Henderson et al., 2020). As the pandemic drove a large number of the
nation’s workforce towards remote positions, it eventually increased the requirements for
genuine cloud-based office products. Following, MS Teams was already a well-known tool
and option for the business. The single step of sign-in on an individual device made the
employees use it conveniently and easily in remote places. Businesses in both the sectors of

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private and public faced the challenge of communication barriers during the phase of a
pandemic. Thus, Microsoft Teams video conferencing stood out as an essential collaboration
tool for the managers and the staff to communicate. MS Teams also added the feature of
“Together Mode”, which allowed the meetings to sit next to one another in an effective way
(Garcia et al., 2021). Therefore, in this way, the two collaboration tools helped the businesses
to survive during the phase of the pandemic.

“Discuss advantages, disadvantages, suitability, and applications of cloud storage and

computing in improving digitalisation”.
Cloud storage is the method for consumers and businesses to save and secure data through
online means. In other words, it is a cloud computing model which allows businesses and
consumers to store files and data on the Internet by a cloud computing provider that can be
accessed by the individual via a private network connection or by the public Internet
(Schleier et al., 2021). Cloud storage does not store the files and data on the hard disk of the
individual’s personal computer. The user can access the data through a remote server. Cloud
storage has several advantages and disadvantages in its system (Vistro et al., 2020).

Advantages

One of the biggest benefits of Cloud Computing is cost saving. It assists the individual and
the businesses to reduce and save considerable capital as it does not require any sort of
investment in the physical hardware. In addition, using cloud computing does not require
highly skilled people or employees to maintain the hardware (Namasudra, 2021). The process
of purchasing and managing the hardware is done by the provider of cloud computing
service. Cloud computing also provides a verge of competitiveness over competitors. It is
regarded as one of the best advantages of Cloud services which assist the individual to access
new and updated applications anytime without investing time and money in the process of
installation. Cloud computing also allows the user to install the service in a faster way with
just a few clicks. Thus, this rapid distribution allows the users to receive the resources needed
for the system in a minute. Another benefit of Cloud Computing is to get the recovery and
back up more effortlessly after storing the data (Afzal and Kavitha, 2019). The users can
access the stored information easily and rapidly from anywhere and anytime throughout the
world. Cloud computing assists organisations to reduce the maintenance costs for both the

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software and hardware. Cloud computing also allows users to easily access the data on the
cloud through mobile devices. Cloud computing also provides an enormous volume of
storage capacity for storing all the essential data, such as images, video, audio, and so on in
one place (Namasudra, 2021). In addition, the biggest advantage is data security in cloud
computing. As it gives numerous features associated with security and safeguarding the data,
the data or the information is securely maintained and stored. The employees or the staff who
are located in distinctive geographical areas can collaborate and perform together in a great
and convenient manner.

Disadvantages

One of the drawbacks of cloud computing services is that they can only be used with Internet
connectivity. Businesses can face challenges when there is weak connectivity to the Internet,
as the services can get interrupted. Thus, one of the crucial disadvantages of cloud computing
is its dependency on the Internet. Another disadvantage of cloud computing services is the
threat to data security and privacy. Thus, insufficient measures of cloud security can
sometimes result in data leakage or security breach over the networks of the cloud (Abdalla
and Varol, 2019). This can lead to conceptual property theft, malware attacks and contract
breaches. According to the research, around 98% of the organisations utilising “cloud
computing services” have experienced a security breach at least once from 2020 to 2021
(Neicu et al., 2020). Although private clouds are regarded as one of the most secure cloud
services for businesses in the aspect of data security, the costs of placing the private clouds
are expensive compared to the hybrid, public and multi-clouds. Thus, many businesses or
companies prefer hybrid, multi-cloud, or public computing services. In addition, all cloud
computing services are entirely managed by cloud service providers in public, hybrid, and
community clouds. Customers are limited in their ability to control and adapt their
applications and services as a consequence. Thus, to receive control over the cloud's services
and applications, many businesses sign separate end-user license agreements. Both the
benefits and drawbacks of cloud computing costs are essential (Neicu et al., 2020). While it
assists small businesses to receive high-quality services without having to spend a lot of
money on the infrastructure of IT, there are a few hidden costs that can come up later and can
increase costs for businesses. Costs related to data migration, cloud use, and data transfers are
such types of examples.

Suitability

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One of the significant technologies that supports the overall digital business models are cloud
computing. It is no doubt that cloud computing services enable business and promotes
digitalisation. Several companies or businesses have implemented the process of digital
transformation in their operations to upgrade their IT infrastructure towards a new one. The
adaptability of the organisation's administration and advancement primarily assuming it is in
constant change, distributed computing permits organizations to save or reduce costs by not
putting resources into setting up and keeping up with IT assets in-house (Gill et al., 2019).
Cloud suitability is an exercise which needs a lot of thinking ahead. However, given that not
all aspects of the cloud ought to be positioned to become the platform for all components of
the infrastructure and implementation in the foreseeable future, it may not be necessary. As a
result, focusing solely on the "non-core" capabilities that won't cause any problems is the best
way to approach this process rather than holistically. The privacy, security, and safety of
conscious customer and business data should always be taken into consideration, even though
any move to the cloud will enhance the financial results (Gill et al., 2019). Coordination and
streamlining will always be important along with cutting costs and moving faster. Cloud
service providers are also adopting industry-standard planning in the same method that the
businesses are doing.

Applications

Cloud storage possesses several applications, such as data sharing, data backup and resource
service. Other network services can also use standard interfaces that it can provide. An
illustration of cloud storage technologies and applications is the self-developed B-Cloud
system below.

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 Fig no.1: Topological structure of B-cloud

(Source: Created by Stavrinides and Karatza, 2019)

The topmost level is known as the public cloud or wide area. It encompasses all WAN-
accessible areas accessible to backup clients. Wide-area managers and wide-area cloud
storage nodes are elements of wide-area cloud servers (Rashid and Chaturvedi, 2019). The
region (area or place) that divides the middle level, which is known as the regional cloud, is
typically geographical. It possesses service nodes like regional cloud manager and regional
cloud storage servers, just like wide area cloud. The local (private) cloud is the lowest level.
This is split up either by a small area or by a single body, like a business, school, or campus.
The local cloud can run on either a Wide Area Network (WAN) or a Local Area Network
(LAN), and its users are only cloud members. It possesses service nodes similar to private
cloud storage servers and local managers. Regional and private clouds, similar to wide-area
clouds, have several local storage nodes that provide backup services to multiple clients
(Stavrinides and Karatza, 2019).

“Identify privacy and security challenges and discuss what possible measures could be
taken”.
The digital age can be defined as the collection of several technological solutions such as
effective environments, intelligent applications, and knowledge-based systems, machine-
learning and digital services and so on. As the data is increasing at an unexpected rate, every
second, more than 1.7 megabytes of new data are created (Tawalbeh et al., 2019). Thus,
companies and businesses should stay aware of safeguarding their client's very own data as
well as touchy individual data. A public tracking site for data breaches called Breach Level
Index reports that since 2013, nearly 9,198,580,293 data records have been lost or stolen
(Keshta and Odeh, 2021). Even though the amount of data has increased at an aggressive rate
over the past ten years, insufficient security measures continue to put businesses at risk of a
data breach. In terms of data privacy, one of the biggest concerns and challenges is Personal
Identifiable Information (PII). In the technology-oriented world, managing millions or even
billions of data records becomes massive due to their veracity and volume. Organizations can
lose millions of dollars in revenue as a consequence of a data breach. According to the

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reports, the Ponemon Establishment found that the complete average expense of a breach cost
was 2.91 million in 2017 (Keshta and Odeh, 2021). In addition, there exists a 30% chance
that a business will suffer a data breach in the upcoming years. In the event of a breach,
numerous bodies impose severe regulatory charges on the organisation or the business. For
instance, in the European Union, Companies with customer data that suffer a significant
security breach could face a fine of up to €20 million or 4% of Adjusted Gross Revenue
(Tawalbeh et al., 2020). To ensure that their data is protected and that it can be recovered and
restored, businesses must invest in several essential security technologies, such as data
archiving, backup, and redundant infrastructure.

Measures

● Securing the email by interpreting the email of the clients, as it lets the individual or
the business install a “personal security certificate”. This can only allow trusted
recipients to read it.

● Streaming the programme in an effective surrounding in place of the “real” desktop

can prevent viruses to enter the computer.

● Prevent downloading unwanted and untrustworthy websites and malicious software.

● By setting a strong security password on the computer system and applications as well
(Balapour et al., 2020).

“Discuss the benefits and limitations of these networks”

Benefits

As most countries are blocking and filtering content, and creating a “splinternet”, the global
internet is becoming disintegrating or splintering. The “splinternet” consists of splintering or
separating the Internet into multiple pieces. It can be caused by the factors like government,
technology, politics, religion, and national interests (Lemley, 2020). Individual pieces are
administered by the different legislations, which results in several equivalent interests which
are not connected. The “splinternet” also possesses some benefits. With the help of the
splinternet, countries can prevent and restrict harmful content. It can also prevent surveillance
and censorship from third parties, which includes corporations and governments. It can
protect the human rights of the citizens instead of political interests. For example, in

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preventing cybercrimes, restricting harmful contents from children and safeguarding the
essential infrastructure of the country (Lemley, 2020). For instance, during the invasion of
Russia on Ukraine, its government blocked the sites like Twitter and Facebook in Russia as
the circulation of fake news or disinformation spread by Russia about the invasion
(Epifanova. 2020). China also inaugurated the “Golden Shield Project”, which is also called
as “Great Firewall” to inspect the information that is based on what the administration
decides is “safe”. When people outside China visit the country, they are incapable of
accessing the global Internet (Hoffmann et al., 2020).

Limitations

The countries like Russia and China have already initiated strict restrictions and limitations
on the Internet. The restrictions in China are specifically strict. Before access to the Internet,
citizens have to register for a social media account. They are prohibited from posting about
the government and sensitive content. However, if citizens post sensitive information on the
internet, then they are imprisoned or even can be prosecuted. The sites like Facebook,
YouTube, and Twitter are strictly censored (Griffiths, 2021).

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Conclusion
The above report has concluded that during the phase of the pandemic, collaboration tools
like Zoom meetings and ms teams have helped several businesses. In the digital age, cloud
computing also plays a major role in storing data and files. The report has also come to major
findings that there are several challenges in digital technology and splinternet.

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