Unit 1

Business Value of Telecommunication Networks

INTERNET

Introduction
It is “Network of Networks”, “electronic web” and information superhighway that interlinks
organisations and people, who have accessibility to network. It is an information library, which
provides searching of all possible topics and accessible to all users, without determining their
profile.
When two or more autonomous computers are interconnected in such a way that they can share
information and resources to achieve a better performance, it is known as network. When such
sharing takes place at a global level, it is referred as internet.
It is a communication network, which connects (work as bridge between networks) all word
wide small networks. Using WWW technology internet constructs the information systems (IS).
These IS helps the organisations to achieve the automation and standardization.

Internet Revolution
Internet was bom in 1969 in the U.S.A as a small network of four nodes located at the four
universities viz. SRI, UCLA, UCSB, and University of Utah, to facilitate sharing of scientific
data and computing resources between these remote sites. This network was built jointly by the
members of the host sites (the Network Work Grouping- NWG) and a consulting firm named
Bolt-Beranek and Newman (BBN) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense funded and controlled this network,
which was known as ARPANET.
During the 1980‟s, ARPA allowed many additional networks (mostly universities) to connect to
the ARPANET. As a result its size gradually increased. ARPA eventually decided to handover
the management of the network to another organization. By 1983, the military hosts of the
ARPANET were separated from the public hosts and a separate network named MILNET was
created.
Subsequently the ARPANET was dismantled as the new networks which sprung from
ARPANET came into being. Sometimes in the mid-1980‟s this network came to be known as the
Internet.
Main reasons of its revolution are that:-
1. It has inspired and made possible the creation of entirely new business enterprises,
including the much touted and highly speculative business of ecommerce
2. t has enabled governments to better share information about and distributes information
to their citizens, and better collect information about those citizens.
3. It has facilitated collaboration on research, which, incidentally, fulfilled one of the
visions of its original creators. It has dramatically changed the way we communicate and
has enabled the creation of new social structures in the form of virtual communities.
4. It has forever altered how we access information and the variety and quantity of

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 information one can access, empowering us to gain knowledge through a richness of
resources that was previously only imagined in science fiction.
5. It has allowed us to become publishers of family photos, shared genealogies, journals,
diaries, diatribes, musical compositions, short stories, full length novels, and just about
anything else that can be stored and distributed in the form of a computer file.

Characteristics of Internet
1) Complex Network: In internet, more than 150 million of computers are
interconnected, which makes it a complex “web of computers”.
2) Disorganized: The internet is a dynamic hence disorganized network. So, it is
confusing, even for the experienced users, to work on the internet.
3) Decentralized System: Millions of distinct networks and computers are connected
globally.
4) Collection of Billions of Files: Information on each and every possible topic is
available in the files (with various formats).
5) Extensive Usage: Millions of individuals access the internet regularly.
6) World-Wide Scope: Internet is used by millions of people world-wide for
various reasons, viz., sharing of files, searching of numerous topics, e-mailing,
etc.
7) Dynamic: Every second some information is shared on internet. Thus, internet
is dynamic as it changes every moment. For example, in every 30 minutes, a
new network gets connected to the internet.
8) Exponential Growth: The growth of internet is exponential. Currently it is
doubling its size in every 18 months.

Components of Internet
The various components of internet are described as follows:
1) Clients, Servers and Networks:
i) Clients PCs (Personal Computers): Computers, which request for
information from server, are known as client computers.
For example, a personal computer at home can be referred as a client PC,
which gets information from the internet.
ii) Server Computer: These are the powerful computers (having persistent internet
connection) that simultaneously fulfil the request of many client PCs.
iii) Networks: It refers to the “web” of various server computers and numerous
client PCs.
2) TCP/IP: This refers to the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol,
which is a rule or protocol that allows communication or transfer of data
between computers connected to the internet regardless of its location, type or
speed. A computer without this protocol will not be able to connect to the
internet.
3) Bandwidth: The speed of an internet connection is referred to as its bandwidth.
This determines the amount of data that can be transferred between client and
server computers in a specified period of time.
It also defines the data handling capacity of an internet connection. Therefore, a
bigger bandwidth ensures transfer of a larger volume of data in a short time
span because of higher speed.

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 4) World Wide Web: It is a system that supports the specially formatted (.htm or
.html) documents. This special format provides hyperlinks tQ access other
documents. It also supports graphics, audio and video files.
5) Web Browser: Simply, it is also known as „browser‟. It is an application
program. It is used to access, present and navigate the information available on
WWW. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) should be entered to start the
searching process.
For example, input the URL http://tppl.org.in/ into the browser to open the e-
commerce site of Thakur Publishers.
6) FTP: It is the abbreviation of File Transfer Protocol. It is used to transfer the
files from one computer to another via internet.
7) Chat: Some time a live discussion or conference is performed via internet. An
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is used to execute such live discussions. MSN and
Skype are the examples of such programs.
8) Search Engines: To search the information on WWW, an application program
is used which is known as „search engine‟. The most popular example of search
engine is „Google‟.

Infrastructure of Internet
A large variety of computers exist today - large mainframes and small PCs, slow and fast,
general purpose and special purpose, Windows system and Unix system - the Internet
connects them all.
A computer is connected to the Internet at two levels,
1) Hardware: The hardware includes network interface, modems, and cables to
hook the computer physically on the Internet.
2) Software: The software (also called protocols) is required to make the
communication between the computers understandable and meaningful.
A computer or a computer network is attached with a device called Modem (short for
modulator - demodulator) that converts the digital data coming from a computer into
analog voice form. This converted voice form is transmitted to the local Internet Service
Provider (another computer system) through telephone links where a Modem converts it
back into digital form. Through a series of ISP's this data can move across the Internet to
the desired location as shown in the figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: Internet Architecture

Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the agency, which enables users to access Internet services.
The ISP is equipped with all tools and technology to provide you the Internet services. The
computers at home or at offices have to be connected to the ISP first for accessing the Internet.
The connection to ISP can be made over a telephone line, leased line or wireless/radio link
connections.
Merely having a physical connection to the Internet will not make the computers communicate
with each other. They must communicate in a common language. Protocol is a set of rules that
must be followed by the communicating computers in order to enable them to exchange data.
These rules specify how the data will be broken into small packets, how the packets will be
addressed, how the errors will be checked and how the packets will be unpacked to retrieve the
original data at the receiving end.

Basics of Doing Business on the Internet

The Internet presents a new frontier with unlimited potential. Getting business online can provide
new opportunities and benefits. There are many different ways to do business online, and it‟s a
good idea to consider which ones might suit business.
New businesses are popping up on the Internet. Businesses have become networked enterprises.
The Internet, the Web, intranets and extranets are networking business processes and employees
together, and connecting them to their customers, suppliers and other business stakeholders.
Through Internet, companies and workgroups can:
1) Collaborate more creatively
2) Manage their business operations and organizational resources more effectively
3) Compete successfully in today‟s fast-changing global economy
Internet in telecommunications-based business applications helps a company overcome barrier to
business success. Four strategic capabilities of Internet include:
1) Overcome geographic barriers
2) Overcome time barriers
3) Overcome cost barriers
4) Overcome structural barriers
Advertising goods and services and completing one-off deals can be accomplished with the use
of the internet. Internet provides business to business as well as business to consumer
applications.

The internet offers a good place for shopping, enjoying, communicating and having fun.
Shopping is one of the most interesting things that can be done on the internet apart from other
things. A lot of open-minded and aggressive entrepreneurs have opted to choose internet as
means of starting their business and setting up an e-business rather than a traditional business
set-up. Selling on the web is almost the same as selling offline. The flow of information via the
internet is given below:
Components of E-Commerce Store
The five key components of the e-commerce store include:
1) Location and Hosting: The factors that must be considered when choosing location of store
include:
i) Traffic: The amount of traffic flow depends on the location of the store.
ii) Image: The perception of the store also depends on the location of the store.
iii) Competition: It is always better to locate a store where there is less competition.
iv) Convenience: There are some store locations that offer better services to merchants as
well as customers.
v) Size: It is essential that the store is big enough to accommodate all the products and
customers. In terms of e-commerce, the size is determined in terms of bandwidth,
processing power and the data storage capacity. The bandwidth refers to the amount of
data that can be sent through a connection at any given time. The processing power
refers to the amount of data that can be processed by a website.
For example, Mai‟s e-commerce Limited is a provider that provides functionalities like free
account, unlimited number of products, credit card processing and premium account to gain
access to merchant gateways etc. The technology components essential for creating e-
commerce store location include:
i) Domain Name Registration: This is the first step in creating an e-commerce location. A
domain name serves as the virtual location of the store on the web. This process is much
like registering a business being conducted at brick and mortar location.
ii) Host Selection: Web hosts enable a store‟s website to stay connected to the internet
using a secure and high bandwidth connection. The content of the website is stored on
the server of the host. There are several hosting alternatives that can be chosen from:
a) Free hosting provides limited amount of data, bandwidth and the type of content.
This is used for very simple websites.
b) Shared server hosting allows one server to host many websites and is one of the
cheapest alternatives used by small businesses.
c) In dedicated server hosting, a website is allocated its own dedicated server. This
option is best suited for large websites.
d) Co-located server hosting allows a customer to own the server and maintain it. This

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 is used for controlling outsourced hosting.
e) In-house hosting is used by large firms and requires a large amount of resources.
2) Marketing and Presentation: E-businesses require carrying out several activities so that
they can attract and retain customers. These activities may include:
i) Advertising: E-commerce makes use of traditional advertising methods and may also
use search engine and directory listings as well as banner ads to advertise their products
and services.
ii) Guerilla Marketing: This is used by businesses with a small budget. These do not
require many overt marketing methods but depend on word-of-mouth publicity to spread
messages and attract customers.
iii) Direct Marketing: This involves a direct contact between the business and customer
wherein the business tries to sell its products to the intended customer only.
iv) Presentation: Presentation enables a product to attract customers. A product or service
that is not presented in an attractive manner may not be able to hold the attention of the
customers for long.
3) Payment: Payments are the financial transactions that take place while purchasing and
selling products over web. For example, the most common type of electronic payment is
direct deposit of payroll.
There are several payment mechanisms are put in place to fulfil individual preferences. Each
of e-payment mechanisms has different attributes that make them suitable for different types
of e-commerce transactions.
4) Security: Brick and mortar stores generally put in place simple security mechanisms like
cameras, alarms etc. to secure their products. For e-commerce, the security mechanisms to
be put in place have to be more sophisticated.
The technologies used in e-commerce to secure the products and services include passwords
and encryption. Passwords help the e-commerce websites to know who is trying to access
the website. Encryption refers to encoding and decoding of information so that it can be
interpreted only by the intended receiver.
5) Fulfilment: Fulfilment enables the e-commerce merchants to process the orders received
from customers. There are several activities involved in this process and this is an important
factor in determining the profitability of the e-commerce business.
There are however several challenge^ to e-commerce fulfilment:
i) Customer Demand for Transparency: Web customers demand more and complete
information from the e-commerce sellers making it difficult for the e-commerce sellers to
meet the demands of the consumers.
ii) Multiple Activities and Parties: E-business must be able to handle and deal with multiple
parties and indulge in multiple activities so that they can fulfil the customer requirements
and demands.
iii) Multiple Systems: The e-business must be able to interact with multiple computers and
also coordinate with different platforms to fulfil the orders of customers.
iv) Capacity Utilization: It is essential for e-businesses to make use of their complete
capacity when they have more orders and even when the orders are a few. This is best
done by outsourcing fulfilment to third party E-commerce Services Provider (ESP).

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 Business Value of Internet
The internet can be of business value through (table 1.1):
1) Marketing: Development and promotion of products and services.
2) Sales: Processing of business transactions.
3) Service: Provision of information.
Table 1.1
Marketing Sales Service
ternet advertising/brand nline, instantaneous ster customer service.
development/corporate image. quoting.
ustomers engage in self-service thereby
oduct Differentiation: Use of reducing administrative and processing
the internet to offer unique features ster transaction speeds. overheads. For example, customers can
check their own account information,
and electronic services and to create track parcels, and perform interactive
institutional distinctiveness. needs analyses, without needing human
assistance.
oduct Innovation and of „any time of day or night‟
Growth: Creation of new products ecure transactions and order rovision
services and facilities to customers and
and services, ‟ and new markets; employees around the globe transcends
mass customisation of products; processing.
global expansion. the limitations of time and place.
Delivering attractive value-laden
content at a reasonable price. This Automatic integration and
entails the provision of easilycommunication with backoffice Availability of real-time, up-to-date
accessible, regularly updated,workflow system. information.
diverse and elegant content.
Improved user interfaces that
Dynamic adaption to customer are intuitive and hide the duced lead times.
behaviour. complexity of the underlying
technology.
icker time to market. utomated reminders and re- educed consumer search and selection
ordering. cost.
edback from clients.

Internet has following business value:

1) Cost Advantages: The Internet can decrease the marginal costs of marketing, sales, and
service.
2) Improving the Information Metabolism of Firms: New Internet information technologies,
such as e-mail filtering, can help reduce co-ordination costs and mitigate the information
overload, thereby speeding up the “information metabolism” of firms - that is, the ability of
firms to take in, move, digest, and respond to data. The Internet provides a useful and low-
cost mechanism for information storage, transport, and processing. The Internet thus
becomes an avenue for improving communication and co-ordination and streamlining
business processes.
3) Improving the Effectiveness, and Profitability of Management Decisions And Actions:
The Internet can add value by providing managers (including human managers and software
agents) with relevant and reliable information, in the right format, anywhere, and in real-
time. For example, managers can do market research through transaction analysis and can
view up-to-the-minute management reports.

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Domain Names System
DNS is a naming service which has a scalable and distributed database of IP addresses. In DNS
system, there are Name Servers (computers placed on various locations all over the world),
which store a part of information in DNS database.
Like a tree, DNS provides the hierarchical naming scheme. This is a host-based scheme with
domain and distributed database concepts. This process associates the host name with the host
computer IP address because it is difficult to remember numeric addresses (IP address). There
are hundreds of top-level domains which categorise the Internet and every domain has many
hosts. These domains are divided into various sub-domains, which are further divided into
various other levels and so on.
Figure 1.4 shows the tree structure of domains. In this figure, leaves domains have no sub-
domain but may include single host (node) or may represent even an organisation having
thousands of other hosts (nodes).

Format of Domain Names

Figure 1.5 shows a basic format of the domain name:

The exact layout may vary because sometimes an address may have some more parts. Domain is
divided into many sub-domains. Sometimes a domain name has the second and top-level domain
such as „www.tppl.co.in‟ where „.co‟ is the second level domain and „.in‟ is the top-level
domain.

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Elements of Domain Names
Figure 1.6 shows the fundamental elements of a domain name:

Figure 1.6: Elements of Domain Name System

1) Sub-domain: WWW is the subdomain of all domains. Some organisations like „dell‟ use the
„del‟ as subdomain (e.g., del.icio.us) for marketing purpose. It also identifies some
geographical region e.g., „sverige‟ is a subdomain which corresponds to Sweden.
2) Second Level Domain: It is the main part of a web address, which reflects the title of the
organisation. Various rules are applied on the second level domain.
Rules for Naming Second Level Domain
i) Only alphanumeric (means both letters and numbers) are used, except hyphen. Even
hyphen cannot be used at the beginning and end of the domain name.
ii) Maximum character length used for second level domain is 63.
iii) It starts only with a number or with a letter.
iv) No special character is used to define the second level domain.
3) Top Level Domain: In the hierarchical domain name system, top-level domains are present
at the top and installed in the root zone of the name space. Top-level domains are written at
the end of a domain, i.e., they are the last part of the fully qualified domain name such as
.com in www.google.com. It is not case sensitive i.e., it can also be written as „.COM‟. Most
of the top-level domains are managed by the organisation named as ICANN. ICANN
handles the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and is accountable for DNS root
zone maintenance.
Categories of Top Level Domain
Users have the following domain choice while selecting the top-level domain:
i) .edu: It is sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD). This domain name is proposed for

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 education institutions.
ii) .com: This extension is used for commercial sites. It is the generic Top Level Domain
(gTLD).
iii) .mil: It is also a sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD) for the United States Department
of Defence and its subsidiary or affiliated organisations, „.mil‟ is derived from the word
„military‟. This is the oldest top-level domain which was created in January 1985. Except
United States all other countries use this as the second level domain for military.
iv) .gov: It is also sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD) in the DNS. „.gov‟ is derived from
the word government, so it is used by the government entities only. The „.gov‟ domains
are managed by the GSA (General Services Administration). So, an authorised letter
should be submitted to the GSA, for registration of this domain. GSA provides some
guidelines for second level domain naming, e.g., for a state, user needs the full state
name or its abbreviation.
v) .net: This domain name is derived from the word „network‟ and originally created for
the companies who deal with network technologies.
For example, Internet Service Provider (ISP) „.net‟ is the top level domain (created in
January 1985), which is not included in the RFC 920. Registration of this domain is
handled through accredited registrars.
vi) .org: It comes from the word „organisation‟ and was created in January 1985. Generally,
it is used by the non-profit or non-commercial organisations. MITRE Corporation is the
first organisation which is registered (in January 1985) with .org domain (mitre.org).
Registration of this domain is handled through accredited registrars worldwide.
vii) .int: It is also a sponsored Top-Level Domain (sTLD) and derived from the word
„international‟.
According to current Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) policy, the „.int‟
sTLD is reserved for international treaty-based organisations, United Nations agencies
and organisations or entities having “Observer” status at the UN. This domain is firstly
used by NATO, which had been assigned the nato TLD.

Advantages of Internet
1) Employment Opportunities: Various new job opportunities like web administrators, web
designers and web developer, have emerged with growing number of organisations,
operating on the internet.
2) Improved Data Flow: Due to the internet, the flow of data has increased. For example, e-
mails can be delivered very fast anywhere in the world.
3) Increased Reachability: The Internet has made the world a smaller place and has also
removed class barriers. The facilities which could only be availed by the privileged class are
now available to the common man. For example, an academic course in the UK might be
pursued from Mauritius through e-varsity available on the Internet.
4) All-Time Availability: Information on the internet is available 24x7 as the servers, all
around the world, are constantly up and running persistently.
5) Accessibility to Knowledge: Internet can be considered to be a huge library that provides
up-to-date information on all possible topics. .
6) Online Communication: The internet provides two-way interactive online communication
tool like chat service, which is very different from one-way communication like letters,
telegrams and faxes.
7) E-Business: Internet is also used for all kinds of business operations like ordering of items,
making quotations, payment of bills, exchange of business documents, etc.
8) No Discrimination: Internet allows communication all over the world without
discriminating between its users. It is not partial to a particular person, organization or
country.
9) Reduced Cost: One can avoid unnecessary expenditure such as stationery cost, printing cost,
mailing cost, etc. by using internet.

Disadvantages of Internet
1) Addiction: The internet is becoming an addiction for some people thereby causing problems
in their personal relations, friends and family.
2) Loneliness: People who are addicted of internet are more likely to end up lonely and
depressed, than those who use it nominally.
3) Health Problem: Long time contact to computer screens and wrong sitting postures can lead
to various health problems.
4) Theft of Personal Details: While using the Internet, there is high possibility of cheating of
personal details like name, address and credit card number, which may be accessed and used
illegally by fraudsters.
5) Pornography: There are various pornographic sites available over the internet which can be
accessed by children that can have very bad influence on their mental health.
6) Virus Threat: Personal computers connected to the internet have high probability of virus
attacks which may interrupt the usual operations. This can result in hard disk crash.

Uses/Applications of Internet
Following are the various areas where Internet is used:
1) Online Communication: The computer users around the world are using the electronic mail
service to communicate with each other. Millions of users have found Internet to be a
productive and fast communication tool due to this facility.
2) Software Sharing: Using the Internet, one can gain access to a large repository of shareware
development tools and utilities. Some examples of such software are operating systems,
compilers, mail servers and code libraries.
3) Exchange of views on topics of Common Interest: There is large number of news groups
on the Internet. The group of users that share interest on a common topic can exchange their
views using such groups.
4) Posting of Information of General Interest: It is also possible to use the Internet as a large
electronic bulletin board using which people around the world can be made aware of
information of the general interest. Some of the information which is commonly posted over
the Internet is information about conferences and events, call for paper, for conferences and
career opportunities.
5) Product Promotion: These days most of the companies are taking the help of the Internet to
promote their products. The potential and existing customers of the company can be made
aware of product information, strategic alliances, corporate happenings, press releases and
corporate happenings with the help of corporate FTP, WWW server sites and Gopher.
6) Feedback about Products: Not only for the promotion of the products, the commercial
organisations are also using the Internet to get the information regarding market
opportunities of new products, ideas about new products and how much satisfied the users
are with the existing products.
 To do this, the companies put up an application that is interactive in nature on various sites
(such as WWW or Gopher site) over the Internet and find their feedback regarding this.
7) Customer Support Service: With the help of facilities such as FTP, mail and other services
many companies are judiciously using the Internet to provide timely support to their
customers. Internet has many tools that allow the organisations to offer high class customer
support.
8) Online Journals and Magazines: There are a large number of electronic subscriptions over
the Internet that people can access free of cost or at a very low cost. There are many sites
over the Internet that allows the users to access the electronic versions of the magazines and
journals.
For example, http://www.jagran.com provides the electronic version of Jagran newspaper.
There are a lot of researches that are aiming towards bringing up full-fledged electronic
libraries over the Internet.
9) Online Shopping: Virtual shops have also come up on the Internet which has become a new
market place. The people across the world can access the online shops 24x7x365. These
shops take the help of WWW, Gopher and FTP servers to provide information about services
or products. The customers can also carry out various queries regarding the products and
obtain sales quotes using the Internet.
10) World-Wide Video Conferencing: One of the emerging services over the Internet is video
conferencing. Using this facility a group of users can communicate with each other in the
manner that they were sitting face-to-face in the same room. The computers are fixed with
special audio devices using which the people can not only see each other but also can hear
what the other person is saying. The following figure illustrates the main and popular
applications of Internet:

Internet Services

1) Communication Services: Internet facilitates the communication between users.

Some of the tools used for
written communications are:
i) E-Mail: This is one of the first internet tools which mean sending messages
electronically. One can send and receive messages or any other desired
information with the help of e-mail.
ii) Usenet: It is a network which provides discussion groups. A user can post an
article in a chosen newsgroup, on the Usenet. Each newsgroup is specialised in
a particular topic such as politics, environment, etc.
iii) E-Chatting: Chatting on the internet is a popular way for people to express
views online in a group. It is similar as talking to someone, difference being
 that, one types words, instead of speaking. At any given time, more than one
conversation takes place in a chat room.
iv) Telnet: A command is used called Telnet, to connect the user and remote
machine (located anywhere over Internet). After the connection is established,
user can type and execute commands on the remote machine.
v) Internet Telephony: It enables people to use the Internet as a phone i.e. People
use Internet rather than the traditional telephone, to exchange spoken or other
telephonic information.
vi) Video Conferencing: It is an emergent service over internet that creates a
virtual discussion room for the group of users (located around the globe) to
converse and interact with each other. The parties interacting can see and hear
each other on their computer screens and feel that they are present in a single
room. This is enabled by a special audio-video device attached to their
computers.
A video conference can be person to person (referred to as “point-to-point”) or
can involve more than two people (referred to as “multipoint”) and the video
conferencing terminals are often referred to as “endpoints”.
The following five elements are common to all video conferencing endpoints:
i) Camera: The camera captures live images to send across the network.
ii) Visual Display: It displays the images of the people taking part in the
videoconference.
iii) Audio System: It includes both microphones to capture audio from the
endpoint and loudspeakers to play back the audio received from other
endpoints across the network connection.
iv) Compression: Videos are very bandwidth-intensive and they take a long
time to load. Therefore, video systems include technologies, often referred
to as codes, to compress and decompress video and audio data, allowing
transmission across a network connection in near-real time.
v) User Interface and Control System: The user interface allows the users
to control interactions for example, placing calls, storing and locating
numbers, and adjust environment settings such as volume. The control
system handles the underlying communication that takes place between
endpoints.
2) Information Retrieval Services: There are various tools available to retrieve
information from Internet. Some of them are as follows:
i) File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP allows the transfer of files from one
computer to another. File can be in any format like text, graphics, sound, etc. It
activates the client-server relationship. Thus, whatever that can be stored in a
computer can be moved with the FTP service.
ii) Archie: It is one of the first search tool developed on the Internet. It searches
anonymous FTP servers and recognizes all files available on these servers
from time to time.
After that it creates a central database. To access the Archie server, users
connect to server with the help of Archie server or Telnet command.
iii) Gopher: It is a menu based interface tool to retrieve information from internet.
It provides easy access to information on special servers known as Gopher
sites.
Primarily, Gopher performs the same task as the FTP command however; its
interface is much more user-friendly and provides many more functions such
 as links to other Internet services. A user can move, retrieve or display files
from remote sites by selecting an item on the Gopher menu.
iv) Veronica: It is an internet tool for searching items on Gopher menus. With
this, a user can get the necessary information very quickly. With the help of
the Veronica server, any user can easily access any database.
3) Web Services: These are client/server applications that provide communication
over WWW. It delivers applications to users at a lower cost. These include:
i) E-Govt: E-govt (E-government) means to facilitate the operation of the
government by using Internet technologies. It makes citizens aware of various
government services and information.
E-govemment deals primarily with Internet and non-internet applications to
help in day-to-day functioning of the governments.
ii) E-Commerce: The internet has also given rise to a new market concept that
consists of virtual shops. These shops are open 24 hours, all the year round,
and are available to buyers from across the world.
E-commerce refers to the trading in product or service over Internet.
iii) E-News: There are so many forms of news available electronically over
Internet, either free of cost or at very nominal charges.
iv) E-Recruitment: E-recruitment (online recruitment) is the process of
recruitment using electronic
resources, in particular the Internet. The main purpose of e-recruitment is to
hire more efficient, effective and best candidates from all accessible locations,
in less cost.
v) E-Education: E-Education refers to the use of the Internet in the field of
learning. E-classroom is used for e-education. Besides this, corporate intranets
are also used for just-in-time training, audio and video teleconferencing.

INTRANETS

Introduction
An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols and network
connectivity to securely share any part of an organisation‟s information or operational
systems with its employees. Sometimes, the term refers only to the organization‟s
internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization‟s computer
infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of
internal communication and collaboration.

Intranets are becoming popular, particularly in the commercial field, because:

1. The growth of the Internet has spawned sophisticated Web clients and
authoring tools;
2. Web browsers provide a familiar and consistent interface for different types of
information;
3. The client-server model enables effective integration of different systems and
information across a wide range of platforms;
4. It is very easy to publish information generated for Intranets on the Internet (as
the same technology and file formats are being used).
An organization‟s intranet does not necessarily have to provide access to the Internet.
When such access is provided, it is usually through a network gateway with a firewall,
shielding the intranet from unauthorized external access.
 The gateway often also implements user authentication, encryption of messages
connectivity for off-site employees to access company information, computing
resources, and internal communications. Increasingly, intranets are being used to
deliver tools and applications, e.g., collaboration (to facilitate working in groups and
teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer
relationship management tools, project management, etc., to advance productivity.

Characteristics of Intranets
1) Controlled Access: Intranet should be password protected. It should allow
different levels of access. Controlled access makes intranet more flexible and
greatly widens the range of uses.
2) Shared Access to Documents: If intranet does not provide shared access to
documents to the users, it is really not intranet.
3) Centralized Scheduling System: A centralized scheduling system ensures that
everyone stays on the same page. It allows meeting and events to be scheduled
from a company, department, and team level.
4) Individualization: Intranets should ideally conform to the individual user. The
idea is that intranets should be comfortable and convenient for a variety of
employees with a varying range of responsibilities.
5) Scalable: Web-based intranets are fully scalable. From 10 documents to 10
million, intranet can serve its constituents truly, as long as network bandwidth
suffices to meet user demands.
6) Open: Web is platform neutral and global, and web browsers function as
universal clients. Web technology is based on open standards and is available for
almost all leading operating systems and hardware platforms, and can leverage
legacy database systems.
7) Standard-Based: Internet and web technologies are based on Open Systems
technology standards and have two basic promises - ensure the viability of
internet network and be scalable on a global basic.

Architecture of Intranet
Competitive pressures lead to an intense challenge for companies to improve their
business while reducing the strain on corporate information systems. Intranets take on
increasing importance as well as new role in the development, deployment, and
management of application and resources.
Intranet applications rest on several layers of infrastructure. Layered architecture allows
companies to combine applications, tools, and databases in a coordinated approach. The
layered approach also allows companies to offer application enhancements at each
layer.
 Remote Servers Providing Operational and Historical Information
Figure 1.8: Internet Architecture for Marketing Decision Support

Information systems managers and developers today often have to manage

incompatible systems, brought in at various times to do very different tasks. Data
formats usually differ, and the connectivity issues involved are inherently complex.
Achieving a high level of integration requires the capabilities of multiple software
products to communicate and cooperate in data exchange and process hand-offs.
These demands require Intranets to go beyond their traditional “lowest common
denominator” role of electronic mail to more complex functions such as:
1) Simplify access to the multiple databases, applications, platforms, and objects
common in today's organizations.
2) Integrate existing systems easily with new technology as it emerges.
3) Improve the scalability, performance, and reliability of today‟s client/ server
applications.
4) Provide the flexibility to partition applications between different computers and
platforms.
5) Simplify administration of the distributed environment by supporting proprietary as
well as industry standard management solutions.
Intranet interface adds value to the customer interchange by automating the process
 of qualifying leads from an external Web home page. Used in conjunction with
other applications, the Intranet enables the integration of the Web as an interactive
marketing forum to become an input to the sales and marketing processes within the
company. Intranets enable access to the central database, thereby providing sales-
people and direct marketers with information to improve the quality of the contact,
whether it is by mail, by telephone, or in person.
Many financial services firms use the Web to handle account inquiries. While
responding to a customer's request or query, the system updates the customer‟s
profile information and attempts to cross-sell other financial products.
Following are the requirements that are being met with Intranet-based applications:
1) Provide individualized lead and contact management through automatically updated
to-do lists, ticklers, and follow-up lists.
2) Drive leads to closure while tracking all the decision makers, even if they are
distributed over multiple sites.
3) Automatically escalate action requests and notify appropriate people when deal
status changes.
4) Generate forecasts, including product, territory, regional, national, and worldwide
reports.
5) Generate lost business reports to support analysis of product/market needs.

Business Value of Intranets

1) Process Re-engineering: The Intranet can be of business value as a means for
connecting staff and improving internal communication and co-ordination. The
Intranet provides a means of connecting business units across multiple computing
; platforms. The Intranet thus facilitates effective re-engineering by allowing business
processes to be built across organizational barriers. Effective re-engineering
streamlines the internal value chain and can drastically reduce costs and lead times,
and improve flexibility and customer service.
2) Enterprise Application: The Intranet is well-suited to a variety of enterprise
applications including:
i) Workflow applications
ii) Human resource applications
Examples of human resource applications include use of the Intranet for
performance management and benefit scheme administration. For example, staff
could tailor their own benefits package without creating additional paperwork for
the Human Resources department. The Intranet can also be an effective training and
information dissemination tool, providing employees with access to up-to-date
information and tutorials.
3) Replacing Traditional Client/Server Applications: The Intranet is an ideal
mechanism for replacing traditional, platform-specific client/server applications.
Traditional client/server applications promote „islands of automation‟ within
companies, by restricting inter-departmental communication and causing rework,
duplicate data capture, and errors as data is passed between different applications
and operating systems. Intranets, which are platform independent, promote cross-
functional co-operation, electronic integration, and business synergy.
 Advantages of Intranets
1) Workforce Productivity: Intranets can help users to locate and view information
faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help
of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the
organization wants to make available, anytime and - subject to security provisions -
from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees‟ ability to
perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the
right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
2) Time: With intranets, organizations can make more information available to
employees on a “pull” basis (i.e., employees can link to relevant information at a
time which suits them) rather than being deluged indiscriminately by e-mails.
3) Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within
an organization, vertically and horizontally. From a communications standpoint,
intranets are useful to communicate strategic initiatives that have a global reach
throughout the organization. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is
the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is
driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and who to speak to for more
information. By providing this information on the intranet, staffs have the
opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization.
4) Document Handling: Web publishing allows „cumbersome‟ corporate knowledge
to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and
Web technologies.
5) Business Operations and Management: Intranets are also being used as a platform
for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and
decisions across the internetworked enterprise.
6) Cost-Effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than
maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and
requisition forms.
7) Promote Common Corporate Culture: Every user is viewing the same
information within the Intranet.
8) Enhance Collaboration: With information easily accessible by all authorized users,
teamwork is enabled.
9) Cross-Platform Capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are available for
Windows, Mac and UNIX.
Disadvantages of Intranets
1) Performance Limitations: Some applications that have been well optimized for
conventional and proprietary systems create a heavy system workload when
migrating them to an Internet platform or merging them with Intranet presentation;
this problem will reduce with enhanced Internet technologies and continuing
improvements in hardware price-performance.
2) Presentational Issues: Some people whose experience is rooted in paper
presentation want web pages to look like printed equivalents, and burden the
systems and their users with unnecessary and sometimes tedious “graphics”, which
often get in the way of the information rather than making it more accessible and
attractive. This is really a learning curve matter; at some stage the users‟ real needs
tend to come to the fore.
3) The “me too” Syndrome: The Internet world spawns innovations on a daily or
even an hourly basis. It is very difficult when a novelty first appears to know
whether it is a genuine advance or a passing fad, but some systems people cannot
 resist the urge to use the newest capabilities.
There is also a tendency for suppliers to promote new application function that will
only optimize with next generation technologies, and that can cripple the two, three
or four-year old systems that most people use at any particular time.

EXTRANET
Introduction
An Extranet is a private network that uses the internet protocol and the public
telecommunication system to securely share part of business information or operations
with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses.
An extranet can be viewed as part of a company‟s intranet that is extended to users
outside the company, usually via the Internet. It has also been described as a “state of
mind” in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with a selected set of
other companies (business-to-business, B2B), in isolation from all other Internet users.
In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) models involve known servers of one or more
companies, communicating with previously unknown consumer users.
According to Anandarajan, “Companies use the extranets to be in touch with
customers, merchants, trading partners, suppliers and several other spectators who
contribute to the operating effectiveness”.

An extranets give the assistance to the firm to exchange and process the high volumes of
business data from one computer to another. Extranet applications help to improve business
efficiency by improving data flow and inaccuracy reduction and reduce the need to re-enter data
from paper documents and thus prevent secretarial errors. It also reduces the need for human
resources involved in orders and accounts processing.
 Architecture of Extranets
An extranet uses the TCP/IP protocol to link intranets in different locations (figure 1.10).

Extranet transmissions are usually conducted over the internet, which offers little privacy or
transmission security. Therefore, it is necessary to add security features. This is done by
creating tunnels of secured data flows, using cryptography and authorisation algorithms, to
provide secure transport of private communications. An internet with tunnelling technology
is known as a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Extranets provide secured connectivity between a corporation‟s intranets and the intranets
of its business partners, materials suppliers, financial services, government, and customers.
Access to an extranet is usually limited by agreements of the collaborating parties, is
strictly controlled, and is available only to authorised personnel. The protected environment
of an extranet allows partners to collaborate and share information and to perform these
activities securely. .

Because an extranet allows connectivity between businesses through the internet, it is an

open and flexible platform suitable for supply chain activities. To further increase security,
many companies replicate the portions of their databases that they are willing to share with
their business partners and separate them physically from their regular intranets.

Business Value of Extranets

Extranet can be of business value as a means of connecting buyers and sellers. Some
common benefits as business value are:
1) Extranets Promote Value Chain Integration: Extranets, which are inter-organizational
networks, permit closer integration of adjacent steps in the value-chain, and allow
„joint, interpenetrating processes at the interface between value-added stages‟. Barriers
between the organisation and business partners and customers are lowered.
'
 Electronic integration leads to greater efficiency, data integrity and fewer errors as data need
only be entered once, at its source. For example, the customer fills in an order form on-line,
and the order details are automatically written to the database or electronically forwarded to
the workflow system. Tighter coupling of business partners results in time savings and
faster, more cost-effective client service. Integration can also lead to the elimination of
duplicate tasks and resources. Finally, integration can result in entirely new business models
through intermediation and disintermediation.
2) Extranets Provide Benefits of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) is the inter-process communication of business information in
standardised electronic form. Amongst the benefits of EDI are:
i) Reduced Time and Expense of Paperwork. EDI provides fast, inexpensive, reliable
connections to suppliers and customers. Fully digital information exchange eliminates
paperwork.
ii) Improved speed and efficiency in filling orders (i.e. reduced cycle and order fulfillment
times).
iii) Quicker transfer of business documents.
iv) Faster customer service.
v) Fewer errors.
vi) Automatic audit trails.
vii) Expanded customer/supplier base.
viii) Reduction of manual, labor-intensive activities.
ix) Automatic integration with internal business workflow systems.
3) Extranets help Improve Customer Relations And Foster A Better Understanding Of
Customer Needs: This is achieved through transparent customer tracking and transaction
analysis, personalization, direct feedback from customers, and pro-active provision of
information to customers. Client and supplier services are improved and become more cost
effective, especially as clients and suppliers engage in selfservice. For example, clients can
perform a computerized analysis of their needs, can check their own account information, or
can track the status of orders and deliveries without needing human assistance.
4) Extranets can help To Whom It May Concern: Lock in Partners and Customers.
Information gathered on customer needs and behaviors represents a switching barrier as
customers would need to „teach‟ a competitor all that information.
5) Inventory Reduction: Extranets reduce inventory and improve inventory turnover rates.
6) Time and Cost Reduction: Extranets reduce procurement costs and time. Extranets reduce
search, selection, and transaction costs. The purchasing process is thus quicker, more
convenient, and cheaper. The use of advanced computerized search engines as part of the
Extranet helps customers to quickly locate the cheapest or most appropriate products.
7) Global Reach: Extranets have Global Reach because the Internet is used as the platform for
extranet, extranet network has global reach.
8) Expand Flexibility: Extranets enhance the firm‟s flexibility. Because the Internet is an open,
public, ubiquitous network it is easy and cheap for new trading partners to connect to the
extranet network (which has the Internet as its foundation). '
9) Improvement in Decision-Making: Extranets improve management decisions through up-
to-the-minute management reporting on transactions and web-site activities.
Advantages of Extranet
1) High Efficiency and Less Mistakes: Extranet helps in improve company efficiency and
output by automating procedures that were done manually in the past. Automation can also
decrease the scope of mistake.
2) Quick Working: Work is done quickly as compared to past manual systems.
3) Cutting down Meeting Time: Extranets permit company information to be analysed at
period suitable for business customers, partners, suppliers, employees, and other stake-
holders. This helps in cutting down the conference/meeting times and is also helpful when
doing multinational business having with partners located in different countries and in
different time zones.
4) Updated Information Immediately: Information can be modified, updated and changed
immediately on an extranet. All approved members thus have instant access to the most
advanced information.
5) Provide Improved Relationship: Extranets can help in improving relationships with main
or potential customers by giving them correct, precise and efficient information.

Disadvantages of Extranet
1) Expensive: Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization
(e.g., hardware, software, employee training costs) - if hosted internally instead of via an
ASP.
2) Low Security: Security of extrhnets can be a big concern when dealing with valuable
information. System access needs to be carefully controlled to avoid sensitive information
falling into the wrong hands.
3) Lack of Communication: Extranets can reduce personal contact (face-to-face meetings)
with customers and business partners. This could cause a lack of connections made between
people and a company, which hurts the business when it comes to loyalty of its business
partners and customers.

Difference Between Intranet and Extranet

Table 1.2 shows the difference between Intranet and Extranet:
WEB PAGE DESIGN
Introduction
A web page is a document commonly written in Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) that is
accessible through the Internet or other network using a browser. A web page is accessed by
entering a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses and may contain text, graphics, and
hyperlinks to other web pages and files.
Web page design typically refers to the process of designing a web site (A website refers to a
central location that contains more than one web page) or web page layout and often includes the
graphical elements on a page. The design can be developed using a graphics program such as
Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks, and Corel Draw etc. and provides the framework for
the look and feel of a web page.
The finished product of the design does not contain code. Rather, the graphical representation of
the web page is used by another or the same party as the basis for the code. The representation is
divided into areas that can be represented by web code, and other areas that are purely graphics.
For example, Following is a clean, professional website design.

Creating Web Pages Using HTML

HTML is a scripting language which is used to publish information on documents available on

the World Wide Web. This means that the web is a collection of web pages (documents) written
in HTML.
HTML stands for „Hyper Text Mark-up Language‟ where the meaning of each term is described
as under:
1) Hypertext: This can be said to be similar to an ordinary text with extra features like
formatting, images, multimedia, and links to other documents. As it opens a new page of
information pertaining to the text, therefore it is referred to as hypertext.

2) Mark>up: An ordinary text is taken and extra symbols added (for mark-up in html) to
convert it into a command which guides the browser on how to display the text.

3) Language: Mark-up languages are special computer language as they are concerned with
classification of different parts of web page corresponding to their functions.

HTML is used to develop the web pages. It is a tag based language which uses tags and
attributes. HTML is a document formatting language in which the formatting instructions
are called tags.

Basic HTML Tags

Web pages are created by using HTML. HTML is a document formatting language and uses tags
and attributes to creating and formatting the HTML documents. Hence, the instructions that are
used in HTML to format the documents are known as tags. These tags are also known as HTML
elements. Tags in HTML documents are -gUj. words and symbols enclosed within less-than(<)
and greater than(>) symbols.
HTML tags (Also known as “HTML elements”), and their respective attributes are used to create
HTML Ik. documents so that one can view them in the browsers or any other user agents. For
example, <H1> which is j§j|^ starting tag and </Hl> is ending tag.
Significance of Website for Business
Following are the some significance of Websites for the business:
1) Enhance Market Share: In today‟s era more than half of population is connected with
internet. And people use to search the product and services online to increase their
knowledge about the company and its goods and services. In this busy world even they try to
purchase the product online. Therefore, if a company doesn‟t have its website then it is
losing a large part of customer.
2) Increase the Goodwill of Business: Whenever you are introducing your business to a highly
reputed firm the manager ask for your website even if you are applying for a loan in bank,
the bank manager ask for your website. If you have a website it definitely uplifts your
business value.
3) Aware Customer: Through website you can make your customer aware about your product,
services, offers or policies.
4) Online Promotion: Companies spend lot of money and efforts in promoting their business
through newspaper, pamphlets, brochure etc but if you have website you can skip this
expense by publishing information in your website and your potential customer will find it
out.
5) Works 24X7: Website are always available all the time (24 hrs.) round the year for your
customer even beyond the boundaries of your country.
6) Maintain Relationship with Customer/Client: You can provide new offers, discount, and
other relevant information to your customer with the help of blog or feed. And can clear their
confusion by providing frequently asked question.
7) Works as Marketing Agent: Website plays a significant role as a marketer; it helps to
attract other businesses and customer toward your business.
8) Provide Email Address: having a website may provide a professional email address. That
looks attractive and easy to learn for example, mail@meshCreation.com.
9) Enhance Credibility: Is this is difficult for you to convince your customer so the website
helps you as an evidence to make them feel reality and websites provide a reason to
customer that why they should trust you.
10) Built Impression: Websites built impression among your customer about the company. It
makes them feel that your company is so reputed and successful then it really be.
11) Improve Customer Services: It helps to improve customer services, by providing them a
bunch of knowledge about the product, frequently asked question, blogging and through live
chat they get immediate response of their problem.
12) Works as Remainder: Website work as a remainder of your business goals as whenever
you are checking or revising your content you revisit your business goals.

CLOUD COMPUTING
Introduction
Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than
having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. In cloud computing, the word
cloud is used as a metaphor for “the Internet”, so the phrase cloud computing means “a type of
Internet-based computing”, where different services -such as servers, storage and applications -
are delivered to an organization's computers and devices through the Internet.
Cloud computing is a computing paradigm, where a large pool of systems are connected in
private or public networks, to provide dynamically scalable infrastructure for application, data
and file storage. With the advent of this technology, the cost of computation, application hosting,
content storage and delivery is reduced significantly.
Cloud computing is a practical approach to experience direct cost benefits and it has the potential
to transform a data centre from a capital-intensive set-up to a variable priced environment. The
idea of cloud computing is based on a very fundamental principal of „re-usability of IT
capabilities‟.

he difference that cloud computing brings compared to traditional concepts of “grid computing”,
“distributed computing”, “utility computing”, or “autonomic computing” is to broaden horizons
across organisational boundaries. Figure 1.11 shows the conceptual view of Cloud Computing.
The term cloud computing has been defined in many ways by analyst firms, academics, industry
practitioners, and IT companies.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

1) On-Demand Self-Service: A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities,
such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human
interaction with each service‟s provider.
2) Broad Network Access: Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through
standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g.,
mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).
3) Resource Pooling: The provider‟s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple
consumers using a multitenant model, with different physical and virtual resources
dynamically assigned and re-assigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of
location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the
exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level
of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or data center). Examples of resources include storage,
processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
4) Rapid Elasticity: Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases
automatically, to quickly scale-out and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer,
the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased
in any quantity at any time.
5) Measured Service: Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by
leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of
service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can
 be monitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both the provider and
consumer of the utilized service.

Cloud Components
In a simple, topological sense, a cloud computing solution is made up of several elements:
1) Clients: These are, in a cloud computing architecture, the exact same things that they are in a
plain, old, everyday Local Area Network (LAN). They are, typically, the computers that just
sit on your desk. But they might also be laptops, tablet computers, mobile phones, or PDAs -
all big drivers for cloud computing because of their mobility. Anyway, clients are the
devices that the end-users interact with to manage their information on the cloud.

Clients generally fall into three categories:

i) Mobile: These devices include PDAs or smartphones, like a Blackberry, Windows
Mobile Smartphone, or an iPhone.
ii) Thin: Clients are computers that do not have internal hard drives, but rather let the
server do all the work, but then display the information.
iii) Thick: This type of client is a regular computer, using a web browser like Firefox or
Internet Explorer to connect to the cloud.
2) Datacenter: It is the collection of servers where the application to which one subscribes is
housed. It could be a large room in the basement of his/her building or a room full of servers
on the other side of the world that he/she access via the internet.
A growing trend in the IT world is virtualizing servers. That is, software can be installed
allowing multiple instances of virtual servers to be used. In this way, one can have half a
dozen virtual servers running on one physical server.
3) Distributed Servers: The servers do not all have to be housed in the same location. Often,
servers are in geographically disparate locations. But to the cloud subscriber, these servers
act as if they are humming away right next to each other.
This gives the service provider more flexibility in options and security. For example,
Amazon has their cloud solution in servers all over the world. If something were to happen
at one site, causing a failure, the service would still be accessed through another site. Also, if
the cloud needs more hardware, they need not throw more servers in the safe room they can
add them at another site and simply make it part of the cloud.
As shown in figure 1.12, these components make up the three parts of a cloud computing
solution:

Figure 1.12: Three Components Make Up a Cloud

Computing Solution
Each element has a purpose and plays a specific role in delivering a functional cloud-based
application.

Role of Cloud Computing in Organization

Cloud Computing can be useful in organization as follows:
1) Software Solutions: With Cloud solution, small businesses do not have to buy server to
access some of the most powerful software, infrastructure and platforms in the world,
regardless of their location, without having to buy a single server. Cloud computing streams
applications from the Internet, where service providers have all the needed equipment on
hand, directly to their users.
2) Scaling and Flexibility: Cloud computing helps small companies manage fluctuating
demand. In the past, companies with on-premises systems had to buy server and workstation
upgrades to accommodate new users. Now, when anyone needs to expand one’s staff, he/she
can log into service provider to add users. Likewise, cloud computing can scale everything
from bandwidth to processing power, ensuring that one can always have the resources
needed to support growth.
3) Collaboration: With Cloud Computing, in a small set-up, team members can access, edit, and
share documents from anywhere, using computers and mobile devices. This means that
traditional and remote employees can work together on projects to save time and improve
quality.
4) Big Data and Analytics: As anyone processes growing amounts of data from multiple
internal and external sources, cloud computing enables quick analysis thanks to powerful
data processing capabilities.
5) Enhances Productivity: The concept of business is to work from anywhere, anytime. Big
companies boast this concept wherein the infrastructure allows the employees and business
executives to work anytime, anywhere. This fosters a good environment for more
collaboration within the organization. The ability to share information continuously and
work on projects together can transform business processes in a big way. Workers can
complete projects in real-time and share information with each other remotely.
6) Document Control: As employees produce and exchange information within the production
loop, the need for proper documentation increases. Employees send attachment files back
and forth through the company’s Intranet. This often creates a lot of conflicting files in
different formats and titles. The number of complications increases as more data is being
released, processed and stored. People who use the cloud send files in a central place where
everyone can access them.
7) Security: Cloud services store information on servers and hardware a business does not
control. These offsite servers have stringent security measures that prevent any form of data
breach. They typically require the most powerful firewalls, access credentials and security
protocols to make sure business managers are comfortable storing critical information on
their servers. The data is stored in a central repository managed 24/7 by internet security
experts.

Cloud Computing Models/Types of Cloud Computing Services

Cloud providers offer services that can be grouped into three categories:
1) Software as a Service (SaaS): In this model, a complete application is offered to the
customer, as a service on demand. A single instance of the service runs on the cloud and
multiple end-users are serviced. On the customers‟ side, there is no need for upfront
investment in servers or software licenses, while for the provider, the costs are lowered,
since only a single application needs to be hosted and maintained. Today SaaS is offered by
 companies such as Google, Salesforce, Microsoft, Zoho, etc.
2) Platform as a Service (PaaS): Here, a layer of software, or development environment is
encapsulated and offered as a service, upon which other higher levels of service can be built.
The customer has the freedom to build his own applications, which run on the provider‟s
infrastructure. To meet manageability and scalability requirements of the applications, PaaS
providers offer a pre-defined combination of OS and application servers, such as LAMP
platform (Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP), restricted J2EE, Ruby, etc. Google‟s App
Engine, Force.com, etc., are some of the popular PaaS examples.
3) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): laaS provides basic storage and computing capabilities
as standardised services over the network. Servers, storage systems, networking equipment,
data centre space, etc., are pooled and made available to handle workloads. The customer
would typically deploy his own software on the infrastructure. For example, Amazon,
GoGrid, 3 Tera, etc.

Types of Cloud Computing

Enterprises can choose to deploy applications on Public, Private or Hybrid clouds. Cloud
integrators can play a vital part in determining the right cloud path for each organisation:

1) Public Cloud: These are owned and operated by third parties; they deliver superior
economies of scale to customers, as the infrastructure costs are spread among a mix of users,
giving each individual client an attractive low cost, “Pay-as-you-go” model. All customers
share the same infrastructure pool with limited configuration, security protections, and
availability variances. These are managed and supported by the cloud provider. One of the
advantages of a Public cloud is that they may be larger than an enterprises cloud, thus
providing the ability to scale seamlessly, on demand.
2) Private Cloud: These are built exclusively for a single enterprise. They aim to address
concerns on data
security and offer greater control, which is typically lacking in a Public cloud. There are two
variations to a Private cloud:
i) On-Premise Private Cloud: It also known as internal clouds - is hosted within one‟s
own data centre. This model provides a more standardised process and protection, but is
limited in aspects of size and scalability. IT departments would also need to incur the
capital and operational costs for the physical resources. This is best suited for
applications which require complete control and configurability of the infrastructure and
security.
ii) Externally Hosted Private Cloud: This type of Private cloud is hosted externally with a
cloud provider, where the provider facilitates an exclusive cloud environment with full
guarantee of privacy. This is best suited for enterprises that do not prefer a Public cloud
due to sharing of physical resources.
3) Hybrid Cloud: These combine both Public and Private cloud models. With a Hybrid cloud,
service providers can utilise 3,d party cloud providers in a full or partial manner thus
increasing the flexibility of computing. The Hybrid cloud environment is capable of
providing on-demand, externally provisioned scale. The ability to augment a Private cloud
with the resources of a Public cloud can be used to manage any unexpected surges in
workload.
Advantages of Cloud Computing
1) Reduced Cost: There are a number of reasons to attribute cloud technology with lower costs.
The billing model is pay as per usage; the infrastructure is not purchased thus lowering
maintenance. Initial expense and recurring expenses are much lower than traditional
computing.
2) Increased Storage: With the massive infrastructure that is offered by cloud providers today,
storage and maintenance of large volumes of data is a reality. Sudden workload spikes are
also managed effectively and efficiently, since the cloud can scale dynamically.
3) Flexibility: This is an extremely important characteristic. With enterprises having to adapt,
even more rapidly, to changing business conditions, speed to deliver is critical. Cloud
computing stresses on getting applications to market very quickly, by using the most
appropriate building blocks necessary for deployment.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

1) Data Protection: Data security is a crucial element that warrants scrutiny. Enterprises are
reluctant to buy an assurance of business data security from vendors. They fear losing data to
competition and the data confidentiality of consumers. In many instances, the actual storage
location is not disclosed, adding onto the security concerns of enterprises. In the existing
models, firewalls across data centres (owned by enterprises) protect this sensitive
information. In the cloud model, service providers are responsible for maintaining data
security and enterprises would have to rely on them.
2) Data Recovery and Availability: All business applications have service level agreements
that are stringently followed. Operational teams play a key role in management of service
level agreements and runtime governance of applications. In production environments,
operational teams support:
i) Appropriate clustering and fail over;
ii) Data replication;
iii) System monitoring (transactions monitoring, logs monitoring and others);
iv) Maintenance (runtime governance);
v) Disaster recovery; and
vi) Capacity and performance management.
If, any of the above mentioned services is under-served by a cloud provider, the damage and
impact could be severe.
3) Management Capabilities: Despite there being multiple cloud providers, the management
of platform and infrastructure is still in its infancy. For example, features like „Auto-
scaling‟ are a crucial requirement for many enterprises. There is huge potential to improve
on the scalability and load balancing features provided today.
4) Regulatory and Compliance Restrictions: In some of the European countries, government
regulations do not allow customer‟s personal information and other sensitive information to
be physically located outside the state or country. In order to meet such requirements, cloud
providers need to set-up a data centre or a storage site exclusively within the country to
comply with regulations. Having such an infrastructure may not always be feasible and is a
big challenge for cloud providers.
1) What is internet? Discuss the revolution and components of it.
2) What are the key components to run a business online? Explain in detail.
3) What is the business value of internet? Write the advantages and disadvantages of internet.
4) What is intranet? What are the business values of intranet? Also discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of intranet.
5) What is extranet? Explain its business value and also gives its advantages and disadvantages
of it.
6) What is business value of extranet? What is difference between Intranet and Extranet?
7) Write the steps to create table in HTML.
8) Write short notes on the following:
i) Telnet
ii) Video Conferencing
iii) File Transfer Protocol
iv) Gopher
9) What is Web Page Designing? Explain the different HTML tags?
10) How one creates the Web Page using HTML? Explain with example.
11) What is cloud computing? Discuss the components of it. Also write the advantages and
disadvantages of it.
12) What is the role of cloud computing in business?
13) Explain the different cloud computing models and different types of cloud computing.