'FOR Proff. Venawells ONLY'

Project Deliverable 1: Project Plan Inception

Regina Hardaway

Dr. Robert culver

CIS 590

October 19, 2014

Section 1: Project Introduction

Background Information of the Company

Just like Flickr, Wikimedia, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc. Fitz_U too was formed on the basis of interaction. The innovative internet-based company has transformed since its inception in 2006. Barely two years after the dawn of website usage in the world, Fitz_U was started as a blogging site as well as a social network. Despite competition from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, Fitz_U was rated the fastest growing website within its first three months of operation. In those three months, it had attained 4 million users compared to 2.5 million, 2.8 million, 3 million, and 3.5 million users of Twitter, MySpace, Google, and Facebook respectively. This was contributed by opening websites to everyone above the age of 14. The introduction of smart phones in 2007 enabled many people to access the network across the United States and around the world, doubling the number of website users. By this time Fitz_U had grown to 189 million users annually with over 10 million web pages translating to over 100 million daily queries, 750 million images, and 890 million messages. Due to its high market potential, Fitz_U was approached by its competitors for a merger but declined in 2009. By 2011, the company had grown to host millions of websites that were now used by over 400 million users, and currently stands at 500 million users with over 900 million web pages. As a result, Fitz_U has attained a $35 million gross revenue.

Type of Business Activities that Fitz_U is involved in

Like all the other Social Media sites, Fitz_U’s business includes:

· Website development – since it was started as a blogging site as well as a social network operator, Fitz_U is actively involved in the creation of new websites that attracts more and more people to it. Through these websites, the company is able to create an interactive platform for its users.

· Advertising – Fitz_U is involved in business agreements with other types of businesses that give it content to air in their websites for its users to see. Through this, the company is actively helping out other businesses to showcase their products.

· Provision of internet service – in order to run website applications, every internet-based company must be in a position to provide the kind of service that will facilitate web application. As a result of this, Fitz_U is involved in the provision of internet services to its users to enable it run its operations for the benefit of its users.

Speculation on outsourcing and offshoring opportunities

The term off shoring is used to refer to a process where multi-national companies employ the service of low wage workers in low wage countries. As a result of this, the company sends jobs to these countries as a way of saving on their expenses and tries to make or recover profit.

Outsourcing is used to refer to a process where the government employs the services of low wage workers in low wage countries. By so doing, the government gives out contracts to countries that will manage to work on the same job at a lower cost than using its national employees who charge higher. Just like every other company in the market, Fitz_U has not been an exception. In order to stand a chance of maintaining its bottom line, the company has been forced to offshore some of its jobs to low wage countries. This has led to the reduction of number of employees from 75 to the current 25 employees.

Fitz_U’s Current Information System

Operating System

The operating system is the central unit of every internet-based company. Through this unit, the company stands in a position to serve all of its users without failing a single command. Because of this, every internet-based company must ensure that it invests heavily on the required up-to-date technological components that will facilitate its operations. This includes networking hardware’s as well as software’s that will facilitate network connections.

The purpose of an operating system is to coordinate access application by the computer. It contains;

· Search – despite the fact that not all internet-based companies have established their own web search due to the complexity involved in their creation, many have left this capability to the two existing leaders in the market Microsoft and Google. Fitz_U and the rest of the eight most successful internet-based companies share in the platform that allows for search engine sharing.

· Media Access – as an internet-based company, Fitz_U is mandated to give its users access to the various types of media. These medias include e-books, web pages, presentations, downloadable applications that only work if the operating system has an infrastructure of common technology than just the search engine. These include; access control, analytics and instrumentation, and caching.

· Communication – Fitz_U has been in the position that has enabled it to witness the growth of internet communication from simple emailing and chatting to video and audio communication.

· Social Graph and identity – it is well known that every internet-based company that provides communication as a social network system must have its own content of social data. This gives the company a social graph that enables it to evaluate its stand in the competitive market.

· Payment – the reason that Fitz_U stands at a position of making $35 million dollars on a yearly basis has been made possible by the millions of credit cards used to pay for the songs, e-books, applications, and videos they purchase on the company’s websites.

· Advertising – the availability of e-commerce in social media has been facilitated by the use of advertising that Fitz_U plays to its users. Through this, users are able to purchase what they need via the internet.

· Time – the constant need to look for dates and time have triggered the reason why many internet-based companies have created applications that enables users to know where and when certain events will take place.

· Government Data – the government has played a major supplier of information to websites. Internet applications that show information on GPS position, weather, satellite images, etc. have all been made possible by the supply that the government makes to internet-based companies like Fitz_U.

Database

Fitz_U has a strong database that allows it to provide exceptional communication for its users. Through this database, the company is able to keep track of data it receives from its users. Upon receiving, it accesses then classifies every data according to efficiency.

Data Warehousing

Manhanti states, “Data warehousing is a significant component in corporate computing, since it provides managers with the most accurate and relevant information to improve strategic decisions”. This is a form of back-up database that is designed to inquire and analyze data received compared to processing transactions. In this database, historical data received is stored; in addition, storage of information that contains other sources can be stored here as well. In Fitz_U, data warehousing is used as an analysis separator that distinguishes work-load and allows the company to stand a chance to merge its data with those of other sources. Its usefulness is found in data extraction, transformation, transportation, loading solutions, and analyzing client tools (Awoyelu, I., Omodunbi, T., & Udo, J., 2014).

Cloud Technology and Virtualization

Cloud computing is a service, while virtualization is part of a physical infrastructure.

Cloud technology is a term used by internet-based companies to refer to a big group of parent servers that allow for storage of centralized data as well as access of online services rendered to computers (Rajaraman, 2014, p. 242). Most people have been using cloud computing services without even knowing it. Whenever you send an email using Gmail, Yahoo mail, or Hotmail, you are using the email software running on the computer infrastructure provided by Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. These are ‘free’ cloud software services. Cloud technology shifts the location of this infrastructure to the network to reduce the costs associated with the management of hardware and software resources. It is mainly classified into two namely private (hybrid) and public.

Virtualization is a term that is used to refer to technological advancement that allows for one serve to operate various computing environments individually. Virtualization is a key enabler of the cloud infrastructure. It is the single most effective way to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility (Daly, 2012). It allows Fitz_U to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single computer, consolidate hardware to get vastly higher productivity from fewer servers, save 50 percent or more on overall IT costs, and speed up and simplify IT management, maintenance, and the deployment of new applications.

Network Infrastructure and Security

Engaging in good practices with respect to network infrastructure is an important component of ensuring that potential threats to the overall Fitz_U infrastructure and security are managed effectively. The company has implemented Security Policies that follows the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) security and privacy in Public Cloud Computing guide and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) security architecture.

References

Mahanti, R. (2014). Application of quality tools to data warehousing projects. Software Quality Professional, 16(4), 26-35. Retrieved from http://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php?url=/docview/1562708890?accountid=12725

Awoyelu, I., Omodunbi, T., & Udo, J. (2014). Bridging the gap in modern computing infrastructures: Issues and challenges of data warehousing and cloud computing. Computer and Information Science, 7(1), 33-40. Retrieved from http://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php?url=/docview/1499908354?accountid=12725

Rajaraman, V. (2014). Cloud Computing. Resonance, 19(3), 242-258. doi:10.1007/s12045-014-0030-1

Daly, J. (2012) What is virtualization? demystifying and categorizing one of IT’s most confusing terms. EdTech. Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2012/10/what-virtualization