RDS Oracle is a relational database application that supports Multi-AZ deployment environments. The Multi-AZ platform supports MySQL services and Oracle RDS Instances that run on different Oracle database editions. It is possible to generate replicas of primary database instances and save the results in a remote physical location known as the remote Availability Zone (AZ).
The physical machines and infrastructure that host the Oracle RDS instances are designed to withstand failure in the vent of a catastrophe. Here, the instance is designed to fail safe by automatically performing complete failover operations making new database operations possible after the failure has occurred. One important advantage with Oracle RDS instances is that they do not require manual intervention when failure occurs all the instances remain the same after the failure has occurred.
Services can be migrated from one hosting solution to the other because the process is easy and less disruptive. However, when migrating to new environments that are supported by any version of Oracle RDS, upgrades must be done on the data being migrated to a different environment to ensure consistence with the new environment.
How good is RDS Oracle?
Oracle RDS is easy to set up because it has features that enable the DBA to carry out automated data backups and disaster recovery. In addition, the RDS enables the database administrator to monitor the database for signs of failure from remote locations. The RDS enables push button scalability and provides failure detection and automatic recovery capabilities. In addition, the DBS systems administrator can use role based security privileges to monitor the systems users by granting and revoking privileges depending on the security vulnerabilities in the user environment.
When using Oracle RDS, an enterprise does not need a database administrator to manage the database because most of the services offered on the platform such as disaster recovery and upgrades are automated. In addition, PostgreSQL and MySQL engines that run on the RDS can be used to physically replicate data and place it on a standby up-to-date mode in case of failure. Here, high data and service availability are made possible if the database instances are run on Multi-AZ environments.
In case failure occurs, it lasts for only a short time and in most cases for two minutes before the system starts running again. It is possible to run database maintenance services while the database is still in use. In addition, database administrators find it easy to manage new deployment environments when running different DB instances without the need for extra resources. Here, the client receives alerts through the DB Event notification module via SMS when new database instances are deployed and automatic software patching is done.
Another advantage with RDS Oracle is that, a database administrator can use the application to convert magnetic storage to general purpose storage without causing failure or loss of availability, which can cause serious business continuity problems. Users benefit from push button scaling that allows for DB instances to be scaled in a handful of minutes in an operation that involves shutting down and starting the database. On the other hand, storage requirements can be scaled when demand for more storage space increases. Oracle RDS uses snapshots to create backups in real time so that failure instances can be ameliorated by use of the backup files.
Amazon built an innovative utility business model to offer two new technology services to its clients, namely Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Since only a small fraction of computing capacity was used at any given time, the sale of unutilized processing power and storage to other companies improved the ROI, by generating revenue.
Subscribers benefited because this model was pay-as-you-go, had no setup fees, deposits, or contracts, and had comparatively lower fees. Besides, subscribers could focus on their core competencies without having to invest in their own hardware and IT staff or having to worry about outdated hardware.
If however, Amazon’s own computing capacity increased due to demand and it was unable to handle the increased load, its own web services may be affected. Small startup web based companies used Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their primary storage or computing source and other companies used AWS for secondary or for backup purposes (Laudon & Laudon, 2007, pp 203-204).
Concepts such as capacity planning, scalability, and TCO ensure that future demand can be met within reasonable budget. When selling computing power and storage space to customers, if Amazon uses proper capacity planning techniques taking into consideration service level requirements and current capacity, it will ensure there is enough computing power and storage to meet the fluctuating demands of amazon.com.
By adding additional capacity, if there is a transparent growth and noticeable performance improvement then a system is said to be scalable. The July 2008 issue which was caused due to failure in “internal system communication” could be a scalability issue. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), over the lifecycle of the hardware or software, are associated costs to keep the system running in optimal condition.
Amazon realizing that it uses a fraction of processing power at any given time loaned the unutilized processing power and storage in an attempt to reduce the TCO. Subscribers such as Powerset managed their demands, by using Amazons services, without having to worry about capacity planning or system scalability. MileMeter Inc., SmugMug Inc., and Webmail.us reduced their TCO by not having to invest in hardware and by maintaining an IT staff by using Amazons virtual servers (Laudon & Laudon, 2007, pp 203-204).
Below are four companies in the cloud computing utility market offering different services. Depending on the need, a web startup company would benefit best by using services offered by Amazon. Google and Rackspace are focused on web hosting and NewServers loans servers (Goia, 2008). If I were with a larger company I would still recommend AWS because it offers better services with the same reliability, high availability, and scalability as competitors.
Amazon
Google
Rackspace cloud
NewServers
Model
Pay-as-you-go
Free – 500MB storage with CPU and bandwidth for 5 million page views/month
Dedicated real servers, All features of EC2, add/remove servers in real time
Target Clients
Startup, small. Medium, and large
Individuals, startups, small-medium
small, medium, large
small, medium, large
These days most consumers have computers or laptops that have powerful CPU’s and large memory, which can be connected to flat screen TV’s. High speed internet is also available for a reasonable price is usually underutilized. A suitable web-based startup business would be online movie rentals. With Amazons S3 service, a large collection of past and current movies in different languages can be stored.
Using the EC2 service, consumers can connect to the website and view the movie online without having to download it to their laptops. EC2 service provides powerful computing which allows multiple users to view the same movie without overlaps, since each movie creates a separate instance. Also the high connection bandwidth will ensure all consumes will enjoy the same movie quality.
References
Goia, Mircea. Cloud computing, grid computing, utility computing – list of top providers (2008). Web.
Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P. (2007). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (Ch 5). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson – Prentice Hall.
Many great inventions have taken place throughout history. There came the steam engine, electric motor, television set, the World Wide Web, and now, mass online storage facilities. Perhaps some few individuals were skeptical when Amazon.Com committed 2 billion dollars over a decade ago for purposes of extensive research aimed at fine-tuning its information technology infrastructure. But the results of that worthwhile investment have been written in the books of history due to the way it has continued to transform the world. Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Computer Cloud (ECZ) have completely revolutionized the online storage and cloud utility computing market. These virtual products have found many admirers due to the fast, easy, and inexpensive opportunities that they have provided to budding and established enterprises. Their reliability, availability, and flexible pay-as-you-go user policy have only made their integration in mainstream society to be unparalleled. Although this online storage and computing tools have been hit by minor technical hitches here and there, they have been able to penetrate the market with a thundering boom (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
An expanded description of the article
Many organizations have been grappling with the problem of dealing with the large volumes of data that they handle each day. Some startup companies lack the resources needed to buy the software and hardware tools to store and backup huge volumes of data. But in utilizing their huge computing capacity, Amazon.Com, the leading web services provider and online retailer have effectively filled the void exhibited by companies that are always in need of enhanced storage capacities. This has been attainable through Amazon’s development and commissioning of S3 and ECZ storage and computing services, effectively enabling clients to purchase their requirements for such services on a per-usage basis. Companies that have already tested the services are full of praise as they have been able to downsize their personnel requirements while at the same time cut on operational costs. Some companies already utilizing these solutions have been able to save up to 75 percent of their initial data backup costs. A good example of such a company is Webmail.US, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia. Others like Smugmug Inc. have been able to save up to $1 million in their first year of conducting business due to relying on Amazon’s storage facilities. What is more enticing is that the services are inexpensive, user-friendly, and are backed up by 24-hour service phone support to take care of emergencies (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).
Why my company will stand to gain tremendously from the S3 IT infrastructure developed by Amazons.Com
It is undeniable that the S3 online storage facility will have a major positive impact on the online music store my partner and I have started. We intend to grow our music and video catalogue to international standards but we are often faced with the challenge of soliciting funds to buy more servers, hand disk drives, and software. The office space that we are currently occupying is barely enough for all the computers and employees needed for our enterprise to take off. This article can help us fix a majority of the problems bedeviling us. A much more rounded business strategy would be to sign up with Amazon’s S3 to benefit from unlimited storage facilities for millions of our web-based audios and videos. The benefits that will accrue to our business are many and wide-ranging. First, the company will be paying 15 cents per gigabyte of the music audios and videos that we store using Amazon’s systems. This is much cheap compared to buying our own storage facilities, which may end up costing thousands of dollars. Secondly, it would be cheaper for us since we will be charged for exactly what have used – no monthly subscription fees, no startup charges, and no hidden fees. The company also stands to gain from the fact that it shall not require any additional software or hardware setup to start distributing its products online. Music and video downloads will be extremely fast, reliable, and inexpensive, in the process of adding value to our clients. This will inevitably mean more customers for the business, hence more profits. The company will certainly not require more office space because no investments in computer hardware are going to be made. Tied to this, the company will immensely cut on human capital costs as it shall not need the services of systems and network administrators. Their roles will best be handled by the virtue of computers run by Amazon. These and many more benefits will certainly contribute to the overall growth of the company (Laudon & Laudon, 2007). Talk about the wonders that technology can do!
References
Laudon, C.K., & Laudon, J.P. (2007). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm (11th Ed). New Jersey: Prentice Hall
AWS offers a lot of economic benefits to Ericsson Company by reducing its expenses. Ericsson derives operational advantages including quicker setting up of infrastructure and convenient cost effective finishing of huge computational projects (Malaher, 2009). Amazon provides a free tier which allows Amazon EC2 to get started at no charge.
AWS does not include long-term commitments and up-front costs making its initialization to be easy and cost effective. Amazon cloud computing services allow Ericsson to save a lot of money by providing inexpensive plans for compute capacity consumed.
Amazon allows Ericsson Company to cut the costs by cutting the Information Technology (IT) staff. By obtaining expertise outside the company, Ericsson can lay off its IT staff since its services are maintained by experts from Amazon (Mitchell & Wilson, 2008).
Automated software updates
Flexibility is derived from support of several operating systems, multiple instances and software. To update the software, only an internet connection is needed, and therefore a business can expand by serving more clients at a time. With this service, less malfunctioning is experienced; applications used in this platform are upgraded less frequently and are managed by Amazon.
Remote access
Amazon EC2 comes with a unique mobilization which allows access of services from anywhere in the world. Employees are able to conduct business over mobile devices and track their leads quickly (DCLUG, 2006).
Amazon EC2 comes with a unique mobilization which allows access of services from anywhere in the world. A whole new level of opportunities is created by giving employees new professional devices, which motivates them and makes their jobs more convenient.
On-demand availability
Amazon Web Services give client companies on-demand access to various cloud infrastructure services. AWS charges are calculated using the resources actually consumed by the end user. AWS allows Ericsson Company to get rid of expensive hardware and the management hassles that come with owning and using them (Malaher, 2009).
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud provides quicker and more responsive services compared to internal IT systems; a client can choose between 500 Mbps and 1000 Mbps depending on the instance applied (Malaher, 2009).
Scalability
Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 and RightScale are designed with capability to adapt with the size and amount of data and the number of users. The systems are designed with capability of altering requests and size of instances; in essence, they are flexible.
Dependability
Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 and RightScale support the contemporary applications used in clouds. They have proved their ability to ensure the systems operate without disruptions. Systems are designed to avoid data loss and unnecessary code resets during execution. Amazon has applied redundant resource utilization; reliability solutions are mostly software based.
Manageability
Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 and RightScale have been designed with redundancy of data to enable the systems to m ask failures and ability for fault tolerance. Manageability and load balancing are made possible through data and service replication and allocation to different resources.
Cloud technology is still immature; vendors are still doing more research and development to give its business clients more service and quality. A potential security concern is that a client company has no entire control of its business information and data files which are vital assets.
The issues of privacy and security are not guaranteed and site audit inspections are difficult to perform. There is also a remote possibility of loss of data since data is backed up in a virtual environment. To cope with these concerns, vendors should assure their clients by allowing them to access their data files.
Scalability issues
The client does not have the freedom to make any customizations that are not accepted or supported by Amazon as the vendor. A deep knowledge of how a cloud system operates including virtualization and deployment of hardware and software is required, and might be complicated to a client company. Vendor companies should be able to cover all technical needs of their clients, as an after sale service (Malaher, 2009).
Reliability issues
The disadvantage of dependency is also experienced by the client since the company does not have any influence on the levels of maintenance of the system. The client has very little insight on the contingency procedures of vendors. Vendors should come up with a more versatile platform that will give client companies more powers over the cloud; this will get rid of reliability issues (Malaher, 2009).
Cost issues
There are possibilities of IT improvements determined by the vendor at a later stage. These services are coupled with hidden costs that are not directly mentioned by vendors. These costs include the data backup and data restore costs, compliancy costs, disaster recovery and problem solving costs (Turban & Volonino, 2011).
When launching or adopting the services, the expense may seem low but the cost structure is opaque. Vendor companies should attempt to balance the issues of costs by including all the costs at the initial stages of the contract.
References
Amazon.com, I. ( 2011, May). Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes. Retrieved from Amazon Web Services: awsmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/AWS_Security_Whitepaper.pdf
DCLUG. (2006, October 15). Amazon Web Services. Retrieved from Washington D.C. Linux User Group (DCLUG) : dclug.tux.org/200611/AmazonEC2.pdf
Malaher, T. (2009, March). Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services. Retrieved from malaher.org: malaher.org/__…/cloud_computing_and_amazon_web_services.pdf
Mitchell, S., & Wilson, M. (2008, October 8). Using Amazon Web Service. Retrieved from Kansas City Java Users Group: www.kcjava.org/media/Using_Amazon_Web_Services.pdf
Turban, E., & Volonino, L. (2011). Information technology for management (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
A database consists of logically related data stored in a single repository, normally within a computer. The components of a database are columns, rows, tables, and keys. They are the building block of any relational database, and understanding their functions helps an organization to manage its data.
Columns are single characteristics or facts about an entity within a database. Employee’s name, department number, customer’s name, and product price are examples of columns. A row contains data of one or more columns according to the design of a database; it describes a single instance of an entity. Columns and rows are contained in a table, making it necessary to group data logically. For instance, you can have a customers table that store customers’ details.
Tables can be linked together by keys. A table can consist of a primary key, a foreign key, or both. A primary key is a field that uniquely identifies each row; and a foreign key is a key in one table that must match a primary key value in another table in order to establish a relationship or a link between two tables (Coronel, 2000).
Amazon has been able to embrace the use of databases in order to manage its organizational records hence meeting its corporate objective. The company offers its customers a wide range of products, including music, toys, electronics, software, books, and clothes. These products are sold through the company’s website (Amazon.com) and managed by relational databases such as Amazon RDS (Vogels, 2009).
Amazon’s database enables it to take online orders, manage supply, and coordinate many e-mails. The company records customer details in a table having columns such as names and phone numbers.
Each row in a table contains individual customer records. Another table containing product details enable the company’s database to link product and customer tables through keys. When a customer selects a product, the product number identifies the item in the product table, thus enabling the company to manage product details with much ease.
There are several data management issues that can be encountered by Amazon. First, the company’s database may run out of space because many people are now registering in e-market places.
The increase in number of products may lead to little or no storage capacity. Second, handling many transactions tends to lower the operation of a database. This may lead to orders taking longer than normal. Third, data stored in the database can be hacked or destroyed by viruses. Besides, private information about users or customers can be leaked, leading to loss of privacy.
References
Coronel, R. (2000). Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management. (4th Ed.). Cambridge: Thomson Course Technology.
Amazon.com understands that customers care about the security of private information. Amazon’s Privacy Notice provides customers with the information that the company receives from them, and how it is used. This company uses Secure Sockets layer (SSL) software to encrypt customers’ data (Smith, 2004). It also sends email updates to customers to create awareness and inform them about any changes it makes.
Amazon.com seeks legal consultation from regulations governing cloud computing, and hence complies with the law. For instance, the law protects the customers’ data from being disclosed to any third party. Amazon keeps less confidential data on the virtual servers and the most important in secure places. The company reveals very few digits of a credit card number during confirmation of orders. It encourages customers to sign off from their website after accessing data to protect unauthorized people from accessing their accounts.
Plan methods to manage systems development
First, project managers should evaluate the existing system by interviewing customers in order to identify deficiencies. The second step is to define the new management system requirements, in relation to the existing management systems by proposing measures that can improve them. The third step is to design the proposed system. This should involve laying out plans related to physical construction, hardware, security issues including legal and privacy aspects, system operations, communication, and programming among others.
The fourth step is to develop the new system. The project managers should ensure that they obtain, install the new programs and components after training the users. The fifth step is to put the system into action, or use. The last step is to evaluate the new system after observing how it operates. Organizations using the system should emphasize on high maintenance standards and ensure that the users get periodic updates with regard to transformations in the new system.
Reference
Smith, G. E. (2004). Control and security of e-commerce. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
The two selected cloud providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, which are in the top 5 largest providers in the United States. AWS boasts over 1 million active enterprise customers, with the majority made up by small and mid-sized businesses, while Azure does not public exact numbers, but reportedly serves a significant portion of Fortune 500 companies.
The AWS pricing structure is based on optimization and savings. Businesses can pay for only what they use, so its adaptable from month to month, and can reserve capacity, ahead of time, usually saving more money for larger payments. Overall, AWS offers volume-based discounts and cost optimization. Out of more than 191 services that AWS offers, it has specific cloud migration services which allow to freely move workload from other public clouds or hosting facility as well as database migration services to migrate data to and from widely used databases (AWS, 2021). Meanwhile, Azure focuses strongly on by-product-based pricing which optimizes costs by offering best-practice recommendations and benefit programs. It offers calculators and transparent pricing lists ahead of time. Similarly, it offers a migration service with guidance and a central dashboard to migrate workloads to the cloud, with a unique differentiation of a comprehensive approach for multiple scenarios (Microsoft Azure, 2021).
In regards to backup, AWS provides each used with Amazon Workspaces dashboard. Each customer has their designs and services that are planned for along with DR deployment models which plans for various scenarios such as natural disaster. Furthermore, the AWS infrastructure is split into regions and availability zone. Deploying Amazon Workspaces is associated with a virtual private cloud, but all AWS directory services require two subnets to operate, each placed in a different zone/region. For each workspace deployed, there are two EBS volumes, which are highly available and reliable. The EBS volume data is replicated across multiple servers in the availability zone which prevents loss of data from failure of a single component. Both the system and user EBS are automatically snapshotted every 12 hours, replicated across 3 availability zones and can serve as a rollback or backup to serve in cases of DR or BC (Persson, 2019).
Meanwhile, Azure has two components in its policy which are schedule and retention. The user can define their policies-based type of data, RTO/RPO requirements and regulatory compliance. Businesses can optimize backup policy based on their needs, lasting from years or months to even a few minutes. Azure stores back up in two types of vaults, the recover services vaults and the back-up ones. The cline can specify how data in the vault is replicated, including locally, geo, and zone redundant storage, once again depending on protections needed and types of data. Azure has a number of backup agents for various devices. Recovery services always uses geo-redundant storage (Microsoft, 2019).
Amazon was started in Washington in 1994 before reconsolidating in Delaware in 1996. Amazon has strengthened its selling mechanism in its SEC Form 10K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (Amazon, n.d. a). The corporation is led by four ideologies: a customer-centric style instead of a competitor-focused approach, a craving for creativity, a commitment to operational distinction, and long-term performance. The firm serves its major client bases in each category, including consumers, merchants, developers, enterprises, and content providers. Additionally, the firm offers various services, including advertising and co-branded credit card agreements (Amazon, n.d.b). This diverse range of services benefits people, industrialists, small enterprises, artists, filmmakers, and large institutions every day. Amazon employs nearly 570,000 full-time and temporary staff, resulting in quarterly and yearly revenue growth over the last three years. Additionally, the company’s development was aided by the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Markets.
With Amazon’s increasing fame and usage, the firm should build systems and submissions to manage traffic securely. Due to Amazon’s prominence, the firm employs many security measures to stave off cyber-attacks (Amazon, n.d. a). It might be vital for Amazon to focus on three elements of cybersecurity, including antivirus and firewall, SSL/TLS certificates, and cybersecurity training tools. Antiviruses and firewalls may mitigate such risks as hacking, ransomware, and phishing. The SSL/TLS certificates encrypt data during transactions and ensure its integrity. As Amazon is a huge international corporation with thousands of employees, human errors represent a significant risk. Moreover, Amazon operates in a highly competitive market, and hence insider threats are also essential. Both of these two human-related risks may be mitigated by cybersecurity training tools.
Governance Frameworks and Standards
To address IT-related risks for e-Commerce and related business operations, a number of frameworks can be utilized individually and collectively. For instance, Thomas (2017) provides an example of how COBIT 5 and NIST CFS may be combined within one organization. One of the key tasks to ensure the security of e-Commerce is to maintain the safety of assets from external threats with hassle-free and convenient internal access. By combining COBIT 5 and NIST CFS, decision-makers are able to build a step-by-step management strategy and implement effective cybersecurity-related protocols, respectively (Thomas, 2017). Another example of their cumulative implementation is the development of a set of individual defense mechanisms by using COBIT 5 and evaluating their effectiveness and impact by introducing NIST CFS, which is also a strategy to minimize risks (Thomas, 2017). These solutions are complex but, at the same time, allow creating reliable protection for e-Commerce with a large volume of IT resources.
When implementing the aforementioned cybersecurity frameworks into the risk management programs of e-Commerce organizations, this is essential to consider the conditions of these standards’ intersection and the range of problems coverage. For instance, NIST CF adapts to specific conditions, but COBIT 5 does not, which requires building an interaction structure between them (Thomas, 2017). Another valuable tip for aligning these two frames is the ability to address “a gap between enterprise governance and operations,” which the author also calls “middleware” (Thomas, 2017, para. 4). Due to their peculiarities, ISO 27000/1/2 works well with COBIT 5 because the former’s flexibility complements the latter’s functionality and helps build a coherent defense structure (Gehrmann, 2012). ISO 27000/1/2 focuses exclusively on information security, which is beneficial for the e-Commerce sector, while NIST CF can address broader aspects (Mbanaso et al., 2019). Finally, ISO 27000/1/2 and COBIT 5 can complement each other by addressing privacy considerations while providing access to flexible risk management strategies (Gehrmann, 2012). These recommendations reflect the variability in the application of cybersecurity frameworks in e-Commerce organizations.
Cybersecurity Industry and Supplier Overview
Modern technology advances each year significantly and becomes the central component of most businesses and corporations. Organizations rely more and more on digital technologies not only in the IT industry but in all industries. Digital technology is highly beneficial in terms of storing and analyzing big data, optimizing documentation, improving workflow, and accelerating communication. However, it may not always be sufficiently reliable, as emerging digital technologies may be vulnerable while cybercrime is rapidly evolving as a business. Moreover, digital technologies advance fast, and hence it may be costly to maintain internal cybersecurity services. Therefore, organizations tend to hire the services or the products of independent cybersecurity suppliers. Cybersecurity providers have sufficient experience in the field and may benefit from the economy of scale, and consequently, their services are very cost-efficient. These services provide digital defense against phishing, mobile malware, or ransomware, significantly benefitting society by defending data from compromise. It may be necessary to identify potential vendors, which provide cybersecurity solutions suitable for Amazon.
Antivirus and Firewall
Antivirus software is considered a crucial aspect of the cyber security of any company. There are numerous vendors that sell antiviruses and firewalls, including Kaspersky, ESET, McAfee, Avast, Norton, and Bitfinder. All of these vendors provide similar packages of services for a relatively similar price. US News evaluated the antivirus solutions to create a list of the Top 9 antivirus vendors. The three best antivirus and firewall vendors are Bitifinder (first place), Kaspersky (second place), and Webroot (third place) (Kinny, 2021). Since Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world highly sensitive to cybersecurity risks, it would be appropriate for the company to use the best provider regardless of the price of the solution. Among the top three providers, it is best to select Kaspersky as an antivirus/firewall provider. Even though Bitfinder is considered the top provider, it does not have identity theft protection, which is crucial for Amazon (Kinny, 2021). Webroot also lacks identity theft protection and a virtual private network, which is crucial to mitigate the identified risks (Kinny, 2021). Thus, even though using Kaspersky may be expensive, it is the best option for Amazon.
SSL/TLS Certificates
The encryption certificates protect data in transit, which is one of the central cyber security risks of Amazon. The most widely known vendors include Comodo, DigiCert, GeoTrust, and GlobalSign (Pickavance, 2021). All the certificates have a similar level of protection regardless of the vendor. Therefore, Amazon should seek the best deal it can get in terms of pricing when selecting the vendor.
Cyber Security Training Tools
Cyber security training tools are crucial for preventing human errors and protecting against insider threats. Additionally, training helps to avoid phishing, ransomware, and malware, which is crucial for Amazon. According to eSecurity Planet, the top three vendors of cyber security training programs are KnowBe4, Cofense, and CybSafe (Robb, 2021). All these companies provide similar services; however, CybSafe can tailor itself according to the level of knowledge of the employees. This feature is crucial for Amazon, as it is a multinational company with more than a million employees that have different levels of cyber security awareness. It is crucial that training is personalized to take into account the personal needs and skills of the employees. Thus, CybSafe is the preferred vendor among the out-of-the-box solutions for cyber security training. However, it may still be appropriate for Amazon to develop its own training courses to meet the specific needs of the company.
Operational Risks Overview
Modern businesses face a wide variety of operational risks, and the cybersecurity industry is not an exception. In most cases, cybersecurity suppliers face the same or similar operational risks as any other digital product provider. Operational risks are closely linked with the uncertainties of both internal and external business environments. Therefore, it may be critical to comprehensively assess and analyze the business environment in order to identify possible risks and the extent of their influence. As the environment may include a large number of factors, operational risks may come from a wide diversity of sources, which have certain features and specific fields of impact.
Cyber attacks represent one of the most common and significant operational risks in the modern economy. Digital product suppliers are particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks and related problems. The issue is significantly worsened by the fact that the digital environment is relatively young and is not always properly prepared for such threats. Paradoxically, cybersecurity suppliers also face cyber attacks as a potential risk. Even though these companies are significantly more prepared and have sufficient experience in the area, the cyberattacks aimed at such organizations are more severe. Such phenomena may be explained by the fact that breaching the cyber defense of a cybersecurity provider may give the attackers access to users of these cybersecurity products. According to some sources, successful attacks may cause $301 financial damage per employee to the targeted organization (Jacobs, 2018). The financial losses may considerably increase if the targeted organization is a cybersecurity supplier.
As with any other organization, operational risks may be closely related to human error. Such a risk may be significantly reduced by rational management and sufficient attention to human resource management, yet it may not be possible to avoid it completely. Cybersecurity services require both timely updates that utilize relevant digital security methods and techniques and constant maintenance. Even though digital product providers tend to use automation, it may not be possible to exclude the human factor completely. Human error may not only threaten the internal environment of a cybersecurity organization but also compromise the cybersecurity of provided products and services.
Another considerable operational risk is closely linked with outsourcing tendencies. Outsourcing is particularly relevant in organizations that produce digital products, and hence it is broadly utilized by cybersecurity companies. However, such an approach may represent a number of significant operational risks. Even though outsourcing is one of the most cost-efficient techniques that allow companies to achieve maximum productivity with minimal management costs, it may be less reliable. Digital products provided by outsourcing organizations may frequently not reflect the quality demands. Risk management is particularly vital for cybersecurity software providers, and hence these risks should be addressed.
There are also some less influential yet not insignificant factors and risks that affect the cybersecurity industry. As modern legislation tends to provide more and more control over the digital area, regulations may represent a considerable operational risk. The issue is worsened by the fact that these regulations emerge rapidly and consequently are hard to predict. Digital disruption also represents an essential operational risk in the industry. As technology advances, it may be critical for cybersecurity organizations to rely on the most relevant hardware and software.
Product Liability
In most cases, cybersecurity products and services are represented by digital products and particularly software. Therefore, cybersecurity product liability is similar to digital product liability. Even though there is a significant amount of legal frameworks designed to regulate software liability, current legislation may be insufficient. It may be hard to regulate an industry that advances rapidly and comprehensively, and hence, in most cases, the legislation may become obsolete, and laws are defined vaguely. However, as the industry develops, new laws emerge, improving product liability. Although it may be relatively complicated to introduce adequate and relevant legislation, cybersecurity product liability is constantly increasing. In general, the market is significantly more reliable now than it was a decade ago.
In 2016 a considerable “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attack caused severe damage to consumer devices. Lack of cybersecurity caused the shutdown of internet connections on the US Eastern Seaboard (O’Brien, 2018). The incident affected a wide variety of devices, including personal devices, Wi-Fi routers, and even cameras. As digital technologies develop and spread into new fields and areas, the potential damage of such DDoS attacks increases. Therefore, California introduced the first Internet of Things security law (O’Brien, 2018). The law obliges manufacturers to provide devices with sufficient and reasonable cyber security features in order to protect both personal data and the device. Even though the law does not directly address the liability of cybersecurity products, it represents a considerable step towards the development of relevant legislation.
As already mentioned, there may be no adequate legal framework that could ensure cybersecurity product liability yet. In order to introduce such laws, it may be necessary to identify criteria, which may be used to assess digital product defectiveness. Furthermore, it is also necessary to identify the party that is responsible for the quality of the product and the damage caused by any malfunctions or flaws. According to some sources, legislation already faced similar issues as a result of rapid technological change (Dean, 2018). It may be possible that cybersecurity product liability may find sufficient legal support in the near future. Although current laws may not fully regulate the cybersecurity industry, organizations may and should rely on such products as the alternative is to have no security at all.
Conclusion
Digital technology is present in almost every industry and is utilized by most businesses regardless of the extent of their digitalization. As cybercrimes occur more and more frequently and become a profitable business, cybersecurity is more relevant today than ever. It may be vital for both small organizations and transnational corporations to utilize such products and services. However, it was determined that cybersecurity suppliers are affected by a significant number of operational risks. These risks may not only affect the supplier but also compromise the product and threaten the cybersecurity of the consumer. Moreover, current legislation does not provide sufficient product liability in the cybersecurity industry and may require further development. Nonetheless, even though there are considerable flaws and problems in the cybersecurity field, it is developing at rapid rates and may reach reasonable levels of reliability and quality in the near future. Therefore, it may be highly beneficial for both suppliers and purchasers to endeavor to ensure further advancement of both cybersecurity quality and related legislation.
References
Amazon. (n.d. a). Form 10-K. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Web.
Gehrmann, M. (2012). Combining ITIL, COBIT and ISO/IEC 27002 for structuring comprehensive information technology for management in organizations. Navus-Revista de Gestão e Tecnologia, 2(2), 66-77.
Jacobs, D. (2018). Top 11 operational risks for the year. Digital Transformation. Web.
Kinny, J. (2021). The best antivirus software of 2021. US News. Web.
O’Brien, H. M. (2018). Internet-of-Things security standards: Will states follow California’s lead or look across the pond for further guidance? Product Liability Advocate. Web.
Digital streaming platforms, similar to television and cinema, are just another means of “distributing and consuming media content” (Spilker and Colbjørnsen 1211). The digital streaming market is booming now, with dozens of platforms pitching their unique content. Nevertheless, the two undeniably dominating global streaming platforms are Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (Spilker and Colbjørnsen). This paper will outline and compare the main features as well as the technical characteristics of the two platforms.
To begin with, both platforms specialize in original and third-parties media content such as movies, TV series, and animation. Neither Netflix nor Amazon Prime currently has free ad-supported subscriptions. However, unlike Netflix, Amazon offers a variety of extra materials that can be purchased without a subscription. Furthermore, the value and content of the different level subscription packages vary from platform to platform. Netflix’s premium subscription, as compared to basic, provides an increased number of available authorized devices as well as a superior quality of streaming content. Amazon, on the other hand, suggests the only type of subscription – Amazon Prime, which also gives access to the premium features of the Amazon platform itself, like faster delivery and exclusive offers.
Finally, both platforms have several ways of accessing and watching their digital content. Netflix requires a steady internet connection with a speed of up to 25Mb/s for watching ultra-HD videos that can be streamed via console apps such as PlayStation and Xbox. The PC desktop app asks for Windows 8 or a later version and, similar to the mobile app, allows to download the content directly on the device (Netflix). In turn, Amazon shares similar features except requiring Windows 10 version for the PC app and providing the app for iOS users as well (Amazon.com). I have all the hardware to seamlessly stream content from Netflix and Amazon Prime websites from both my laptop (MacBook Air) and my phone (iPhone SE). Although, I would not be able to download the Netflix app on my laptop.
To conclude, Netflix and Amazon Prime have a similar price for the basic subscription, with the latter offering additional discount for students, but each platform has different advantages. Amazon Prime subscription gives its users benefits and premium services outside the streaming platform, whereas Netflix has superior free and original content. Considering that monthly subscriptions for both platforms are in the price range of a single cinema ticket, it is well worth the price.
Spilker, Hendrik Storstein, and Colbjørnsen, Terje. “The Dimensions of Streaming: Toward a Typology of an Evolving Concept.” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 42, no. 7-8, 2020, pp. 1210-1225.
Amazon.com is an e-commerce company whose headquarter is located in Seattle, Washington in the U.S. It is rated as one of the major and first internet-based companies.
How the internet has reduced geographic limitations
Looking at its location, (Seattle, Washington’s Beacon Hill), and with a wide range of products it deals with, coupled with a high demand for its products in the world market, we have to appreciate the role played by the internet service in ensuring that the company achieves its goals. This has helped to reduce the geographical barrier which could have hindered its expansion to reach the world market demand.
Due to the internet service, one does not need to travel to the U.S to find the catalog containing the Amazon.com products or wait for it to be mailed to him, but it is possible to access everything including the new products via the internet. With high, market demands the company opened up large-sized centers across the globe where it has employed software developers. Such international locations include England, Scotland, India, South Africa, Romania, and China, (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
How the internet has helped in the compression of time
With the internet service, customer needs not send such things as the inquiry notes, purchase orders, or send for the catalog which could take a lot of time and cost much. What he needs is just to access the internet, get the catalog from there, and if possible make the purchase there and then using a credit card. With some of its services and products offered in electronic and downloadable form, one just needs to settle his payments and download the product, unlike in cases where one has to settle the payment through money order then wait for the shipment of the goods which could make a big deal of time.
How the internet has assisted in the growth of niche product spaces
Amazon.com has a storage service called Amazon S3. This service enables the storage of data objects ranging from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes. With this in place, it implies that the company can store products ranging from books, music in MP3 format, newspapers, magazines, computer software, video games, and other electronic products, thus offloading the cost of storing the products in warehouses or stores. If a customer needs the printed or recorded form of the products it is very easy to download and put them in the desired form.
How the internet has assisted in the availability of resources
The internet service has helped to reduce strain on the scarce resources, especially when it comes to products like books, newspapers, and magazines, which rely entirely on natural resources to get the papers for printing.
How the internet has helped in scalability
As the demand to advertise, stores, and access to goods and services increase, it means that the developers of computer applications or products have to come up with hardware and software (with the ability to retain performance levels with additional processors) to be used in the operating system so as to handle such large data contents.