Report on technologies relating to businesses and organizations

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Abdul Samad Farhat                Applied GCSE UNIT 3

Report on technologies relating to businesses and organizations

In the 21st Century, businesses and organizations wholly depend on a wide range of technologies. However in this report I will be concentrating on three technologies used by businesses/organizations to access and exchange information, and carry out transactions.

The Internet (Information Access and Exchange)

Businesses will use the Internet, the World Wide Web, to consolidate its customers and employers. Many companies will have their own website to sell a service or product. By changing one thing, for example the price of a computer, it automatically advertises to the whole world saving time and money. There is no need to send out newsletters to individual customers or employers and notify them about company changes individually.

What is the Internet and when was it made?

“The internet is a worldwide network of computer networks. It is an interconnection of large and small networks around the globe. The Internet began in 1962 as a computer network for the U.S. military and over time has grown into a global communication tool of many thousands of computer networks that share a common addressing scheme. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP).”

http://www.oln.org/student_servces/definitions.php

The uses of the Internet

The Internet has many uses; however the main use for businesses and organizations is that it provides a worldwide wide connection with customers and employers. It allows companies to access information from other companies around the world via e-mail and websites to make changes internally.

E-commerce is where the Internet is used to sell products or services. This has many advantages, as it is cheaper, then running a shop. It requires lees employers increasing the income. The maintenance of an e-commerce is also cheaper.

To really understand how the Internet works we must know how a network works. This leads me to Network technologies, available for businesses and organizations.

Network Technologies

The main purpose of a network is to simply connect a group, if not, 2 computers to together so that they can share information from each other.

Networks are separated into two main categories, Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks.

LAN

Local Area Network - A computer communications system limited to no more than a few miles and using high-speed connections (2 to 100 megabits per second). A short-haul communications system that connects ADP devices in a building or group of buildings within a few square kilometers, including workstations, front-end processors, controllers, switches, and gateways.

LAN’s can be used by companies internally in other words within the company. This allows companies to access their own databases for customer and employee records. The transfer of data within a LAN is very quick, and allows data to be transferred at high speeds, which is also dependent on the medium.

The data stored by a company or business is on a server. This Server is connected to many workstations and is the main source of data.

The advantage of a LAN is that once installed, computers can easily be updated with information and data by updating the server only. This then allows all employers quick access to the same information. Traditional methods would mean that each console/terminal had to be updated individually, costing money and time.

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However, even LAN’s have limitations.

WAN

Wide Area Network is a network connecting computers within very large areas, such as states, countries, and the world. It is, in a way, a group of LAN’s connected over longer distances. The Internet is a very large Wide Area Network.

WAN can be used by businesses to connect companies over large distances i.e. connecting devices kilometers away.

WAN’s are slower than LAN’s at transferring data, however recent development in fibre optic medium allowing large data transfer at speed.

To connect to WAN (The Internet) you will require a modem.

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