Integrated Professional Skills in Digital Age: Collaboration Tools, Cloud Computing, Security Challenges, and Crypto Currency

This report discusses the key considerations and terms associated with the usage of the internet, including collaboration tools, cloud computing, security challenges, and crypto currency. It explores how businesses have used collaboration tools to survive the pandemic, the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage and computing, privacy and security challenges, and the importance of crypto currency for businesses.

Integrated Professional
Skills in Digital Age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Two Collaboration Tools and how they helped the businesses to survive in the pandemic.. 1
Applications of cloud storage and computing in improving digitalisation............................3
Privacy and Security challenges.............................................................................................4
Importance of crypto currency for businesses........................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Digital age also known as information age is considered to one of the time period that
started in the year 1970s that involves introduction of computers with technology that also
provided the capabilities and abilities to transfer the information quickly and freely. The process
of information and communication technology(ICT) has become a very important term for the
digital businesses and its importance increased during the covid pandemic situation. In this report
it involves the understanding of the key considerations and terms which are associated with the
usage of internet. In addition to that it involves the collaboration tools and how these tools helped
the businesses to survive in the pandemic situation and also reducing the physical contact among
the participants. Moreover it involves how the ecommerce, cloud computing and cloud storage
are now becoming the new normal in the industries with various advantages and disadvantages
and application of the cloud storage. Moreover it involves the various security and privacy
challenges and various possible measures taken with the discussion on the importance of the
crypto currency for the organisation.
MAIN BODY
Two Collaboration Tools and how they helped the businesses to survive in the pandemic.
The collaboration in the workplace is basically related to the people who are working
together. It basically involves the individuals who are contributing and working with each other
in order to achieve organisational objectives. The collaborative workplaces tends to be more
profitable, much more effective and have high retention. The collaboration tools helped and
played a very important role and helped businesses to deal with the issues and challenges in
order to survive in the current pandemic situation and also reducing the physical contact among
the employees and participants. Two of the collaborative tools which were used widely by the
business are Skype and Zoom(Yang and Tao, 2018).
Zoom: It is one of the most popular web conferencing system through the voice and video calls
among users. The company has it headquarters in San Jose, California. It basically involves the
chatting services, cloud computing services, online meetings and video conferencing to the users.
It allows the users to share images, video, audio and transfer the message with other users
(Namshamgari and Edarapalli, 2020).
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Skype : It is considered to be one of the most popular web conferencing system and
telecommunications application through voice and video calls among users. The users can share
and transfer the images, audio, message and videos with other users. The company was launched
and introduced in the year 2003 and also provides free cost of services to its users (Ravikumar
and Kavitha, 2021).
Both these tools played a very important role during the pandemic and has helped businesses to
connect with each other and carry out business operations with meeting and connecting with
each other physically and reducing the risks of spreading of the corona virus.
Advantage of using the online collaboration tools:
Save resources and time: These tools helped in saving the time and resources and the use of
emails involves a lot of time and effort that goes in reading and reverting back. These
collaborative tools has helped in saving the time and effort.
Remote Collaborations made easy: During the subsequent and lock downs and the pandemic,
various businesses embraced the online collaboration software for the very first time. These tools
not only help in improving the communication among employees while working in the different
locations but also helped in communicating with the third parties.
Boost team morale: These online collaboration tools helps the employees of the organisation to
work as per their convenience and doing their working in a effective and efficient manner. With
good collaboration it helps in generating innovative and creative ideas and also helps colleagues
in learning from each other. With the help of these tools it helps in better understanding, sharing
of knowledge and better communication and makes it each for everyone to communicate with
each other.
Better Communication: Communications is the process of exchange of information among two
or more persons. With the help of online collaboration tools it helps in making the workplace a
better place for communicating and connection. It is basically used for the colleagues who are
not in the same office or are not residing in the same country. A good collaboration with the use
of these tools helps in minimizing the situation of missing the updates and emails and also
ensuring that each and every employee is working on the project with same page( Meissner and
Shmatko, 2019).
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Applications of cloud storage and computing in improving digitalisation
Cloud Computing is basically considered to be the on demand availability of the
computer system resources that basically involves the computing power and data storage with a
direct active management by the user. Cloud storage basically involves the cloud computing
model that involves storing data on the internet with a cloud computing provider that helps in
operating and managing data storage as a service (Monk, 2018). The ecommerce basically
involves the selling and buying of services and goods and also involves transmission of the data
or funds over a internet network or electronic network. All these are becoming the new normal in
the business organisation and various industries. The cloud storage and computing has helped in
improving the digitalisation. The cloud storage helps the users and allows them to access files
and share files remotely without the access to local storage systems. There are various
advantages and disadvantages of the cloud storage mentioned below:
Advantages of cloud storage:
Security: The cloud storage helps in providing add on layers and more protection and security to
the services. The cloud storage helps in protecting the files and devices from unnecessary threats
and risks.
Accessibility: With the use of cloud storage it helps in easy access to your data and files from
anywhere in the world with proper internet connection.
Updating and Syncing: While working on the cloud storage, it helps in easy updating and
syncing across all the electronic devices.
Easy Recovery: In case of hardware malfunction or hard drive failure it can be easily recovered
and helps in quick recovery and helps in acting as a backup solution.
Disadvantages of cloud storage:
Privacy: With the use of cloud provider, the data or information is no longer available on the
physical storage and the date might not be secured or safe (Grishchenko, 2020).
Internet Connection: The cloud based storage is highly dependent on the internet connection
and internet connectivity and a slow network might create a tough situation and might have
issues in accessing on the storage. You cannot access your files if you do not have the proper
internet connection.
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Requirement of Hard Drives: Even though the cloud storage need to reduce the dependency on
the hard drives but some organisations need and requires physical hard drives( Bush, 2019).
In today’s world there has been a continuous evolution and all the organisations need to drive
their activity in various forms of the technology and the main source of survival is digital
transformation. In present scenario, every organisation measures their performance with the help
of customer experience that involves the cloud delivered and cloud enabled business model
which basically supports the organizations to adopt newer channels for the purpose to offer the
high level and enhanced customer service through differentiating solutions and strategy over the
current market competitors. The cloud computing basically involves the process of analytics,
maintenance, management, storage and security of data through exploiting a network based on
the internet servers. The data is not saved physically but in the cloud computing it help the
business to better manage the administration in order to enhance the customer digital experience,
streamline processes, optimize costs and improve productivity. In addition to that, in order to
bring value to the organisation and to be more competitive, each organisation need to embrace
the digital transformation process whenever needed and need to focus on their old IT
infrastructure into a new transformational one. The organisations need to exploit the advantages
of cloud computing for the purpose to set up the frameworks of the robust digital transformation
and also working on enabling the innovation through providing a set of application programming
interface for the developers. The process of digital transformation is very important and critical
in order to bring differences in the competitive scenarios for enhancing the experience of
customers and also facilitating innovations in the organisation through increasing the value in the
business( Smith, 2018).
Privacy and Security challenges
Cyber Security involves the processes, application of technologies and controls in order
to protect systems and data from the cyber attacks and also focusing on reducing the threats and
risks from the attacks related to the cyber and also protecting from unauthorised access and
protecting from exploitation of systems. There are various risks that may harm the information
and data which can be very critical for the organisation and it involves the following security and
privacy challenges as mentioned below:
Data Tampering: It is basically considered to be a act of intentionally or deliberately editing,
modifying, manipulating and destroying the data through unauthorized channels. The process of
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data tampering might affect the working of the organisation and may lead to misleading activities
in the organisation.
Password related threats: Passwords are something that need to be securely kept and hidden and
it is something that can be easily cause to danger or damage and it is very important to keep your
password secured and safe in order to protect your information and details (Mwaniki, 2018).
Lack of accountability: It is another issue or challenge that can affect the organisation and its
working it is very important to be accountable for the actions performed in the organisation.
EavesDropping: It basically involves the act of stealthily and secretly listening to the
conversations which are quite private without taking the consent of the other person. The
process may harm the organisation if someone listens to the private information about the
organisation and its future goals.
Complex user management requirements: It basically involves two terms user and
management. The user management basically determines the ability to manage the user access to
the IT resources that involves networks, systems, devices, storage systems and much more. It
also enables the admits to control the off board and on board users from and to the resources of
IT.
Unauthorized access of data: Another privacy or security challenge involves the unauthorized
access of data. It is basically related when a individual try to enter into a system, data, computer
network or application software without the permission.
Possible measures to take in order to deal with the security and privacy challenges:
Firewalls: It is basically a network security device that helps in filtering and monitoring the
outgoing and incoming network traffic which is typically based on the company’s already
established policies and procedures. It basically helps in creating a barrier between the public
internet and a private internal network.
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Data Erasure: It basically involves the data destruction, data clearing and data wiping. It is a
software which is highly based on the method of overwriting that data that aim to fully destroy
the electronic data which resides in the physical hard drive.
Authorization and Authentication: It basically involves the process of verifying the specific
data, applications and files that a user has access to and also includes the verification of a user or
individual. It basically involves the verification of the individual and checking that they are the
one who they represent themselves to be.
Importance of crypto currency for businesses
A crypto currency basically involves the virtual or digital currency which is highly
secured by the cryptography. The crypto currency also known as crypto or crypto currency is a
digital currency which is basically created and designed to work as a medium of exchange with a
use of computer network. In context to Crypto currencies it includes Bit coin which are
becoming quite popular and is considered to be a secure option or alternative as compare to the
physical currency which are used in various current situations. There has been a increase in
number of various industries who are using bit coins and also uses various other digital assets
that involves transactional, host of investment and operational purposes. With the use of crypto it
helps the industries and various business organisations with providing a lot of challenges and
opportunities. Being a frontier, both are unknown about the strong incentives and unknown
dangers. In addition to that the industries uses crypto in their organisations need to clearly have a
proper understanding of the two things that involves a deep understanding of the list of questions
and a proper understanding of the actions (Hermida and Young, 2019).
There are various reasons of a organisation using crypto currency as it helps in providing
greater access to the new demographic groups. In context to customers, those who uses crypto
are one of the new customers of the businesses and they purchase more as compare to the credit
card users. The use of crypto helps in increasing awareness regarding the new technologies and
also helps the organisation to position the its importance in the space that also includes the
central bank digital currencies. The crypto currency also provides various opportunities which
are not available with the fiat currency. TH crypto currency also provides various opportunities
that also include many treasury activities that help in managing the opportunities and risks of
getting engage in the investments related to the digital. Moreover it helps in strengthening the
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control over the enterprise’s capital and also helps in enabling the secure money transfers, real
time and simple transfers. It also helps in serving the balancing assets and effective alternatives.
The crypto is considered to be a investable asset and many businesses uses bit coins that are
working extremely well over the last years.
Bit coin is basically considered to be a decentralized digital currency without any single
administrator or central bank. With the use of crypto it helps in spurring awareness about the
internal operations in the organisation. It also helps in positioning the organisation and helps in
creating a emergence space for the future that also involves the central bank digital currencies.
The crypto currency is considered to be one of the digital version of money and there are various
types of crypto currencies available that includes Cardano, Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. The
most commonly and widely used crypto currency is Bit coin. In order to make a Bit coin
payment, the bit coins are basically transferred from digital wallet. There are various advantages
of bit coins that offers various advantages and opportunities to the business. It involves:
Quick and straightforward process: The transactions related to the bit coins are quite
straightforward and quick and these bit coins helps in transfer of one digital wallet to another
with a easy use of computer or smart phone (deHaan, 2019).
Recorded in the public list: With the help of crypto currency transaction, it helps in recording in
a public list which is known as the block chain which is basically a technology that helps in
existence. These further helps in cutting down the intermediaries that involves online
marketplaces and banks and do not include any payment processing fees. The use of crypto
currency payments are widely used and are becoming very popular among the business and large
organisations that also involves fashion industries and pharmaceutical industries. In context to
Bit coin it also has various disadvantages to the organisation or business that involves non
regularisation by the financial conduct authority and that results in no rules and regulations for
the purpose to protect the organisation. The transactions related to crypto currency involves
various risks and thefts.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that digitalization and digital area are
something which plays a very important role and in present scenario in order for a business to be
successful it need to have a strong online presence and also need to be well aware about the
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various necessary issue or problems related to the security and privacy. With the use of crypto
currency such as bit coins it helps the organisations to become more successful and perform their
operations with more ease. There are various methods which an organisation need to consider in
order to protect themselves from unwanted threats and risks that might affect the working of the
organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bush, S., 2019. National Reports on STEM Education: What Are the Implications for K-12?.
In STEM Education 2.0 (pp. 72-90). Brill Sense.
deHaan, J., 2019. Teaching language and literacy with games: What? How? Why?. Ludic
Language Pedagogy, 1, pp.1-57.
Grishchenko, N., 2020. The gap not only closes: Resistance and reverse shifts in the digital
divide in Russia. Telecommunications Policy, 44(8), p.102004.
Hermida, A. and Young, M.L., 2019. Data journalism and the regeneration of news. Routledge.
Meissner, D. and Shmatko, N., 2019. Integrating professional and academic knowledge: the link
between researchers skills and innovation culture. The Journal of Technology
Transfer, 44(4), pp.1273-1289.
Monk, A., 2018. Lightweight techniques to encourage innovative user interface design. In User
Interface Design (pp. 109-129). CRC Press.
Mwaniki, P.W., 2018. Envisioning the future role of librarians: skills, services and information
resources. Library Management.
Namshamgari, A. and Edarapalli, M., 2020. Encrypted Cloud Storage Merge Data Manager and
Server Access Control.
Ravikumar, S. and Kavitha, D., 2021. IoT based home monitoring system with secure data
storage by Keccak–Chaotic sequence in cloud server. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and
Humanized Computing, 12(7), pp.7475-7487.
Smith, R., 2018. Crime in the digital age: Controlling telecommunications and cyberspace
illegalities. Routledge.
Yang, C. and Tao, X., 2018, December. New publicly verifiable cloud data deletion scheme with
efficient tracking. In International Conference on Security with Intelligent Computing and Big-
data Services (pp. 359-372). Springer, Cham.
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