Information Systems: Foundations of E-Business

This article discusses the concept of green computing, denial of service attack, and feasibility study in information systems. It evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of adopting green computing, the impact of DoS attack on Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the importance of feasibility study in project management. The article also provides a brief overview of the questions that a feasibility study should address.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Information systems: foundations of e-business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Green Computing.............................................................................................................2
1.1. What is green Computing?.......................................................................................2
1.2. Should an organization adopt Green Computing?....................................................3
2. Denial of Service Attack..................................................................................................4
2.1. DoS attack on Australian Bureau of Statistics..........................................................5
2.1.1. Impact on ABS..................................................................................................6
3. Feasibility Study..............................................................................................................7
4. Paradigm Shift.................................................................................................................9
4.1. Why Companies may undertake paradigm shift?...................................................11
References..........................................................................................................................12

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1. Green Computing
1.1. What is green Computing?
The concept of green computing refers to the eco-friendly use of the computer systems
and its resources. This can be achieved by the designing and manufacturing computing devices
in such a way that it reduces environmental impact. Green computers are specifically designed in
order to save energy as it is generally built from environmental friendly materials coupled with
low power consumption and computer power management capabilities. It reduces the impact on
environment by generating much lower heat as compared to the other computing devices (Singh
and Chana 2014). Green computing can therefore be termed as an emerging practice of making
efficient use of the computing and information technology resources along with performance
enhancement of the devices. The main aim of green computing or green IT is to reduce the
carbon footprint generated by the business. Green Computing promotes the idea of recyclability
in order to reduce environmental hazards. The concept of green computing or green IT focuses in
reducing the human impact on environment by manufacturing eco friendly computing devices
and promoting the use of same (Malviya and Singh 2013). Majority o the computing devices
generally possess fan or heater like component as a compulsory element, which increases the
energy waste. Green computing embarks on reducing similar environmental hazard by making
use of green computers. It reduces environmental impact by reducing the emission of GHG and
reducing the number of e-waste. One of the major benefits of green computing is that, it reduces
the health risk of the computer workers and the recyclers. Green computing can be adapted by a
handheld system and even a large scale data centre, as it is an environment friendly approach of
managing information and communication technology.

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Green computing reduces the environmental impact by reducing the consumption of
energy by green computers. Generation of electricity using fossil fuel has a lot of negative
impact on environment and thus green computing definitely reduces the environmental hazard.
Furthermore, the majority of the electronic devices produce a lot of CO2 emission, which is a
major green house gas, thus increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment
(Soomro and Sarwar 2012). Apart from this, the assembling of computers releases different toxic
chemicals associated with electrical insulation, soldering and fire production.
Green Computing is therefore, receiving a lot of consideration in recent times mainly due
to the increasing environmental concern over the years. Green Computing further applies to the
changing government policy that encourages recycling and use of preserved resources. However,
it is not easy to implement green computing as the entire procedure is quite costly.
1.2. Should an organization adopt Green Computing?
It is a significant question whether an organization should adopt green computing or not,
as there are a number of advantages as well as disadvantages of adopting green computing in day
to day business. The green computing technology helps in reducing the carbon footprint of a
company and lowers the energy costs as well. This will therefore, be beneficial for the company
in long run. This will be profitable for an organization; however, the cost of implementation of
green computing should also be considered, as it is sufficiently huge (Jindal and Gupta 2012). It
will be difficult for small scale organizations to implement green computing technology due to a
huge implementation cost. However, it is recommended for a large organization to implement
this change in the organization for securing a better future and also for becoming a leading

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example for similar other organizations. Green Computing is environmentally sustainable
computing and reduces the dissipation of the environment while using a computer (Saha 2014).
Use of the organization resources that reduces the use of hazardous materials can be a
good start for green computing within an organization (Bose and Luo 2012). Recycling the e-
wastes will not only help in reducing the hazardous impact on the environment, but also will help
in reducing the wastage. However, it is not an easy process to implement green computing as it is
associated with the design of energy efficient data center for managing the electrical
configuration, heat recovery in order to reduce the energy consumption to an optimum level
(Kansal and Chana 2012). The organization will also need to use energy star labeled products.
Furthermore the all the devices of the organization should incorporate a power management
feature in the operating system.
Therefore, as the IT manager of the organization, I am recommending the green
computing solutions for the organization as it will be beneficial for the organization and its
employees in the long run (Lakshmi, Sarwani and Tuveera 2012). Furthermore, it is an
advancing concept that needs proper evaluation and I believe our organization is ready to face
the challenge.
2. Denial of Service Attack
Denial of Service Attack or DoS attack aims at shutting down the legitimate operations of
the system by flooding the servers and networks with unwanted and spam traffic (Jan and Khan
2013). This overwhelms the victim resources, making it impossible for the legitimate users to
access the system. Denial of Service attack floods the target by sending irrelevant information or
request triggering a crash (Apiecionek, Czerniak and Zarzycki 2014).

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Victims of a denial of service attack mainly include web servers of high profile
organizations such as government trade, banking and commerce (Bhuyan et al. 2013). The denial
of service attack although does not result in data theft or loss of confidential data of the
organization, it can affect the organization negatively as it results in loss of a considerable
amount of time and money in handling and mitigating such attack.
Denial of service attacks are generally laid either by flooding the services across the
victim server or by crashing the services. Networking flooding is a situation in which a system
receives too much traffic for the server as well as the buffer, eventually slowing down the entire
system. The different types of flood attack include buffer overflow attack, ICMP flood and SYN
flood (Alomari et al. 2012). On the other hand, the attack that exploits the vulnerabilities of the
system resulting in a service crash is another type of DoS attack.
Distributed denial of service attack or DDoS is another type of denial of service attack
that occurs when multiple and connected system experiences a synchronized DoS attack. In
distributed denial of service attack, the target is attacked from a number of locations instead of a
single location (Gupta, Joshi and Misra 2012). This provides a number of advantages to the
attacker as the attacker can leverage a greater number of system for executing a disruptive attack.
Furthermore, it becomes very difficult to detect the location of the attack and it becomes very
difficult for the victim organization to identify the true attacking party and taking down the
attack (Yu 2014).
2.1. DoS attack on Australian Bureau of Statistics
In the year 2016, millions of Australians failed to fill up their census online as the
website was slammed by a distributed denial of service attack. The Australian Bureau of

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Statistics (ABS) shut down the website as it was hit by a number of distributed denial of service
attack. The attack broke in even though ABS was confident enough that the website will be able
to resist the DDoS attacks as it is incorporated with the multiple layers of security. However,
during census 2016, the entire website went down as it was not able to resist or withstand a
DDoS attack creating havoc on public as they were not able to access the website. The website
crashed as a result of the attack and it was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the national survey.
The DDoS attack on ABS prevented thousands of the Australians in taking part in the
census. It was found out that the website has been attacked four times by the hackers and as a
precautionary move the website was shut down after the fourth attack broke in (Geva, Herzberg
and Gev 2014). This was done in order to ensure data integrity and eliminate the risk of data loss.
2.1.1. Impact on ABS
The Australian Census website therefore faced four denial of service attacks, out of
which, the first three caused a minor disruption. At that point more that 2 millions of the form
were successfully stored in the database (Kaldor 2016). However, the fourth one resulted in
shutting down of the entire website in order to take down the attack. The attacker targeted the
ABS website as almost two-thirds of Australians prefer to fill the census online rather than on
paper. Australian Bureau of Statistics later tweeted about the incident apologizing for the
inconvenience in a global platform like twitter. ABS mentioned that the four successive attacks
were of varying nature and severity. The website was not breached by this attack but the attack
was intended to prevent the legitimate users from accessing the website. It was not a case of
hacking as no information was lost (Skinner 2018). The attack simply accelerated the increase in
traffic in the website thus crashing the entire system. The website was sturdy enough to

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withstand the previous three attacks; however, it could not prevent the fourth attack resulting in
shutting down of the website.
ABS however, was prompt enough to bring the system under control and fix the issue.
The date of filling up the census was extended as well in order to minimize the impact of the
attack on public.
3. Feasibility Study
Feasibility study is generally defined as an assessment of how practical a plan is. It
evaluates whether a proposed plan can be successfully implemented as a project or not.
Feasibility study mainly evaluates whether a plan is technically feasible within the cost estimated
for the project. Furthermore, it evaluates whether the set plan is profitable or not. Therefore, it is
very important for an organization to perform a feasibility analysis of a project plan before the
project implementation. In short, feasibility study is defined as an analysis of the project in order
to determine whether it is practical to implement the same.
Since the viability of a project or an idea is evaluated with the help of the feasibility
study, it is a very important stage of project management. One of the most integral questions that
a feasibility study needs to answer is whether a project is economically feasible or possible or
not. It is also necessary to evaluate the return of investment and payback time as well
(Abrahamsson et al. 2017). The cost benefit analysis of the project is generally done as a part of
undergoing the economic feasibility of the project. The feasibility study furthermore, evaluates
the historical background of the product, business or a project including financial, legal and tax
obligations.

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Another integral question that a feasibility study should address is whether the project is
feasible with the technical resources available for the organization or not. Furthermore, it should
analyze the hardware, software and similar technical requirements of the project.
It is very important to investigate whether a project conflicts with the basic legal
requirements that are needed to be fulfilled in order to complete a project. This stage is termed as
legal feasibility analysis and it deals with the analysis of the applicable legal framework of a
project.
Feasibility study should address whether a project plan is linear with the identified
requirements of the project or not. This accounts for the operational feasibility analysis of the
project and is involved with a detailed analysis of organizational needs. Feasibility study of a
project further checks whether the set schedule and the date of release of the project is viable or
not. Therefore, proper scheduling is another major question that a feasibility study answers. The
marketability is another major factor that determines the success of a project. The feasibility
study therefore analyzes the target market for the project to be implemented including a proper
demographics and purchasing habits. The competition the project or the product will be facing in
the marketplace is one of the significant questions that a feasibility study should address.
Feasibility study is a systemic process of addressing the different challenges a project
might face while implementation. A considerable amount of time has been allocated for the
analyzing the feasibility of the project. A proper timetable is set for carrying out a feasibility
study, which is generally done at the beginning of the project. However, before embarking on the
feasibility analysis of a project it is very essential to formulate proper questions that the analysis
need to address. The positive outcome of the feasibility study will guarantee the successful

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implementation of a project. Therefore, conducting a feasibility study is definitely an important
stage to undergo before successful implementation of a project.
Almost every business critically examines the actions they would need to take in order to
successfully implement a project. Establishing the proper viability of an idea or plan plays a
major role in determining the success criteria of a particular project. Feasibility is important to
perform as uncertainty is a constant factor in any business. Feasibility study is essential to reduce
this uncertainty. Feasibility study benefits not only the business but also its customers as well as
it addresses the leading trends and customers’ demands.
In short the feasibility study should address the different vital questions associated with
the schedule, resource usage, economic viability, market trends, profitability, legal issues and
customers’ demands. Therefore, any major or medium size project performs the feasibility
analysis of the project prior to the project implementation in order to evaluate the overall
viability of a particular project in terms of time, cost and resources.
4. Paradigm Shift
Paradigm shift in a business mainly involves of the business process associated with an
organization. Paradigm in business refers to a completely new way of doing things and has a
huge impact or effect in business. It is mainly defined as the fundamental change of the basic
concepts and practices of an organization in order to improve the different business process
running within an organization. A paradigm shift therefore occurs in a company when there
change in the beliefs and perspectives about a certain thing. Paradigm shift is a major process of
innovation management as well. This is because a new paradigm is all together a new way of

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doing things that has a direct effect on business. Paradigm can be a standard, perspective or idea
that deals with doing business in a completely new way.
Paradigm shift is therefore, an overall change of the organization and can be considered
as one of the most extreme types of changes that an organization would do. However, the
paradigm shift can be considered as the most radical change that an organization can implement
in comparison to automation, which is much easier to implement. Paradigm shift is therefore,
considered as hallmark of the innovation model of a particular business (Barnett et al. 2013).
This is because a particular paradigm drives the policies and procedures of a company. The
revolution in the different business processes adopted by the different organization has forced
even the other organization to re think and innovate their business processes.
Paradigm shift however alters the pace and rhythm of an existing business with an aim of
improving the key business drivers. However, it is quite difficult to say certainly whether a
paradigm shift will benefit a business or not (Anjum, More and Ghouri 2012). There can be a
various reason why a paradigm shift might not work for an organization including lack of proper
communication among the employees. One of the major steps for paradigm shift includes
building a compelling vision and successful motivation to the employees.
One of the major reasons why companies might undertake paradigm shift is that change
is inevitable in any business processes. The business therefore, needs to adapt to the market
shifts, changing behavior of the customers and different technological trends (Tongur and
Engwall 2014). Paradigm shift is a scientific revolution and is a complete change in way of
thinking in terms of business perspectives and business processes. It is a kind of metamorphosis
in a business process driven by the agents of much needed change in a business. This is one of

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the major reasons why paradigm shift is defined as the most radical type of change in a business.
It signifies that a paradigm shift will bring a complete renovation in an organization, which can
be predictive at times or might be completely adaptive in nature (Petty et al. 2012). Therefore, it
can be said that paradigm shift is the most radical form of change that an organization might
face.
4.1. Why Companies may undertake paradigm shift?
It would not be completely wrong to say that major organization might be forced to
undertake a paradigm shift as it is one of the current business trends. It is very important for any
organization to have a vital set of assumptions and processes for effective operation of their
business (Gil-Lafuente et al. 2012). Paradigm on the other hand helps a business in reinventing
the set processes in order to increase the profitability of the business. Paradigm might be
dramatic change in a certain business process and is associated with the change in thinking and
planning leading to a complete change in the process of project or product implementation.
Companies might undertake a paradigm shift for a number of reasons, which includes
pressure for change, government actions, and technological. The need for change is therefore a
major reason paradigm shift. Since a paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the approach of
underlying assumptions of business processes, organizations need try the paradigm shift in order
to improve their business processes. This is therefore, a major reason for companies to undertake
paradigm shift even if the process is extremely disruptive in nature (Chang, Kauffman and Kwon
2014). The question is whether a paradigm shift is always beneficial to a company. The answer is
positive only if a business is able to properly evaluate their needs.

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