INF80042: Technology Essentials - Amazon IT Infrastructure Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Amazon's IT infrastructure, focusing on key aspects such as IT management and risk and security management. The report begins with an overview of Amazon's business operations, including its e-commerce platform, global presence, and financial performance. It then delves into the core components of Amazon's IT infrastructure, highlighting the significance of IT management in optimizing supply chain processes and ensuring efficient product delivery. The report also examines the challenges associated with managing customer data and the critical importance of robust security measures to protect sensitive information. The report proposes solutions for improving IT management, including integrating software with supply chain models and implementing technologies like RFID and ERP systems. Additionally, it suggests strategies for enhancing payment security to build customer trust. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of IT infrastructure in driving business success and adapting to evolving customer preferences.

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IT Infrastructure
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Executive Summary:
The paper is focused on discussing the various aspects of the IT infrastructure in the context
of a reputed organization Amazon. The paper also portrays the method of supply chain
remodelling with the concept and features of IT management. Along with that, it also shows
the impact of the risk and security of the customer's information on the business operation of
the organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Organization:...................................................................................................3
IT infrastructures:.......................................................................................................................4
Management of IT:.................................................................................................................4
Risk and Security Management:............................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction:
The modern world of business is significantly competitive and in that intense
competition, the organizations are trying to manage their business operations in such a
manner that it aligns with the scientific methods of business management (Swift and Piff
2014). The organizations are significantly using the technological advancement and the
presence of information technology in their business operations. Hence the usage of the IT
infrastructure becomes significantly crucial in order to implement a proper IT management.
IT management is considered to be the discipline which manages the various IT resources of
an organization with a precise focus on the requirements and priorities of that particular
organization (Marchewka 2014.). On the other hand the IT infrastructure is a group of IT
components which are the base of any IT service (Sellers et al. 2014). It is also considered
that the IT infrastructure is a set of components which are the essential needs for the
existence, management and operation of an IT environment (Orlikowski et al. 2016). The
paper is focused on discussing two of the major aspects of the IT infrastructure in the form of
the IT management and the risk and security management in the context of the chosen
organization Amazon.
Overview of the Organization:
Amazon is an American electronic commerce based organisation which operates in
the online shopping industry. The organization was founded in the year 1994 by Jeff Bezos
(Amazon.in, 2018). The organization is one of the notable names in the concerned industry in
terms of market capitalization and generation of revenue and under the experienced
leadership of the Jeff Bezos, the current chairman, President and CEO of Amazon along with
the CTO of the organization, Werner Vogels, the organization is able to gather a revenue of
177.86 billion US dollars in the financial year 2017(Sec.gov. (2018). Apart from that the

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organization was observed to produce an operating income of 4.106 billion US dollars along
with the total assets of 131.31 billion US dollars in the financial year 2017 (Sec.gov. (2018).
The organization was able to achieve this strong position in the market because of the
excellence of their 566000 number of employees in the year 2017 (Amazon.in, 2018). The
organization operates worldwide with a wide product chain including Amazon Appstore,
Amazon Kindle, Amazon Video, Amazon Prime, Amazon Echo along with ComiXology
(Amazon.in, 2018). The organization, having it's headquarter in Washington, U.S, is able to
expand their business through the various subsidiaries like A9.com, Amazon Air, Alexa
Internet, Amazon Game Studios, Amazon Robotics and many more (Sec.gov, 2018).
IT infrastructures:
The key pieces of Infrastructure for the chosen organization are the IT management
and the security management. Over the years it is observed that a leading organization like
the Amazon faces significant issues in the chosen sectors and those issues have notable
detrimental effects on the whole business operation of the mentioned organization. The
process of managing the infrastructure is complex due to huge size of the business and the
emerging issues in the Information Technology Management and the Security and Privacy
management of the customers. The solution to reduce the complexity is explained below in
context of both the pieces of infrastructure:
Management of IT:
The section is responsible for the proper management of IT resources of any given
organization and that needs to be in perfect alignment with the requirements and the priorities
of the given organization. The resources can be software, hardware, data centre facilities,
networks or a computer. The purpose of the discipline is to manage the business management
with specific focus on the software designing, network planning along with technical support

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(Holtshouse 2013). The IT management covers the different aspects of the product delivery
system and that for an organization like Amazon is significantly integrated with the supply
chain. Hence the presence of the information technology in the flow of the goods from the
manufacturers point to the customer's home is noteworthy. Usually it is observed that if the
whole process is properly connected then the management of the organization faces less
amount of issues in forming a strong stock for the organization. The formation of the stock is
necessary because of the significant variation in the preferences of the customers and the
customer will choose the option which will be most suitable in delivering their orders. Hence
the stock of the organization will play a significant role in making sure that the customer gets
their preferred goods and the exact specification which the customer needs.
The issue that the organization is facing is the association of the impurity in the
exchange of the information between the several parties related to the flow of the goods.
Hence the organization is not able to assess the customer's preferences in the desired manner
which is observed to be affecting their business as they are not able to align their products in
accordance to the customer's demand (Zhang and Di 2014). The inappropriate exchange of
the information by the concerned parties is blocking the scope of getting significant insights
from the customer's data and those information are important for the manufacturers in
assessing the customer's needs properly.
The organization needs to restructure their method of IT management with a precise
focus on the integration of software with the supply chain models. The solution will be to
implement a method for the effective interaction between the vendors, retailers,
manufacturers and the sellers. The organization must implement the method of storing the
information of the products in the Radio Frequency Identification Scanners or RFID tags and
the scanning of these tags will portray all the information regarding the product (Chen, Cheng
and Huang 2013). Along with this, the Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP will be

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instrumental in transmitting the stored data to the each and every party related with the flow
or supply of the goods. All of these operations need to be operated by a single software which
will be present to each of the above mentioned parties. This will enable the organization,
specifically the manufactures, to keep a track of the preferences of the customers which will
be visible with the repetitive or increased purchasing of a particular product. In that case the
sharing of the information from the RFID tags by means of the ERP system will enable the
manufacturers to get important knowledge of that particular product so that they can
manufacture more amount of such products in order to hold their customers for a longer
period of time. Apart from that, the software will enable the manufacturers and the suppliers
to keep a track on the available amount of product in the stock.
Risk and Security Management:
As the organization, Amazon is one of the premier organization in the concerned
industry, it needs to maintain the desired level of security associated with its operation. Any
sort of compromise in privacy and customer information will significantly affect the
reputation of the organization. The customer information or the information of planning of
the concerned organization regarding the new products to increase the product chain, will be
subject to the threat of getting to the hands of the competitors. This will be a significant loss
for the organization as their plan will be countered easily by the competitors and customer
information can be utilised by the competitors in order to align their products in accordance
to the requirements of the customers which could see a sudden dip in the number of
customers for the chosen organization, Amazon. Amazon, having an objective of increasing
the sales and revenue with a higher growth rate will surely focus on reducing the scope
occurrence for any such cases.
As the organization operates in the online shopping industry, the transaction of the
money or the payments follow the medium of online payment more often than the cash

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payments. Hence the customers pay through the debit or credit cards in a significant manner
and in order to do so, the information in the credit or debit card of that particular customer is
subjected to get shared. Australia, being an incredibly tech-savvy nation is in the list of
appreciators of the concept of Amazon in availing cashless shopping. But in the recent years,
the nation observed an increased number of financial fraud cases where information of the
debit or credit cards were used to in order to take away money unethically from the accounts
of the people of Australia (Ag.gov.au, 2018). In response of these fraud cases, the people of
Australia are significantly facing the trust issue among the organizations which conduct their
business with the usage of credit or debit cards and this is visible with a sudden decrement in
the number of customers. Hence the organizations along with Amazon are facing the need of
restructuring their payment methods in order to make sure that the privacy of the customers is
intact.
The solution is much needed for the organization as it directly relates to the amount of
generated revenue for the organization. The solution will be to implement a new method in
the form of a newly designed and owned card from the organization for the purpose of the
payments. The card will be a property of the organization and will be operated and designed
by the organization on their own. The card will be used for the online payments and the
formation of the card will be against the customer profile that is generated by the
organization, Amazon, during the time of the registration. Various shopping malls or the
banks will have a device for the recharge of the cards by means of the cash or the credit cards
and in that case, the operation of the recharging will be operated by the concerned banks of
the customers. This will block the sharing of the information of the credit and debit cards of
the customers and will be instrumental in making sure that the customers do not get any sort
of hesitation in purchasing the goods owing to the concern of the exchange of data. This will
be significant for the organization in creating an environment of trust among the customers of

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that chosen organization. Along with that, the customer's preference for purchasing from the
organization will increase in a rapid manner as the belief of the customers will be present.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that the management of Information technology
is significantly helpful for the organization in managing the organization with the desired
level of accuracy. The implementation of the IT infrastructure acknowledges the increment in
the speed of the processing and finishing of the products. This is also helpful for the
organization in the adaption of the fast fashion retailing. As the customer preferences and
trends are observed to change at a rapid speed, the life cycle of the processing of the goods
gets decreased. Hence it is observed that the improvement in the IT management for the
better management of the supply chain models is significantly desired by the chosen
organization.

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References:
A9.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://a9.com/ [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].
Ag.gov.au. (2018). Reporting fraud | Attorney-General's Department. [online] Available at:
https://www.ag.gov.au/CrimeAndCorruption/FraudControl/Pages/ReportingFraud.aspx
Amazon.in. (2018). Online Shopping site in India: Shop Online for Mobiles, Books, Watches,
Shoes and More - Amazon.in. [online] Available at: http://www.amazon.in/
Chen, J.C., Cheng, C.H. and Huang, P.B., 2013. Supply chain management with lean
production and RFID application: A case study. Expert Systems with Applications, 40(9),
pp.3389-3397.
Holtshouse, D.K., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Marchewka, J.T., 2014. Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Orlikowski, W.J., Walsham, G., Jones, M.R. and DeGross, J.I. eds., 2016. Information
technology and changes in organizational work. Springer.
Sec.gov. (2018). Document. [online] Available at:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872418000005/amzn-
20171231x10k.htm [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018].
Sellers, R.E., Guillot, J., Carter, G.H., Atkins, N.W., Pausback, N.J., Engle, M.R., Young,
P.T., Roffers, C.R., Herrneckar, A.D. and Ballard, W.H., Cisco Technology Inc, 2014. Agile
information technology infrastructure management system. U.S. Patent 8,725,853.
Swift, L. and Piff, S., 2014. Quantitative methods: for business, management and finance.
Macmillan International Higher Education.

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Zhang, Wei, and Di Xu. "Integrating the logistics network design with order quantity
determination under uncertain customer demands." Expert Systems with Applications 41, no.
1 (2014): 168-175.