IT Developments Overview: Hardware, Software, and Security Measures

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in Information Technology, covering a range of topics from hardware advancements to software applications and security measures. The document begins by discussing the evolution of CPUs and hard disks, highlighting improvements in processing power and data storage capacity. It then explores CAD/CAM technology, wireless communication, and the role of emails in organizations. The assignment also delves into software, specifically focusing on the Windows operating system and integration of application software. Furthermore, it addresses the importance of IT developments for business competitiveness, including self-checkout systems and customer support services. Finally, the assignment concludes with a discussion on risk management, including financial asset protection, intellectual property theft prevention, and disaster recovery strategies such as firewalls and data backups. The document emphasizes how businesses can leverage the latest IT advancements to improve their services and protect themselves from potential threats.

CPU – The CPU in the last years has developed to allow the users to be capable to do multiple tasks
without the computer to be slowed or froze and that was possible by increasing the power of the
processor to elaborate more actions in the same time. For example, Intel launched recently a new i5
and i7 processor to give the highest experience to the users based on how they want to use the
computer for example a user who want to play games needs a processor with an high power of clock
speed that can allow him to play without lags other than a user who wants only to use computer to
run soft apps.
Hard Disk – The hard disk has developed in the last year to increasing the capacity to storing data.
For example TDK has demonstrate in 2012 a hard disk with the capacity of 2 TB in single platter of
3.5 inch. In the same year, Toshiba came out with a hard drive of desktop pc that had 3 TB in 3 inch
after manufacturing hard drive only for laptop with the dimension of 2.5 inch. In 2014, Seagate
introduced a hard disk with the capacity of 6 TB without using the helium but that increased the
power consummation of it and decreased the overall cost and that allows a lot of people to buy it.
This year 2015, HGST reach the capacity of 10 TB in their last hard drive (the first hard disk that have
that much as capability) called “Ultrastar Archive Ha10 SMR HDD” with a dimension of 101.6 x 147
(width x depth in mm) with a weight of 650 g. From the data of the development that I have wrote
above it can be clearly seen that the hard disk is developed in the overall years to increase the
power of storage data and increase the performance that means speed of copying and reading files.
Based on this facts the hard disk have developed to have more space and less size possible in order
to give the facility to travel with it.
CAD/CAM – Stand for computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing that is used to
design and manufacture products. The computer aided design usually use models that typically
appears in the monitor as a three-dimensional representation that can be read or changed by
changing the parameters. The computer aided manufacturing use geometrical design to give
instruction to the automated machinery that allow to have physical part of the design. At the end,
CAD/CAM manage methods of geometrical encoding to design and manufacturing of products.
Wireless – The wireless in the year have developed in order to increase the power (Speed) of
receiving and transmitting data, the latest wireless devices have reached the capability of 300 mbps
on transmitting and receiving data instead of the 100mbps of the past years.
2009 – The arrival of 802.11n
2009 saw the final version of the 802.11n, which was even faster and more reliable than before, as it
was built with more antennas and multiple streams of data. ‘Multiple input multiple output’ data
(MIMOs) describes the use of multiple antennas to enhance communication of both the transmitter
and receiver. This gave us significant increases in data without the need for higher bandwidth or
transmit power. It does this by spreading the same total transmit power over the antennas to
achieve power and efficiency.
Emails - the emails are used in an organization as system for the communication between the
organization and the customer or between employees of the company. The emails used on the
company are in a formal format that means that there is no emoticon and the emails should be
divided in paragraphs by giving the subject and introduction about why the email is written. The
emails also need to be proof-read in order to avoid all the grammatically mistakes such as
punctuation and spell mistakes. The emails between the employees should be written only if it is
necessary and it is not a way to chat or spam with other colleagues.

Software
Windows- Windows is a software system developed from Microsoft, this system have developed in
order to improve in each version the graphical interface that they provide for the user. A new
software came out in 2015 is the Windows 10 that in fact of features has the start button again as
the previous Windows systems have except for the Windows 8 and 8.1. This software is given to all
the old users that have a genuine version of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, in term of functionality the
software allow the user to run 4 different application at the same time and in the same screen. Also
the system is updated monthly in order to provide more security to the users from virus and other
dangerous application as the system can provide.
Integration of application software - (also called Enterprise Application Integration, shortly EAI)
combines a lot of productivity software applications that have the same interface and similar
features into a single package.
Management Information Systems - have been created in order to help the users to manage a
company. It gives to the user the necessarily information which help them to direct an organization
in the right way to become successful.
Decision Support Software – it is used in a company to predict it future and what the company will
be. In order to do that, it is necessary the use of if statement scenarios to have an idea about how
the future will be and what decision the company have to take.
1.3
A company in order to stay in competition with other companies, they have to make sure that they
have the latest IT developments to give their customer the same or even better service that other
companies give to their customers. For example, in Sainsbury’s and other big companies such as
Tesco and Asda, they have introduced the self-checkout to give to their customer the opportunity to
have a quick shopping.
For an online organization have a customer support service is vital for the reason that when a
customer is buying online he can only see the picture and cannot touch the item. Also, if something
happens when the item is damaged or lost during the delivery can affect negatively to the business
of the company so they have to make sure to give all the support that the customer needs so they
will not lose customers. Another reason that can influence the fact of having a customer support
service is that when a customer is buying online there is not human contact and some people are
used to have when they were buying stuff from the shops so the customer support service can
interact with the customers and reassure them that the items that they are buying are secure and
without any problem in fact of quality and delivery at home.
1.4
Risk
Diverting Financial Assets:

Diverting financial assets means when someone acquires the financial details of a person and access
to him/her bank account without their permission and compromise their bank details such as the
bank statement, these actions are usually done by the Identity Theft.
Intellectual Property Theft:
Intellectual property theft means when someone steals the intellectual information of someone and
make it as his/her one. The intellectual property can be everything such as music, movies, patterns
and other form of expression (copy and paste that information can be sometimes be penalized by
punishment for example in the college is called plagiarism and it can punished by the expulsion from
the course and sometimes also from the college).
Prevention
Firewalls:
A firewall is a system that prevent the access to and from private network. It is a defence system
that prevent that the data that are sent from the organization are securely passed without any risk
of the data being compromised by the man-in-middle or hackers. The firewalls are useful for the
organization because it prevents risk when the organization are sending emails to their customer so
they know that the messages sent, were not being compromised from others.
Disaster Recovery:
Disaster Recovery means all the way that an organization can do to prevent that their data cannot
be lost by using backups. The backup can be done in different ways such as copying the primary files
into hard disk, One drives (It is an online space provide from a website that allows the user to save
their data, it has a limitation and also it can require a monthly fee if the user does not buy the space
that they need) and other memories that allow the organization to copy their data. This method is
useful for an organization in cases when the primary data are compromised from factors that don’t
allow anymore to access to those data so they can recover the data from the memory where they
saved and have access again to them.