Week 6

Reflection

In this weeks lecture we focused on cloud computing and relational databases. I learnt that organisations rent resources from an external provider on an as-needed basis, this is charged per month measured by the number of users, features used, data storage, bandwidth consumed, etc.The “Cloud” is a metaphor for the Internet which enables convenient, on-demand network access to shared computing resources such as documents, photos, E-mails, etc. These can be rapidly supplied and shared with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. A large example of this is Google as each account can hold e-documents- e-mails, photos, etc. I learnt that although cloud computing has many advantages, there are also some downfalls. Some of these advantages are measured service and resource pooling. Examples of the downfalls are viability of the cloud, security and privacy and how easy it is to move data or applications to other providers.

I learnt what a relational database was, how it is identified and why organisations use it. I learnt that a relational database needs to have a primary key so information can be uniquely identified within each record of the database. I also learnt that there were three different types of relationships that columns can have, these are; One-to-one, One-to-many and Many-to-many. A database management system is software that lets you create databases and change the information within them. I was then shown how to create a database with queries, forms and reports. If I was asked to create a database with queries, forms and reports I would feel confident in doing so.

Teamwork

This week within our teams we went to the JTI offices in Weybridge for another interview to gain more knowledge of the problems so we can then find a solution. After this we allocated certain problems that Japanese Tobacco International faces on a day to day basis and decided that each member of the team will focus on a certain problem so they can brainstorm solutions to the problem then give feedback in next weeks seminar. However, we will still focus on all the problems as we felt that some people may have a more suitable solution. We had four main solutions  that we gave to each member of the team, these were a range of different issues ranging from government regulations to technology development. Next week we will give feedback of the solutions we have came up with and brainstorm to find which is the best solution that all of the group agrees upon.