End of Semester Summary

What have I learned in INSY 440?

Coming into this class I was hoping to learn about technologies and how they helped business. But as it turns out, I learned much more about the resources available to make business a lot cheaper and more efficient. Many subjects were touched upon this class, some that I understand and some that still confuse me, but I was definitely exposed to a lot of things that will help me in the future.

The subject of cloud computing, I think, is subject that will help me a lot in the future. Never did I think I would be able to create my own website for pennies and not have to be responsible for the maintenance. This to me is the future of online business. I think that not only will existing companies switch to using it, but there will be more and more starts everyday because it is so easy to use.

The blogging experience is something I really enjoyed doing. I got the chance to talk about a lot of subjects that really interest me, and also got the chance to research and learn things that I was not previously aware of. There is still a long list of subject to blog about, and maybe ill continue blogging after the semester.

Learning things in class and listening to guest speaker was great and gave me a lot of insight on things. But what I definitely enjoyed the most was getting into discussions in class. Whether it was talking about cloud social networking or encryption, the discussions were very informative and great to participate in.

So do I have a better understanding of E-Business?

Though it is still very complicated and there are plenty of things I still do not fully comprehend, I believe that I have a greater knowledge about conducting business online. Gaining a much better understanding of what is available helps me realize how I can use these resources to my advantage, and how I can establish a proper business online. And though I don’t think ill be creating the next Facebook, or Google anytime soon, I have a much better understanding of how to start on up.

Cloud Computing

Is cloud computing really the future? Based on what we’ve learned so far, I think the answer is obvious. Why would companies pay thousands of dollars to have their own in house servers, that require upkeep, maintenance and bear all the risks if they went down. Cloud computing allows people to share resources, software and information for a minimal fee, and allow someone else to deal with the technical difficulties that arise with hardware.

Recently my mother asked me to help her start-up her own website. She thoughts that we would need to talk to a consultant or hire someone to develop it for us. Having just learned about cloud computing, I visited the site devhub.com and within 10 minutes the website was up and running. For now we can run the site for free (because it's site.devhub.com), but for only $2 a month we can run it under our own name. Other sites like Google, and Amazon offer similar services, also at very low prices.

Cloud computing also allows sites to upgrade their servers at peek times. For example: McGill University has steady traffic on it's registration site year-round, but twice a year when registration officially opens for the upcoming semester, there is a drastic increase in the number of students accessing it. It seems as if it would be too costly to upgrade the entire server system, but by using cloud computing, McGill could increase their servers for that one day and it would cost them next to nothing.

The big issue that arises when talking about cloud computing, is the same issue when talking about outsourcing any function, is the elimination of jobs. Companies can completely eliminate their IT departments thus causing thousands of jobs to be eliminated. And while cloud computing is in all likeliness the future, there will be consequences that will effect the lives of many people.

Apple - Sony potential merger

The idea of Apple merging with Sony could be, in my opinion, the best thing for both companies. Apple is always looking for ways to expand it's business and enter markets that they’ve never ventured into before, and Sony, who has been declining in the market and needs to revamp it's image.

I had Sony TVs in my house when I was much younger. They were always great quality and had excellent picture. But as time went on and we needed new ones, we went with different brands like Panasonic or Samsung. I still own a PS3 and absolutely love it, and I guess so does Apple.

My personal belief as to why Apple would want to buy Sony is that they don’t want to make some of the same mistakes that Microsoft did. I think that when they created the Xbox, they devoted a lot of their resources to it and took a lot away from their software department. By purchasing Sony, Apple is buying an established company, and can focus more on figuring out ways to combine their resources instead of diluting the current ones.

There is a big race with technology companies to have all the consumer entertainment product be one brand. By merging, Apple can get into the TV and entertainment industry, and combine it with a lot of their current products. Being able to hook your iPod or Mac, to a TV or PS3 without any difficulty could be the necessary steps to ensure both companies success.

Online Distractions

Technology has been incredible in increasing efficiency for businesses. Blackberries and laptops allow people to do work from outside the office, the Internet has created a global market, and social networking sites have enabled people all over the world to communicate. And though these innovations are incredible, they have created plenty of distractions, for the average person.

I once heard that the combination of fantasy football and march madness have cost businesses billions of dollars in downtime. It would not shock me to hear that Facebook costs even more. It's interesting to see in an office, when you walk by computer screens, how many people are doing work and how many are on external sites.

Then of course, there is the worst distraction of all, porn. Pornographic sites occupy over one third of the Internet. And though there are plenty of spam and website blocking technologies, there are just way too many sites, and ways around the blockers.

Businesses have taken many measures to stop these distractions, by blocking certain sites, and even spying on a persons search history. Though that is very illegal and an invasion of ones privacy, a company should have the right to see what a person is doing with company property and on company time. Though one can't expect to have employees focused on their work for 8 hours a day without wanting to take a break, these distractions cost companies way too much in downtime and can cause a lot of harm to a company.

Scalping Online

The traditional scalper used to sell his tickets on the street corner before games. Now more and more, we see people being able to sell their tickets online, making event tickets a lot harder to come by. More and more websites are popping, like Stubhub and Ticketmaster, that purchase tickets directly from the teams and selling them online at a profit, some even getting exclusivity rights to sell all the tickets.

The big issue now is that more and more people are buying tickets for the sole purpose of scalping them online. What used to be just a few guys, has now turned into a huge business. Sites like eBay and Craigslist make it so easy for people to sell their tickets safely and securely. With sports organizations realizing that this is such a big trend, they launched their own websites allowing people to resell their tickets, giving the team a cut. While this makes it much easier to purchase tickets, it raises the prices, to the point where the average fan has a very hard time purchasing tickets.

With tickets purchased directly already being ridiculously high, having to purchased scalped tickets just makes it much worse. Having tickets available online is great, when you need them, but is it really fair to have people making a profit off another persons products?

Online businesses killing the retail industry

In the past, anything I order off the internet is usually something that is not available in Quebec or in retail stores. Usually they consist of items like NFL apparel, DVD collections, or computer software. However, the other day, I ordered a first book off Amazon.com, making my first online purchase of something that was available to me in retail. Turns out that even after shipping costs, the total ended up being the same (even less in certain places), than buying it at a retail store.

The main reason I believe people are starting to buy more things online, is convenience. The idea of having a good delivered directly to your house, for relatively the same cost is very appealing. I don’t particularly enjoy going out to shop for certain goods, so being able to make purchases online really appeals to me. I think I would still be uncomfortable buying high involvement products online, like cars or even clothes, but buying smaller items is a lot more convenient online.

Over the years, many people, myself included, were uncomfortable making online purchases, for security reasons. Now with secure web-based payment programs, like PayPal, people have become comfortable making online purchases.

With all the innovations in online retailing, many more industries are beginning to open stores online. Things like grocery stores and restaurants are beginning to do home deliveries, where consumers can make their orders online. We may soon see a much greater movement of companies creating central warehouses and just doing home deliveries. I believe that this is a good thing, but we could be taking lots of jobs a way from people, which may be harmful to society.

The Playbook

When RIM announced that it was creating a tablet (or as I put it amongst heated debate, it's own version of the iPad), I immediately knew that it was going to be a bust (and so did it's shareholders obviously). The main reason for this is that they are too late to hit the market. They also make such a big deal about how it beat the iPad in having an HD front and rear cameras, but it’s already widely know that Apple would be adding these features to the new iPad, which should be released around the same time as the Playbook.

This reminds me a lot of when RIM, came up with the Blackberry Storm, in order to compete with the iPhone. Blackberry users enjoy the fact that their phones have actual keys and anyone who is wants to have a touch screen would immediately go for the iPhone. We’ll see how things go with the new Blackberry Torch, as it is a hybrid type. Already I see a large movement towards it amongst people I know. Only time will tell if this is finally the real competition with the iPhone, or just another Blackberry Storm.

I do see that the Playbook will have some advantages, mainly due to the fact that you can link it to your Blackberry. RIM really needs to focus on their key attributes which are that they produce an efficient, reasonably priced Smartphone, which in essence can do all the same things, if not more than that of their competitors. And while the iPhone is trying to appeal to more business consumers, it will always somewhat be viewed as a toy. RIM should use this to their advantage, and instead of copying Apple, they should try and enhance their key features, and stop Apple from trying to reach their consumer base.