Amazon Web Services Aws Computer Science Essay

Amazon Web Services Aws Computer Science Essay Amazon Web Services is a collection of  web services that together make up a  cloud computing  platform, offered over the Internet by  Amazon.com.   AWS or Amazon Web service is a suite of products used for hosting that aims to take the trouble out of traditional hosting solutions. Dropbox , Reddit and many other services use Amazon web Service. AWS isnt just used for storage, It can also be used to host a couple of servers  on AWS and quite efficiently too. It can be used host a large scale of applications such as a backend program for an iPhone application or a large server for a banking industry. The below Image shows the services provided by Amazon Web Services The reasons why we have chosen amazon web service as opposed to its competitors are listed below. 1. Flexibility The most important feature of the Amazon Web Service is the flexibility it gives to its user. All the service hosted work and communicate together with the application to automatically judge demand and handle the work accordingly. The making use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provided by Amazon and the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) we create, we can have a solution which is completely customized and one that provisions a server instance in less than ten minutes, and is ready to accept connections once it comes online. The instances can then be quickly shut down when they are no longer needed, making server management at the easiest ever. It also provides the Auto Scaling and Load Balancing features which enhances the flexibility of Amazon Web Service. 2. Performance The AWS is the fastest among the entire service provider available. The Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is nearly as fast as S3, but provides different features. EC2 Compute Units provides Xeon-class performance to the user at an hourly rate. The reliability is better with Amazon Web service than most other private datacenters in the world, and if there is a problem in the server, youre always still online, but with reduced capacity. An example of this is the recent outage that happened in the Northern Virginia cluster of AWS, one of Amazons primary datacenter farms in the United States. It affected Reddit, WordPress.com, and several other major sites which had used Amazon Web Service. These sites were still online but in a read-only mode, as Amazon had to shut down writing to their backend storage until they could resolve the problem. In a traditional hosting environment, this probably would have meant a longer downtime and 404 errors (Page not found) as the websites would have stopped responding. But in a truly cloud-hosted environment like AWS, theres enough separation between processing and storage that sites can remain online and continue generating revenue even with reduced functionality. But the primary performance power of Amazon Web Service is in the storage. The distributed nature of Elastic Block Storage (EBS) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) yields millions of inputs and output operations per second to all its instances. Imagine of it like having a raid array of Solid State Drives on a particular computer with incredible bandwidth, and you have a storage system which is capable of vast scaling, with an approximate reliability of 99.999999999%. 3. Pay for what you use Pricing The pricing policy used by Amazon Web Service is very different from most of the other service providers. Every service provided by Amazon Web Service is a la carte, meaning you pay for what you use. This makes it very useful for server infrastructure, when the traffic is very bursty, especially when the site is large. Consider a scenario when you need to develop an application to showcase it at an event for a very short duration of time. If we were to use a traditional service provider we would be tied up to a year contract but using amazon web service we pay for what we use, and also we pay for the CPU usage and not by the duration alone. This way the user does not have to worry about the performance as the AWS Auto scaling would create a new Instance and balance the load. 4. The Free Tier The free tier provided by AWS on user registration, provides enough credit for a user to run an EC2 micro instance 24/7 all month. It comes with Simple Storage Service, EC2 compute hours, Elastic Load Balancer time, and much more. This gives developers a chance to try out Amazon Web Services Application Programming Interface in the software they develop, which not only enhances their software, but also ties them to Amazon which would benefit Amazon in the long run. 5. Deployment Speed The biggest difficulty in developing an application is in during the deployment of the application. Traditional service providers take somewhere from 48-96 hours to provision a server. Then the developer needs to spend an extra few hours tweaking it and getting everything tested. Amazon Web Services shrinks that deployment time to minutes. By making use of the Amazon Machine Images, we can have a machine deployed and ready to accept connections in a very short amount of time. This is important when, for example, we are running a promotion that generates heavy traffic at certain specific intervals of time, or when flexibility is required to handle the demand when a new product is released. Competitor Comparison: Company Specification Computing Category Iaas Iaas Control Interface Web Based Application/Control Panel Web Based Application/Control Panel Application Programming Interface Application Programming Interface Command Line Graphical User Interface Guaranteed Network Availability 99.999% 100% Pricing Information Subscription Type Use Based and Subscription Plans Use Based Pricing Information http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing https://www.lunacloud.com/en/cloud-server-pricing Inbound Bandwidth Price 0 Cents 0 Cents Outbound Bandwidth Price 12 Cents per GB Used 10 Cents per GB Used Base Plan Cost $0.08 per hour $0.02 per hour Base Plan Details 1.7GB RAM, 160GB local storage, 1 EC2 Compute Unit 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB DISK 2 cents/hour Features Free Support Not Available Yes but Limited Free Security Features Advanced Firewall Critical Data Privacy Custom/Secure Permissions Failover Features Advanced email/password Security Advanced Firewall Failover Features Persistency Snapshot Backup Paid Security Features Advanced Firewall Critical Data Privacy Data Encryption Intrusion Detection Persistency Snapshot Backup Backup Storage Snapshot Backup Auto scaling Yes, Free Yes, Free Load Balancing Yes, With Charge Yes, Free Monitoring Yes, Free Not Available Virtual Private Servers Yes, With a charge Yes, With a charge Root Access Yes Yes File Hosting Service Yes, With a charge Web Hosting Service No Yes, Free Compatibility Compatible Operating Systems Cent OS 5.4 Debian Fedora Gentoo Linux Open Solaris OpenSUSE Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux SUSE Linux Oracle Enterprise Linux Ubuntu 10.04 Ubuntu Linux Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cent OS Debian Fedora 11 Linux Operating Systems OpenSUSE Linux Red Hat 5.1 Ubuntu Linux Windows Server 2008 Processor 32 Bit and 64 Bit 64 Bit Programming Languages Supported Java PHP Python Ruby The cloud computing provider offers root access to the servers, all the programming languages are supported by the provider. WinDev The cloud computing provider offers root access to the servers, all the programming languages are supported by the provider. http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/cloud/cloud-services-apps/350-5-reasons-why-amazon-web-services-takes-traditional-servers-to-school

A Critical Analysis of Various Schools of Thought in Strategy Theory

Strategy theory is a multi-disciplinary academic field with competing schools of thought based on often-incompatible assumptions, including even the basic definition of the field of study.   This is highlighted by the many attempts in the last decade to identify main paradigms, and search for new approaches.Mintzberg (1990; 1998) has put forward a taxonomy of assumptions and approaches, identifying ten main schools of thought, of which three are normative and together constitute the â€Å"classical approach† to business strategy.   The other seven are descriptive in nature.   Mintzberg named these schools the design, planning, position, entrepreneurial, cognition, learning, power, cultural, environmental, and configuration schools (Haugstad, 1999).This paper will evaluate the design, planning, and position schools (the â€Å"classical† view) as a single approach, contrasting it with a hybrid of the learning and the cultural schools (the â€Å"resource-based† view, according to Mintzberg’s classification).1.0  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Classical Approach to StrategyThe 2nd Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of mass national markets as developments in technology provided means to production hereto unavailable.   Economies of scale and scope provided the rationale for large-scale investment, and thus the emergence of strategic investment, and competitive strategy, as a means to shape market forces and affect the competitive environment.Subsequently, World War II supplied a vital stimulus to strategic thinking in business as well as military domains, because it highlighted the problem of allocating scarce resources across entire economies (Ghemawat, 1999).The work of Andrews, Christensen, Smith, Selznik, and Learned et al in the 1950’s form the design school (in Mintzberg’s taxonomy), while Ansoff through his work on corporate strategy is seen as the founder of the planning school (Haugstad, 1999).The original des ign school outlook was that of essential â€Å"fit† between a company’s internal resources and capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) against an external environment (possibly hostile, providing threats as well as opportunities).This gave rise to a framework that came to be referred to as SWOT, representing a â€Å"major step forward in bringing explicitly competitive thinking to bear on questions of strategy† (Ghemawat, 1999: pg 6).The SWOT gained quick acceptance as management practice, but did not provide satisfactory closure to the problems of actually defining a firm’s distinctive competence, and resource allocation for long-term development versus short-term gain.Igor Ansoff’s book, â€Å"Corporate Strategy†, was seminal in establishing the planning school’s approach.   Ansoff subscribed to the â€Å"fit† approach of the design school, but emphasized resource allocation in relation to a â€Å"common thread† that he defined as a firm’s â€Å"mission† or its commitment to exploit an existing need in the marketplace (Ghemawat, 1999).The planning school also emphasized a formal planning process resulting in detailed programming of the organization (Haugstad, 1999).   Ansoff and others also worked to translate the logic built into the SWOT framework into complex sequences of questions that needed to be answered in the development of strategies.Adam Marshall combined the concepts of supply and demand analysis in 1890 into the â€Å"Marshallian scissors†, which featured a downward-sloping demand curve and upward-sloping supply curve.   He also introduced the concept of price elasticity of demand.Supply-demand analysis was quickly incorporated into economics and marketing courses at business schools, though it seems to have had less impact on the teaching and practice of business strategy.   Other economists of what became known as the â€Å"Harvard School† argued that the structure of some industries might permit incumbent firms to earn positive economic profits over long periods of time.Thus an industry’s structure would determine the conduct of buyers and sellers and, by implication, the industry’s performance in terms of profitability, efficiency, and innovation.Michael Porter, in his framework for industry analysis, generalized the supply-demand analysis of individual markets in several important respects:relaxation of the assumptions of homogeneity (of product) and large numbers (of competing sellers);shifting attention from 2-stage vertical chains, each consisting of a supplier and a buyer, to 3-stage chains made p of suppliers, rivals, and buyers;catering for potential entrants and substitute products.Porter’s work formed the basis of what became known as the position school of business strategy.   This school recognizes only three generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, and focusing.   Thus, th e school sees strategy as the selection of an attractive industry (Porter, 1980), and good positioning within this industry (Porter, 1985).   

Compare the difference in gender roles and socialization processes in relation to the Smith family

The purpose of this assignment is to compare the difference in gender roles and socialization processes in relation to the Smith family. It will give a brief explanation of gender roles and socialization and will take into account the situation of Jane and David and it will also look at the thoughts of Jane's eighteen-year-old daughter Katherine. Gender roles are said to originate from birth with the classification of sex. As in all systems of ascription, even though most people believe that sex role behaviour flows naturally, from biological or inborn differences, societies do not leave that development to choice or possibility. Instead, from the earliest years, before they can understand a word, infants are told what their sexual identity is, and are praised for any behavioural evidence of appropriate activity. Adults will describe an infant as having ideal female traits, if told it's a girl (sweet, cute, charming) and as having ideal male traits if told it's a boy (strong, destructive, rebellious). What begins in infancy continues through the years. For generations girls have been praised for their maternal behaviour with dolls, and boys were told they were sissies if they showed the same behaviour. The family, second edition, page 75). According to Connell in introduction to sociology Talcott Parsons argues that the biological facts of sex and reproduction limit the sex gender roles available to males and females. In other words females social roles are mainly to produce and bring up children while males are to provide the main resources of survival. Connell disagrees and believes that sexuality as well as gender is formed by social influences and personal choice. (Introduction to sociology, page 187). Ann Oakley argues that gender roles are cultural rather than biological; humans learn the behaviour that is expected of males and females within their society. (Sociology themes and perspectives page 589) Gender behaviour is first learnt through primary or basic socialization within the family and is reinforced later in almost every area of social life for example, at school and at work. Socialization refers to the various ways in which a child learns to act in a way acceptable to a given society. Oakley argues that as a young baby grows, they are socialized into their different gender roles through their contact with different people and institutions. By the age of sixteen the majority of young men and women have been socialized into a belief of male dominance, even though the forces of disagreement to this attitude are stronger than they were and patterns of socialization based on gender equality occur more frequently. (Introduction to sociology page 184-194) Socialization is the process by which human behaviour is formed through experiences in social situations. Through socialization the individual learns the values, norms and thinking of a given society. Cooley (1864-1929) distinguished two types of socialization: primary and secondary. The two forms of socialization are defined partly in terms of the particular groups or agencies in which they take place. Primary groups are small they entail face-to-face relationship and allow the individual to express the whole self; the family, peer groups and close friends are all primary groups. Within these groups the individual learns, by personal experiences the primary values such as love, loyalty, justice, and sharing. Freud emphasised that the first few years of a person life, those commonly spent among primary groups are the most significant in forming the structure of his or her behaviour. Secondary groups are large, more important, more properly structured, and exist for particular purposes. Secondary socialization involves learning how to organise and conduct oneself in formal contexts and how to behave towards people who have different degrees of position or authority. (Introduction to sociology page 3) Thompson, N (2001) states that the pressure to match to sex-appropriate roles within the patriarchal family is both a major part of the socialisation process and a significant aspect of sexism. Patriarchal beliefs promote the traditional model of the family, with the male breadwinner being the main provider, head of the household and defender of his territory, the wife and mother as nurturer and carer and their dependent children whom they socialise into following in the footsteps of the appropriate role model, boys like daddy and girls like mummy. Anti discriminatory practice page 42) Jane feels that she is responsible for looking after her father. Pilcher (1995) cites Finch's evidence that women provide the great majority of personal care to relatives and that the parent to child relationship is the most important source of support after the spouse relationship. Children, mainly daughters, are a major source of support for elderly parents. (Age and Generation in Modern Britain page123). These feelings Jane is experiencing are possibly due to the behaviour she learned through her own socialisation within her family, For example, Jane believes that her mother would have expected her to look after her father, therefore she would live up to her mothers expectations if she takes on the responsibility of carer to her father and secondly, her experience of growing up as a female was that women were responsible for household and domestic tasks. Ann Oakley believes that males and females are exposed to different activities through out childhood for example; girls are mainly encouraged to become involved in domestic tasks. (Sociology themes and perspectives page 590) This would explain Jane's behaviour in her own house as she does most of the household chores, even though Jane and her husband equally work full time. David thinks that his father should go and live with him and his partner, he hasn't asked his partner yet how she feels about this. David may feel through his own socialization that it is his duty as the son in the family to take control of the situation. David is hoping that his wife will be willing to give up her part time job to look after his father, â€Å"Women in this society are generally the hands-on caregivers, (typically the eldest daughter or daughter-in-law) (AARP Magazine) David hasn't mentioned giving up his job, this could be Patriarchal gender through socialisation, David thinking he is the man of the house and the main bread winner and has authority over his wife's say. His wife works part time and she is probably on low pay, to David her job may not be important as it is a second wage, maybe financially it would be better for her to give up her job, but he isn't thinking how his wife would feel about doing this. (Anti discriminatory practice page 42-43). Jane's eighteen-year-old daughter Katherine has concerns about her mother. This could be down to changes and different expectation through generations. The fact that, Katherine is in higher education suggest that her prospects and opportunities are higher than that of her mothers. Women are beginning to change their attitudes in the direction of greater approval of more equal gender behaviour, and as a result a more equal sharing of housework. In addition, as a clear indication of the future, younger women, women with more education and wife's with better educated husbands were more likely to move towards independent gender attitudes. The family 133-135) In conclusion, the guilt Jane is experiencing and David's thoughts in deciding how to care for his farther is common and is a product of societies expectations. David and Jane haven't really giving any thought to the situation or consequences of their father. They are both acting on what they think would be expected of them by their mother and through their socialisation, that is to look after their father. Neither of them has taking the thoughts of their father into consideration, although Michael is getting very forgetful, he still has right to choice, maybe Michael wont want to live with them or wont want them to look after him, Michael if possible, might want to stay in his own home. Jane and David cant and shouldn't really try to make any decisions without firstly getting an assessment done on their father, this should happen once they get in contact with the social worker, and secondly they should also both speak to their family to find out how they feel about the situation, after all what decisions are made involves them as well.

Back-to-School Shopping What to Bring to Boarding School