IS01

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Assignment – I

Assignment Code: 2014IS01A1        Last Date of Submission: 15th April 2014 

                                                         Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section‐A

1.        India has seen considerable growth in IT Area. Discuss various reasons behind it.

2.        Discuss the role of IT and its tools in Banking and Finance Sector. Give real time example to justify your answer.

3.         What is a data warehouse, and how it is different from a traditional database used to support OLTP?

4.         Why are many manufacturers and retailers out‐sourcing the physical logistics of delivering merchandise to shoppers? What advantages does such a strategy offer? Are there any potential issues or disadvantages?

Section‐B

Case Study: Database Technology Used to Improve Airport Security

BS & Company is a leading investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm that serve governments, corporations, institutions and individuals worldwide. The company headquarters is in New York City, and it has 10,500 employees with additional offices in several US cities and foreign countries. Through BS Securities Corporation, It process approximately 10% of the New York Stock Exchange volume cleared daily through the National Securities Clearing Corp. BS is also one of the largest securities borrowers in the world.

After 3 years of planning and 3.5 years of construction BS moved into a new seven story building on Madison Avenue in NY in 2002. BS saw the relocation of its NY headquarters building as the perfect opportunity to provide innovations that would enable its employees to work more efficiently.

High on its list of priorities was the need to upgrade the computers and the networks its traders rely on for market data and trade execution. The new building houses 2000 traders each with multiple, state –of‐the‐art desktop computers. The typical trader uses two PCs but some use as

many as four. FPT were a requirement to reduce the amount of desk space required.

The company identified the NIC on the traders’ PCs as critical to ensuring complete fault tolerance. All BS PCs were outfitted with two network interface cards (NIC) for redundancy. In addition BS ran 12 category five communication lines connecting each trader’s PC to BS’s 100 mbps Ethernet LAN. Two optic fiber cables also provide additional redundancy. The goal is to eliminate any downtime‐ traders must be able to continue business even in the event of network failure.

IP Matrics Software was contracted to provide the NICs. The firm also provided high reliability software and consulting services to increase the performance and reliability of the network infrastructure and all single points of failure on the network. The current network design employs Cisco Systems 6509 routers in four‐tier architecture. The HQ’s LAN connected to a three‐node optical MAN that carries data at 6 Gbps among the HQ, a site in downtown Brooklyn, and BS’s Data centre in New Jersey. This network uses Nortel Networks’ optera equipment and runs along‐side a synchronous optical network –asynchronous transfer mode network that’s there as a backup.

5.        Case Questions:

a.        Why is it so critical to BS to avoid business interruption?

b.        How could you quantify the cost of a business interruption at BS & Company?