Big data analytics on container-orchestrated systems

Container-orchestration systems offer new possibilites to software architects seeking to make their software systems more scalable and reliable. In the past, these systems have been used to implement transactional software systems but, more recently, they have been applied to other areas including big data analytics. To understand the advantages and limitations such systems impose on software architects, I migrated an existing big data analytics infrastructure from a software architecture that required lots of work from its developers to deploy and maintain to the new software architecture provided by container-orchestration systems. My results show that scalability is increased, maintenance costs are reduced, and reliability is easier to achieve

Institute for Energy Annual Report 2006

Report on Activities, accomplishment and resources related to the JRC's Institute for Energy work carried out in 2006. An overview is given of the organisational changes, the mission and its implementation, the scientific activities and relations with customers and partners.JRC.C.7-Knowledge for the Energy Unio

The Moderating Effect of Organizational Structure and Quality Practices on Absortive Capacity, Technology Compatibility and Technology Transfer Relationship

Technology transfer is one of the channels to upgrade development and spur growth. Many factors contributed to the performance of the transferred technology, yet few attempts were made to determine firms’ absorption capacity and technology compatibility towards the transferred technology. This study was conducted on the Electronics and Electrical firms in Malaysia to understand the performance of the transferred technology. The objectives were to determine the relationship between firms’ absorptive capacity and technology compatibility in technology transfer performance. In addition, the study also attempted to determine the moderating role of organizational size and structure and its quality practices in the absorptive capacity,technology compatibility and technology transfer performance relationship. The study used survey method. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. The findings showed that absorptive capacity dimensions and technology compatibility dimension have several significant relationships with technology transfer performance. Moreover, among organizational structure, size and quality practices, few act as moderators in the relationship between absorptive capacity, technology compatibility and technology transfer performance. Finally, a post-hoc test was conducted to determine the type of moderators involved in this study. The result of this study contributed to knowledge as it discovered additional dimension of absorptive capacity that was also important in influencing the relationship of absorptive capacity,technology compatibility and technology transfer performance relationship

Business process implications of e-commerce in construction organisations

The need for construction to change its traditional working practices has been repeatedly expressed in government, industry, and academic publications. The Internet has been a major catalyst for change in most industry sectors, including the construction sector. The implementation of Internet-based technologies, such as ecommerce for achieving business targets, bring about changes in an organisation, its current practices, systems, processes and workflows. It is therefore important to evaluate the business process implications of adopting e-commerce in construction organisations. This was the focus of this study. The early stages of the research established the possible benefits, barriers, and drivers for the adoption of e-commerce technologies within construction. This was done by conducting an industry-wide survey that explored attitudes, current usage, barriers and enablers of IT and e-commerce within the UK construction sector. Survey results indicated that the exact benefits of using e-commerce within the construction industry were not known and more needed to be done to establish the effects of incorporating e-commerce applications into construction business processes and to demonstrate the opportunities of e-commerce for construction. To address this need a typical business process model that used the principles of business process re-engineering and demonstrated opportunities for e-commerce, was developed. Using this model it was possible to illustrate how, with the use of ecommerce applications, different members of the construction supply chain could derive business benefits and overcome traditional process inefficiencies. In order to effectively adopt e-commerce technologies in construction, companies may have to reengineer their current working methods, which could lead to a step change in current work practices. To facilitate such a step change it was essential to study and document the impact of specific e-commerce applications on their current end-user business processes. Case studies were conducted for this purpose. The case study findings showed that the end-user companies had accrued several business benefits from using e-commerce tools. Issues related to management buy-in and organisational culture were the main barriers to the wider use of e-commerce within the construction industry. The case studies and earlier findings indicated that e-commerce is ‘here to stay’ and it will not be long before it becomes an industry norm. Taking this into account, construction companies who are currently using, and those who have yet to use, e-commerce tools need to take measures to successfully adopt and benefit from these tools. It is important for companies that seek to adopt ecommerce to assess their ‘e-readiness’ for adopting e-commerce tools to ensure a productive and beneficial implementation of these tools. To address this need an ereadiness model for construction organisations and a prototype application, VERDICT, that assess e-readiness were developed and implemented. The model is based on the premise that for any company to be e-ready, its management, people, process and technology have to be e-ready in order to derive maximum business benefits. The research findings indicate that the use of e-commerce is still in its infancy within the construction industry. The current use of e-commerce has resulted in process automation, however, there is no evidence of process re-engineering. Such practices, although beneficial in the short-term, can have long-term implications in that the end-users are not necessarily making full use of the technology and hence not deriving full benefits from it. The model and e-readiness assessment prototype developed as part of this study will enable construction organisations to successfully adopt e-commerce and exploit its potential

Dentistry handbook

2006 handbook for the faculty of Dentistr

Dentistry handbook

2006 handbook for the faculty of Dentistr