Q. I need to outline the key technology infrastructure necessary to support an e-commerce business. Where do I look for this information? I know what to look for just not where.
A. Start with the basics.
There's always going to be a real-time database. Oracle? SQL Server? Postgres? MySQL? What is the expected peek transaction rate? How many records will there be? What are the requirements for keeping old data online? What kind of data mining (analysis) will be done? What will the schema look like? Will you need a clustered database or a single instance? How do you recover data from serious failures? The size of your data set will often determine what kind of recovery you can do. If it's very large, you'll probably need Oracle.
Then there's the front end. Today, it's going to be a web server. IIS? Websphere? Apache? If the web server is known, a choice needs to be made regarding the application platform . VB, C#, Java, Perl, PHP.
Do you plan to build your shopping cart or will you buy it? Or, do you go with a free open source package? What databases does it support? How do you add and configure product data? How do you pull reports?
There may be middleware for tracking inventory, sales, purchases, analytics. SAS? Business Objects? Cognos?
You'll need an electronic payment solution. How do you accept credit cards or e-checks? Do you get a merchant account or go with PayPal? Or do you signup with a 3rd party vendor that outsources this? How do you integrate their API? How do you sync their sales data with yours?
You'll probably want a SSL certificate to run parts of your site with secure encryption.
You may want email software that can personalize and send receipts, subscription passwords, etc. If it's high volume (say 200k to several million a day) then you need a bulk mailer, otherwise you could manage with simple open source software.
You may want backup hardware. How do you integrate your backups with your DB and web logs?
There might be a second offline database used for data warehousing. Running reports, ad hoc reports, analysis, projections.
And, ask people who know.
Of course, all of these things can be outsourced, which is often cost effective for smaller businesses, but not for large ones. They may host portions of your infrastructure or offer a whole package solution. Determining whether to outsource is largely dependant on the quality and size of your IT staff, your budget, security requirements, and how vital certain components are to your business.
You could also contract someone to build it for you, but as always there's a risk they'll hand you something that looks like spagetti if you don't check references.
There's another thing to. If you're selling a physical product, now you need a product fullfillment center. Will your family and your garage be suitable or do you need a warehouse, tracking software, and 30 employees?
There's always going to be a real-time database. Oracle? SQL Server? Postgres? MySQL? What is the expected peek transaction rate? How many records will there be? What are the requirements for keeping old data online? What kind of data mining (analysis) will be done? What will the schema look like? Will you need a clustered database or a single instance? How do you recover data from serious failures? The size of your data set will often determine what kind of recovery you can do. If it's very large, you'll probably need Oracle.
Then there's the front end. Today, it's going to be a web server. IIS? Websphere? Apache? If the web server is known, a choice needs to be made regarding the application platform . VB, C#, Java, Perl, PHP.
Do you plan to build your shopping cart or will you buy it? Or, do you go with a free open source package? What databases does it support? How do you add and configure product data? How do you pull reports?
There may be middleware for tracking inventory, sales, purchases, analytics. SAS? Business Objects? Cognos?
You'll need an electronic payment solution. How do you accept credit cards or e-checks? Do you get a merchant account or go with PayPal? Or do you signup with a 3rd party vendor that outsources this? How do you integrate their API? How do you sync their sales data with yours?
You'll probably want a SSL certificate to run parts of your site with secure encryption.
You may want email software that can personalize and send receipts, subscription passwords, etc. If it's high volume (say 200k to several million a day) then you need a bulk mailer, otherwise you could manage with simple open source software.
You may want backup hardware. How do you integrate your backups with your DB and web logs?
There might be a second offline database used for data warehousing. Running reports, ad hoc reports, analysis, projections.
And, ask people who know.
Of course, all of these things can be outsourced, which is often cost effective for smaller businesses, but not for large ones. They may host portions of your infrastructure or offer a whole package solution. Determining whether to outsource is largely dependant on the quality and size of your IT staff, your budget, security requirements, and how vital certain components are to your business.
You could also contract someone to build it for you, but as always there's a risk they'll hand you something that looks like spagetti if you don't check references.
There's another thing to. If you're selling a physical product, now you need a product fullfillment center. Will your family and your garage be suitable or do you need a warehouse, tracking software, and 30 employees?
Do you know of any legitimate work from home jobs?
Q. work from home jobs that really pay and they do not require a fee for subscription. Like Travel agents or data entry? Does anyone is working on a work from home job?
A. * Alpine Access Premier provider of customer service solutions using home-based employees. NO FEES.
* Brighten Communications A business-to-business telemarketing company specializing in the outsourcing of lead generation. The clients you will be making calls on behalf of represent professional organizations in industries such as finance, brokerage, and high-tech.
* Customer Loyalty Concepts You will be contacting existing newspaper subscribers selling a variety of services.
* LiveOps Outsourcing call center solutions using work at home agents. $30.00 fee for credit and background check.
* West At Home West agents handle client's interaction with their customers, from customer care and live chat to email and incoming sales calls.
* Working Solutions A long-standing company, workingsolutions.com offers many legitimate - NO FEE - home based opportunities.
Data Entry
* Axion Data Sign up as a home-working independent contractor with this long-standing company. NO FEES TO JOIN.
* Dion Data Solutions Complete an appilcation, and - if approved - you will be contacted to provide work at home data management services for them. NO FEES TO JOIN.
* Palm Coast Data Data entry keyers input customer information, such as names and addresses, or revise information already in the database. Work at home on your own personal computer, linked to Palm Coast Data. Currently hiring work at home keyers in Florida and Colorado. NO COST
Bookkeeping
* A/R Recovery Work at home collecting Accounts Receivable.
* Balance Your Books Provide A/P, A/R, payroll and general support for clients.
* Bateman & Co. Seeking "telecommuting" staff accountants. CPA required, with at least 3 years of prior public accounting experience. They will furnish the necessary software.
Transcription Services
* Absolute Document Services Seeking corporate, medical, and legal transcriptionists to work at home.
* Accutran Global Legitimate online jobs doing medical, legal, financial, investigation, interviews, and focus group transcription.
* Tiger Fish Provide transcription services: video, editing and legal transcription.
Virtual Assistant Jobs
* Team Double Click They offer a wide range of administrative jobs: Virtual Assistants, Real Estate Assistants, Telemarketers...jsut to name a few positions. However, they do not have jobs that are strictly typing or data entry.
* Virtual Office Temps Seeking individuals who can do desktop publishing, legal transcription, internet research, web applications...just to name a few jobs.
Amber Dickson
* Brighten Communications A business-to-business telemarketing company specializing in the outsourcing of lead generation. The clients you will be making calls on behalf of represent professional organizations in industries such as finance, brokerage, and high-tech.
* Customer Loyalty Concepts You will be contacting existing newspaper subscribers selling a variety of services.
* LiveOps Outsourcing call center solutions using work at home agents. $30.00 fee for credit and background check.
* West At Home West agents handle client's interaction with their customers, from customer care and live chat to email and incoming sales calls.
* Working Solutions A long-standing company, workingsolutions.com offers many legitimate - NO FEE - home based opportunities.
Data Entry
* Axion Data Sign up as a home-working independent contractor with this long-standing company. NO FEES TO JOIN.
* Dion Data Solutions Complete an appilcation, and - if approved - you will be contacted to provide work at home data management services for them. NO FEES TO JOIN.
* Palm Coast Data Data entry keyers input customer information, such as names and addresses, or revise information already in the database. Work at home on your own personal computer, linked to Palm Coast Data. Currently hiring work at home keyers in Florida and Colorado. NO COST
Bookkeeping
* A/R Recovery Work at home collecting Accounts Receivable.
* Balance Your Books Provide A/P, A/R, payroll and general support for clients.
* Bateman & Co. Seeking "telecommuting" staff accountants. CPA required, with at least 3 years of prior public accounting experience. They will furnish the necessary software.
Transcription Services
* Absolute Document Services Seeking corporate, medical, and legal transcriptionists to work at home.
* Accutran Global Legitimate online jobs doing medical, legal, financial, investigation, interviews, and focus group transcription.
* Tiger Fish Provide transcription services: video, editing and legal transcription.
Virtual Assistant Jobs
* Team Double Click They offer a wide range of administrative jobs: Virtual Assistants, Real Estate Assistants, Telemarketers...jsut to name a few positions. However, they do not have jobs that are strictly typing or data entry.
* Virtual Office Temps Seeking individuals who can do desktop publishing, legal transcription, internet research, web applications...just to name a few jobs.
Amber Dickson
What are the easiest entry-level Computer jobs?
Q. I have recently graduated from college with a bachelor degree in computer information systems. However, I found it to be overbearing while in school, so I am looking for an easy entry-level job that still involves computers. The career service department in my school is currently trying to help me find work, but I am not sure exactly what to tell them regarding this. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have heard data entry is fairly easy to start off with, but I would like know if there are other positions that I may be missing.
A. I have a CIS degree also. If you feel like you have just jumped off the merry-go-round join the club - we all felt that way at the start. Most employers are not going to expect you to hit the ground running. They are going to train you what they want you to do. Here are some common jobs that can be pursued with that degree.
Computer Technician - Works on computer hardware at user location or in service center. (entry level IT Job)
Service Center Coordinator - Schedules the repair of user community computers, orders spare parts, schedules staff, establishes priorities, maintains loaner laptops and non-US laptops for travel outside of US.
Help Desk Staff - answer questions and resolve problems for the user community. (entry level IT Job - Tier 1 support)
Storage Administrator - in charge of mass storage servers and devices.
Network Administrator - Works on routers, switches, hubs, cables, load balancers and all the other hardware that handles LAN and WAN network traffic. Also, may be responsible for IP phone service.
Systems Administrator or Systems Engineer- Works with servers, laptops and desktop computers to keep them free of problems and secure the data they contain. Responsible for Security group creation and memberships, server patching, anti-virus protection updates, password changes and any automated mechanisms that make these changes. These positions may be divided into server and desktop teams. Tier 2 support.
Enterprise Administrator - Handles Enterprise support and design issues. Tier 3 support.
Active Directory Administrator - Designs and administers Active Directory infrastructure, AD policies, access permissions, roles, group policies, separation of duties.
Exchange and Messaging Administrator - maintains mail systems servers, other mail related devices and the company messaging infrastructure.
Backup Administrator - Maintains backup devices and determines backup strategies so data that was deleted accidentally or intentionally can be recovered. Design and control how and when data is backed up, where the backups are stored and how long the backups are retained. They will test to be sure backups are valid and usable.
Disaster Recovery Specialist - Plans for disaster events so the company data and infrastructure can be brought back online as quickly as possible after a fire, flood, earthquake, terrorism or other disaster event. Plans for failover of services to alternate locations, if the primary location is not available.
Database Administrator - Maintains the company databases which may include customer and sales records, billing information, inventory and other data.
Computing Security Specialist - A company's biggest asset is its data and the Computing Security Specialist will work to try to keep that data protected from loss. They may be dealing with and defending against viruses, hoaxes, malware, keyloggers, phishing attacks, internal attacks and domestic and foreign intrusion. Develops monitoring and interception systems, filters and strategies and works with appropriate government agencies.
Ethical Hacker â performs intrusion and vulnerability testing of systems. Works with Computing Security to insure intrusion prevention systems are working correctly.
Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist - Works with acquired outside companies to establish migration into the corporate computing infrastructure.
Data Center Administrator - Maintains the data center facilities where the company's servers and other devices reside. They are responsible for physical security and may review badge reader and camera information to be sure that only individuals with proper access are getting close to the company's servers and other critical devices. Also, maintain backup power devices (UPS or generators).
In a small business the list of jobs above might be performed by one or two people doing all these jobs. In a large Enterprise environment this could be hundreds of people.
Computer Technician - Works on computer hardware at user location or in service center. (entry level IT Job)
Service Center Coordinator - Schedules the repair of user community computers, orders spare parts, schedules staff, establishes priorities, maintains loaner laptops and non-US laptops for travel outside of US.
Help Desk Staff - answer questions and resolve problems for the user community. (entry level IT Job - Tier 1 support)
Storage Administrator - in charge of mass storage servers and devices.
Network Administrator - Works on routers, switches, hubs, cables, load balancers and all the other hardware that handles LAN and WAN network traffic. Also, may be responsible for IP phone service.
Systems Administrator or Systems Engineer- Works with servers, laptops and desktop computers to keep them free of problems and secure the data they contain. Responsible for Security group creation and memberships, server patching, anti-virus protection updates, password changes and any automated mechanisms that make these changes. These positions may be divided into server and desktop teams. Tier 2 support.
Enterprise Administrator - Handles Enterprise support and design issues. Tier 3 support.
Active Directory Administrator - Designs and administers Active Directory infrastructure, AD policies, access permissions, roles, group policies, separation of duties.
Exchange and Messaging Administrator - maintains mail systems servers, other mail related devices and the company messaging infrastructure.
Backup Administrator - Maintains backup devices and determines backup strategies so data that was deleted accidentally or intentionally can be recovered. Design and control how and when data is backed up, where the backups are stored and how long the backups are retained. They will test to be sure backups are valid and usable.
Disaster Recovery Specialist - Plans for disaster events so the company data and infrastructure can be brought back online as quickly as possible after a fire, flood, earthquake, terrorism or other disaster event. Plans for failover of services to alternate locations, if the primary location is not available.
Database Administrator - Maintains the company databases which may include customer and sales records, billing information, inventory and other data.
Computing Security Specialist - A company's biggest asset is its data and the Computing Security Specialist will work to try to keep that data protected from loss. They may be dealing with and defending against viruses, hoaxes, malware, keyloggers, phishing attacks, internal attacks and domestic and foreign intrusion. Develops monitoring and interception systems, filters and strategies and works with appropriate government agencies.
Ethical Hacker â performs intrusion and vulnerability testing of systems. Works with Computing Security to insure intrusion prevention systems are working correctly.
Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist - Works with acquired outside companies to establish migration into the corporate computing infrastructure.
Data Center Administrator - Maintains the data center facilities where the company's servers and other devices reside. They are responsible for physical security and may review badge reader and camera information to be sure that only individuals with proper access are getting close to the company's servers and other critical devices. Also, maintain backup power devices (UPS or generators).
In a small business the list of jobs above might be performed by one or two people doing all these jobs. In a large Enterprise environment this could be hundreds of people.
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