Harnessing Information Management, the Data, and Infrastructure
Writing Assignment #2
Antwaun Taylor
Strayer University

CIS 500
Prof. Richard Brown
Friday, May 1, 2015

The importance of information management is to gain the maximum benefits from your company's information system, which you would have to exploit all its capacities. Information systems gain their importance by processing the data from company inputs to generate information that is useful for managing your operations. Other duties of management is gathering and distributing information, and information systems can make this process more efficient by allowing managers to communicate rapidly. (Markgraf, 2015)
The use of information technology has been an essential part of Wal-Mart's growth. A decade ago Wal-Mart trailed K-Mart, which could negotiate lower wholesale prices due to its size. They created a computerized system that identifies each item sold, that would finds its price in a computerized database, creates an accurate sales receipt for the customer, and stores this item-by-item sales information for use in analyzing sales and reordering inventory. Aside from handling information efficiently, effective use of this information helps Wal-Mart avoid overstocking by learning what merchandise is selling slowly. Aside from handling information efficiently, effective use of this information helps Wal-Mart avoid overstocking by learning what merchandise is selling slowly. Wal-Mart's inventory and distribution system is a world leader. Over one 5 year period, Wal-Mart invested over $600 million in information systems. (Koselka, 1992)
Data storage compression can eliminate the many redundancies of stored data and cut storage costs. Many Storage vendors have been slow to implement compression directly into their products because it is technically difficult to implement it at the block level below the file system. I feel that Data Deduplication and Storage Array Compression both would be an ideal storage methods for Wal-Mart to use for the storage of all important documents. Data
Deduplication (often called "intelligent compression" or "single-instance storage") is a method of reducing storage needs by eliminating redundant data. Only one unique instance of the data is actually retained on storage media, such as disk or tape. Redundant data is replaced with a pointer to the unique data copy. For example, a typical email system might contain 100 instances of the same one megabyte (MB) file attachment. If the email platform is backed up or archived, all 100 instances are saved, requiring 100 MB storage space. With data deduplication, only one instance of the attachment is actually stored; each subsequent instance is just referenced back to the one saved copy. In this example, a 100 MB storage demand could be reduced to only one MB. Data deduplication offers other benefits. Lower storage space requirements will save money on disk expenditures. The more efficient use of disk space also allows for longer disk retention periods, which provides better recovery time objectives (RTO) for a longer time and reduces the need for tape backups. Data deduplication also reduces the data that must be sent across a WAN for remote backups, replication, and disaster recovery. (Sliwa, 2015)
Storage Array Compression is performed by a program that uses a formula or algorithm to determine how to shrink the size of the data. For instance, an algorithm may represent a string of bits, or 0s and 1s, with a smaller string of 0s and 1s by using a dictionary for the conversion between them, or the formula may insert a reference or pointer to a string of 0s and 1s that the program has already seen. Text compression can be as simple as removing all unneeded characters, inserting a single repeat character to indicate a string of repeated characters, and substituting a smaller bit string for a frequently occurring bit string. Compression can reduce a text file to 50% or a significantly higher percentage of its original size. For data transmission, compression can be performed on the data content or on the entire transmission unit, including header data. When information is sent or received via the Internet, larger files, either singly or with others as part of an archive file, may be transmitted in a .ZIP, or other compressed format. (Sliwa, 2015)
Compression is often compared to data deduplication, but the two techniques operate differently. Deduplication is a type of compression that looks for redundant chunks of data across a storage system or a file system and replaces each duplicate chunk with a pointer to the original. Compression algorithms reduce the size of the bit strings in a data stream that is far smaller in scope and generally remember no more than the last megabyte or less of data. (Sliwa, 2015) Compression is performed by a program that uses a formula or algorithm to determine how to shrink the size of the data. For instance, an algorithm may represent a string of bits, or 0s and 1s, with a smaller string of 0s and 1s by using a dictionary for the conversion between them, or the formula may insert a reference or pointer to a string of 0s and 1s that the program has already seen. Text compression can be as simple as removing all unneeded characters, inserting a single repeat character to indicate a string of repeated characters, and substituting a smaller bit string for a frequently occurring bit string. Compression can reduce a text file to 50% or a significantly higher percentage of its original size. For data transmission, compression can be performed on the data content or on the entire transmission unit, including header data. When information is sent or received via the Internet, larger files, either singly or with others as part of an archive file, may be transmitted in a .ZIP, gzip or other compressed format. Compressing data can be a lossless or lossy process. Lossless compression enables the restoration of a file to its original state, without the loss of a single bit of data, when the file is uncompressed. Lossless compression is the typical approach with executables, as well as text and spreadsheet files, where the loss of words or numbers would change the information. Lossy compression permanently eliminates bits of data that are redundant, unimportant or imperceptible. Lossy compression is useful with graphics, audio, video and images, where the removal of some data bits has little or no discernible effect on the representation of the content. Graphics image compression can be lossy or lossless. Graphic image file formats are typically designed to compress information since the files tend to be large. JPEG is an image file format that supports lossy image compression. Formats such as GIF and PNG use lossless compression. (Sliwa, 2015)

References

Koselka, R. ". (1992, May 25). Information Systems, A management perspective. Retrieved from http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/bp/app/alter/student/useful/ch1walmart.html
Markgraf, B. (2015). Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-information-systems-organization-69529.html
Sliwa, C. (2015). Tech Target. Retrieved from http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/compression