Introduction
One of the most important roles of every company is information storage. Data storage by businesses is tough since it comes at a cost that can appear to be an added cost and an uncertain reward at times. Most business executives have little understanding of access methods, redundancy, performance, risk assessment, disaster recovery, and backup, particularly when it comes to information. The predicament makes it tough for the information technology people to explain to the various stakeholders why budgets are required for an invisible system. On the other hand, software piracy is the illegal distribution, copying or use of software, and has in the recent past been a worry in the information technology sector (Yang & Jia, 2013). The advancement of technology has compounded the problem. The essay shall focus on the different data storage mechanisms and the menace of software piracy.
Data Storage Mechanisms
Various factors get considered while choosing the type of storage device to use. One of the functions is the least understandable and the most ignored. It is swept under the carpet irrespective of its fundamental nature. Firstly, there is need always to understand why an organization wants to buy a given storage device. Secondly, the capacity and speed of accessing the stored data should be defined too. Capacity is the most obvious and easiest function while speed is quite difficult to ascertain, but with careful research, it is achievable and measurable. Lastly is of the reliability, the functionality of the device or system that is in most cases a recurring stumbling point especially for the professionals. As a database administrator, I will like to store my data in the cloud, specifically on the Google Cloud Platform. It is cheaper because the general pricing is at $0.026 per gigabyte per month on a multiregional storage. There is assured security as the experts do it and Google is a reputable company with adequate infrastructure (Yang & Jia, 2013). I will also ensure that my systems and computers are installed with up-to-date antiviruses to guard against malware and cyber-attacks.
Question Two
Software piracy can take different forms: internet piracy, reseller privacy, software licensure agreement and end-user piracy (Porterfield, 2014). The use of pirated software has a severe impact on the individuals using it. There are possible risk factors such as litigation, productivity, security and economic ones. Litigation may be from the software developers or the state for the criminal offense of infringing the intellectual property rights. Security hazards could result from the hacker may equally hack the system that one is using, or the software may have some technical hitches or be slow due to its outdatedness. The economic risk is a product of the other peril as there will be a financial implication of money lost. The only safeguard is authentication of the software we buy and do it with authorized dealers alone (Porterfield, 2014).
Impact on Software Companies
The impact on the software companies is enormous and at times hard to quantify. Firstly, one of them concerns the leakage of incomes; piracy takes money away from the legitimate owners. It makes the respective companies that have invested in the production less profitable. Secondly, taxes are hardly generated from the pirated software because they barely get sold through the correct channels. It might deprive the general society the acquirement of the public goods. The morals and ethical effects to the society are detrimental. To address the issue, different methods need to be considered and implemented. Public education on the impact of software piracy needs to be done especially in their lives. For example, the fact that the original software needs to be more expensive to be profitable should get explained so that people understand it (Porterfield, 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, software counterfeiting adversely affects both the local and global economic growth, puts businesses in jeopardy and stifles innovation. Microsoft Company is known for its pursuit to deal with software piracy. In July 2013, it announced its success in settlement of three thousand two hundred and sixty-five cases at the global scale. One of its famous international cases was with Ningbo Beyond Group in China (Kerr, 2013).
References
Porterfield, J. (2014). File Sharing: Rights and Risks. The Rosen Publishing Group.
Kerr, D. (2013). "Microsoft settles thousands of software piracy cases." Cnet. Retrieved on May 31st, 2017 from https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-settles-thousands-of-software-piracy-cases/
Yang, K., & Jia, X. (2013). An efficient and secure dynamic auditing protocol for data storage in cloud computing. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems, 24(9), 1717-1726.
