How Will Astronomy Archives Survive the Data Tsunami? Case Study Example

Core Issues

The amount of data collection in astronomy is astounding.  With exponential growth of data being collected and stored, the ability to take that data and make it usable information is degrading. The accessibility and reliability, tenants to information management, is becoming key points of failure and with each passing year the data is becoming less and less usable.  The key issues with the overall data degradation issue in astronomy include; exponentially growing data, inability to increase infrastructure to store data, decreased capability to ensure performance of data retrieval and manipulation and a fixed long term budget all are parameters to the core issue.  In order to find a possible solution to the issue there is a need to look outside of the core scientific community and leverage the lessons learned from the corporate sector.  As businesses grow, their need for data has grown.  In order to limit overhead expenses, organizations have had to devise ways to eliminate cost, maintain productivity and retain capability for data processing.

Information systems are transforming business by transforming data into useful information for more accurate, reliable and expeditious business decisions.  The core of any business is dependent on how the decision makers take inputs from the business environment, calculate the data together and ultimately compute a business decision based on those inputs.  As businesses go from the antiquated legacy processes of manipulating data to collaborative and instant information utilizing information systems, businesses can adapt and overcome their environments to help facilitate a competitive advantage. These information systems help provide a closer relationship between the key business decisions and the data needed to take the right actions (Hayden, 2010).  The closer and quicker decision makers can interpret and act upon the data, the better chance they have in creating a gap between themselves and their competition.

Key Factors for Information Systems

There are three areas in which information systems have transformed the way we will be able to solve the issue with storage and performance degradation.  It is imperative that the community leverages the core capabilities of the information systems in order to make all of the data that is collected usable information. Information systems have reduced the necessary manpower to complete certain job functions, enhanced the performance and impact of those job functions or have provided a differentiating element to a new function in the business that can provide a competitive advantage (Rainer &Cegielski, 2010).  By utilizing this competitive advantage that businesses use in their operations, the data collected for the astronomical archives could also benefit.  All three of these results from the advent of business information systems have greatly benefited the way business is conducted. The same problem, while on a much smaller scale, was faced by businesses trying to eliminate cost while also maintain capability in operations. The ability for the infrastructure to grow exponentially with the data growth is not an option. This dilemma forces not only the astronomy community to find a better solution; it has already forced the civilian organizations to find solutions. The ability to learn from what has already been accomplished would benefit NASA and other organizations facing the data storage/performance degradation issue.  In business there are always problems facing the decision makers and in this case it is the ability to take a plethora of data and turn it into usable information. When faced with a problem there is a four step process to work through the issue (Stair, Reynolds & Reynolds, 2009).  The steps are definition of the issue, brainstorming, evaluation and implementation.  This four step process can help facilitate the any problem facing information systems by constructing a logical process in which to derive a solution.  This process provides a framework for problem solving.

Solutions

One way to eliminate some of the burden of the data degradation and performance issues is to implement the virtualization of hardware and software.  Virtualization is the act or process of creating a virtual version of either hardware or software.  Within businesses, the IT infrastructure is becoming more complex and critical for transactions, storage and productivity.  With the criticality increasing and the need to leverage current resources and decrease overhead costs for capital and operating equipment, virtualization of hardware and software can provide the advantage organizations need to remain competitive (Saxena & Swift, 2010).  The hardware virtualization is highly used with servers in which data is stored and retrieved.  Prior to virtualization, applications would run on dedicated servers that were not fully utilized.  The remaining capacity of the server would sit stagnant and would not be able to provide the full return on investment the organization is expecting.  With the virtualization of the hardware, the host server, or machine, is virtualized which allows for guest machines to run.  There are essentially three ways to virtualize hardware which includes full, partial or para-virtualization.  All three are variants of virtualization and each has their own positives and negatives regarding implementation and utilization.  The primary objective of the virtualization is to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the hardware by taking advantage of the physical attributes and processing power. Another aspect of virtualization of hardware is the ability to run parallel operating systems while also maintaining the ever important factors of scalability.

Conclusion

The benefits of information systems have been discussed but in order to take advantage of their usefulness it is important to first understand what information systems are at their core.  Information systems are the networks, hardware and software facilitated by people to collect, analyze, process, transmit and create data so that the data can be processed into useful information. This works by taking a technology and using it to replace the manual efforts associated with processing data. This provides a more efficient and accurate derivation of data to information. The people behind the scenes in the information system organization provide the necessary expertise to manage, upgrade, facilitate, implement and sustain the information systems for business use.Information systems transform the business environment by providing the tools necessary to bring the right people, data and issues together at the right time in an accurate and reliable fashion.  Information systems are leveraged in business to break down unnecessary boundaries and walls that previously prevented transactions from occurring.  Through eliminating manual efforts, creating enhanced opportunities or creating a competitive advantage by leveraging information systems, the business is conducting themselves in new and different ways every day and in expanded capacities. Utilizing virtualization to take advantage of the unused computing capacity will help mitigate the degradation of performance and data collection.The success of any information system is based upon its ability to manage data and turn it into useful information for the end users to act upon.  Within astronomy, the data collection and utilization is dependent upon that same capability in that without turning the data into usable information the knowledge gathered is not usable.

References

Hayden, L. (2010). It security metrics. New York: McGraw Hill.

Rainer, R. K., &Cegielski, C. G. (2010). Introduction to information systems, enabling and transforming business. (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Saxena, M., & Swift, M. (2010). Flash vm: virtual memory management on flash. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved from: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~msaxena/papers/FlashVM-atc-10.pdf

Stair, R. M., Reynolds, G., & Reynolds, G. W. (2009). Principles of information systems. (8th ed ed.). Course Technology Ptr.