4 Responses Dec 18

Work #1:

Actual work where 2 students given their post on this:

Review in 500 words or more the video above called Cloud Security Myths.

Use at least three sources. Include at least 3 quotes from your sources enclosed in quotation marks and cited in-line by reference to your reference list.  Example: “words you copied” (citation) These quotes should be one full sentence not altered or paraphrased. Cite your sources.   Stand alone quotes will not count toward the 3 required quotes.

Copying without attribution or the use of spinbot or other word substitution software will result in a grade of 0. 

Write in essay format not in bulleted, numbered or other list format. 

Reply to two classmates’ posting in a paragraph of at least five sentences by asking questions, reflecting on your own experience, challenging assumptions, pointing out something new you learned, offering suggestions.   

It is important that you use your own words, that you cite your sources, that you comply with the instructions regarding length of your post and that you reply to two classmates in a substantive way (not ‘nice post’ or the like).  Your goal is to help your colleagues write better. Do not use spinbot or other word replacement software. It usually results in nonsense and is not a good way to learn anything. 

Work #2:

 (1) How do you measure how a public corporation has delivered value for its shareholders?  Please use the company that you have selected for your project as an example.  
 

Please find the attachments

Preethi Work:

Shareholder value is the financial worth owners of a business receive for owning shares in the company. An increase in shareholder value is created when a company earns a return on invested capital (ROIC) that is greater than its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) (Corporate Finance Institute, 2020). It can also be defined as the shareholders’ value, which enables the company to grow and increase its profits. An increase in the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet is an indication of growing shareholder value. If this value is created, particularly over the long term, the share price increases, and the company can pay more enormous cash dividends.

 

          A company’s shareholder value depends on its board of directors and senior management’s strategic decisions, including the ability to make wise investments and generate a healthy return on invested capital (Hayes, 2020). Revenue growth, increasing operating margin, increasing capital efficiency. Companies can increase revenue by increasing sales, gaining new customers, encouraging returning customers to purchase, and introducing new products and their categories. Besides maximizing revenue, a company that intends on increasing shareholder value should pay close attention to increasing its operating margin, which is the revenue after covering operating and non-operating expenses of a company. One way companies can increase operating margin is by reducing all of their expenses in COGS and SG&A, which are often the largest categories of expenses. Capital efficiency reflects how efficiently a company is deploying its cash in its operations. It is the ratio between dollar expenses incurred by a company and dollars spent to make a product or service, which can be referred to as ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) or the ratio between EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) over Capital Employed. A higher ROCE indicates a more efficient use of capital to generate shareholder value, and it should be higher than the company’s capital cost.

           Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), the e-commerce platform provider, helps small businesses set up shop online and build their brands. Shopify recorded a robust growth of over 47% from the previous quarter. Shopify generates revenue from various services, including payment processing fees (Shopify Payments) and loans to merchants (Shopify Capital). In the last quarter, merchant solutions increased by 57% to $282.4 million (Nasdaq, 2020). Shopify is a tremendous growth company but presents hardly any value for its investors. It can be seen that Shopify’s investors are paying almost 60 times sales for a company that does not occupy the first place in its industry. From a valuation perspective, even the most risk-tolerant investors shy away from investing in the company and buying the stock at these levels.

References

Corporate Finance Institute. (2020). Shareholder Value. Retrieved from Corporate Finance Institute: 

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/shareholder-value/

Hayes, A. (2020). Shareholder Value Definition. Retrieved from Investopedia: 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shareholder-value.asp

Nasdaq. (2020). 10 Reasons to Buy Shopify Stock and Never Sell. Retrieved from Nasdaq: 

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/10-reasons-to-buy-shopify-stock-and-never-sell-2020-06-26

Chandini Work:

Verizon made significant network investments and acquisitions, the company shed non – strategic assets and investments to focus on nationwide wireless, a global enterprise, and wireline broadband services concentrated in Northeast and Mid – Atlantic states  (Tonner, 2016). In all of the 2000s, Verizon sold wireline access lines and spun off of wireline business in multiple states. Not only has Verizon been completing dive statures domestically, but they also participated in international sales with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. GENERAL OPERATIONS Verizon Wireline voice, data, and video communication products and services include broadband video and data, corporate networking solutions, data centre and cloud services, security and managed network services, and local and long-distance voice services. Verizon offers these products and services to consumers in the United States, as well as to carriers, businesses, and government customers, both, in The United States and around the world (Dybek, 2020). Verizon Wireline segment has three sub-segments: Mass Markets, Global Enterprise, and Global Wholesale. Mass Markets Operations provide broadband services, local exchange and long-distance voice services to residential and small business customers. Global Enterprise offers strategic services and other core communication services to medium and large business customers, multinational corporations, and state and federal government customers. Global Wholesale provides communication services including data, voice, and local dial tone and broadband services primarily to local, long-distance, and other international markets. Verizon provides communication, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and government agencies through two segments, Wireless and Wireline. The Wireless segment off communication products and services, including, wireless voice and data services and equipment sales, to consumer, business and government customers across the United States. The Wireline segment offers voice, data, and video communication product and services, security, and managed network services, and local and long-distance voice services.  The Verizon leadership team blends a history of industry expertise with visionary thinking. Verizon is currently being led by CEO Lowell C. McAdam, who is a leading provider of wireless, fibre – optic, and global internet networks and services. He was named CEO on August 1, 2011, and chairman on January 1, 2012. Before McAdam becoming CEO, he was Verizon Wireless offers a Short – Term Incentive plan that encourages employees to remain working with Verizon. The philosophy of the plan is to provide a percentage on the employee’s total compensation with successful completion of annual goals and individual performance objectives (Specified, 2020). The Short – Term Incentive plan is designed to increase awareness, understanding, and commitment to Verizon Wireless business goals. In 2012, Verizon Communications was ranked No. 1 for having the best training programs for their employees. “Verizon is committed to building a business as good as our networks and to do that we depend on our highly skilled and committed employees,” said Marc Reed, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Verizon. Verizon uses multiple training techniques that have benefit their employees. For example, the company uses videos, podcasts, blogs, and its enterprise learning management system to deliver crucial information to their employees. They also offer a variety of training in the form of classroom studies to self – directed online training.

 

Reference:

Tonner, A. (2016, October 27). Verizon Stock History: What Investors Need to Know. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/27/verizon-stock-history-what-investors-need-to-know.aspx

 

Dybek, M. (2020, February 22). Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ): Analysis of Liquidity Ratios. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.stock-analysis-on.net/NYSE/Company/Verizon-Communications-Inc/Ratios/Liquidity

 

Specified, N. (2020, June 23). Verizon Communications Annual Reports. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.verizon.com/about/investors/annual-report

Laxmikanth Work:

The main concerns in information technology security are data security and user privacy. However, many organizations are reluctant to implement a cloud computing system as they are afraid of the incapability of this system in dealing with key security attacks. Cloud computing is very important due to its tremendous benefits (Ismail, 2019). Some of the benefits include monitoring security and offering patching, therefore, organizations must dispel myths relating to cloud computing.

One of the cloud computing myths is that data stored in the cloud are less secure. The information departments of all companies are primarily concerned with data security. As data breaching and information hacking rise, some organizations tend to believe it is safe for data to be stored in the premises (Neumann, 2014)

 

.However, the storage of data on the premises is not an effective method of protection as it will increase its vulnerability to possible natural catastrophes.

            Also, some organizations believe that it is easier to attack cloud since data storage is maintained by the service providers hence increasing its susceptibility to threats. This is not true because one of the keys benefits of cloud computing is monitoring security. It also protects both external and internal networks from malware. Additionally, some believe that accessibility to data in the cloud is open for anyone (Neumann, 2014).They assume that cloud permits the sharing of network spaces by several users and because the majority of the cloud be organizations’ competitors, they assume that this poses major security threats.

 An organization cannot check how its data is being utilized. This is another myth that causes some organizations to delay the adoption of a cloud computing system. They claim that they may not know how third-party service providers are using their data. However, this can be solved by furnishing audit logs that help in tracing individuals who had accessibility to the data. Also, background checks are important in determining these individuals. Furthermore, some companies believe that cloud computing will challenge compliance regulations for data protection.

The fact is that cloud service providers can help organizations to comply with these regulations (Neumann, 2014). The only thing that companies need to do is to be clear concerning the types of data that they storing in the cloud so as to ensure that all the data are within the requirements of data security. Nevertheless, companies must vet their cloud service providers and reassess the solutions that they offer so as to determine if they will assist in meeting the required data security measures.

 

In any event, when utilizing a cloud security supplier, the IT office is as yet liable for securing organization resources, and must guarantee consistency, the report noted. Organizations must contribute the time and assets expected to get consistency approaches right and secure data.

Cloud Security Union, incorporates information ruptures, account commandeering, shaky APIs and disavowal of administration. These worries are not new to the Internet economy. An assortment of protections can be utilized against these assaults, including fundamental firewalls, weakness checking, encryption, organize interruption recognition and system interruption counteractive action, multifaceted access control, and checking. Executing a progression of concentric barriers can give a more grounded security pose. To make the similarity of securing your home, having a deadbolt on your front entryway doesn’t let you know whether a robber is turning the door handle or shaking the window to check whether they are opened. It just prevents the criminal from coming through the front entryway. By executing frameworks, for example, interruption identification what’s more, interruption avoidance close by the firewalls, nature distinguishes if somebody is attempting to discover a route in and in the event that they are fruitful. The increases in encryption and weakness examining include significantly more layers of security.

 Reference:

Ismail, N. (2019). Cloud computing is becoming more and more important for businesses. Retrieved 8 October 2019, from 

https://www.information-age.com/cloud-computings-importance-businesses-123467712/

Neumann, P. (2014). Risks and myths of cloud computing and cloud storage. Communications Of The ACM, 57(10), 25-27. DOI: 10.1145/2661049

Ashley Leonard. (2019). 5 cloud security myths. Retrieved from 

https://techbeacon.com/app%20dev-testing/5-cloud-security-myths-get-past-them-lift-your-organizations-game.

Sravani Work:

Cloud Security Myths

Cloud Security is important to handle increasing security issues in the technology world. There are real threats as well myths in cloud security which are stopping organizations from migrating to the cloud from legacy data centers. Some of the security myths discussed in the video are the cloud is not secure, the cloud is perfectly secure, cloud security is too complex to maintain, all cloud service providers are the same, on-premise systems are much safer, OMG cloud. I believe all the myths discussed in the video are true and common among new organizations who are still using legacy systems or planning to migrate to the cloud. Cloud security truths discussed in the video are perimeter-based security doesn’t apply, distributed threat surface, new tools are required, new policies and procedures are required, lot of cloud options means lots of cloud security options.

Cloud Security Myths vs Truths

Myths of cloud security are the cloud isn’t as secure as on-premise infrastructure, my cloud provider will handle all my security requirements, the security tools I’m using right now can integrate with the cloud, access control isn’t a problem in the cloud, cloud multitenancy puts my data at risk, the cloud is already secure; we don’t need to monitor it for security breaches, the cloud will make it harder to comply with data protection regulations. Security remains a top priority for enterprises moving to the cloud, and for good reason. Cloud providers implement data encryption and privacy measures to ensure every user’s data is safely stored. Solutions providers will outline specific responsibilities for both themselves and your business in their service level agreement (SLA). It might be tempting to assume your legacy security tools will be able to handle security for your cloud solutions, but this isn’t always the case. While some on-premise security tools do support integration with cloud solutions, it’s a safe bet that you’ll need to add new security tools to your infrastructure. These could be native security tools provided by your cloud solution vendor, or they may be third-party installations. The cloud can be accessed from virtually anywhere — which can open the floodgates for a security threat wanting to get into your cloud deployment. You need to maintain access control over your cloud environment to protect your data and prevent unauthorized users from entering your system. Public cloud environments are multitenant environments, operating multiple users’ cloud data on the same server. This might seem dangerous at first, as it sounds like other users might have access to their data (Hein, 2020). One of the reasons to use public cloud is because meeting compliance and data sovereignty requirements can be a lot less complex (Perlman, 2018). As opposed to isolating security to the purview of dedicated security pros, best practices include making security everyone’s problem. For example, shift security left in the software development lifecycle, implementing security during development, rather than waiting for deployment, or worse, after deployment. Make developers part of the process rather than taking an adversarial approach. Offer developers self-service functionality to assess security of a stack they’re about to deploy, and provide tools to auto-remediate issues before they go into production (Alvarenga, 2020).

References

Alvarenga, G. (2020, September 25). Cloud Security: 12 Myths vs Facts. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/09/28/cloud-security-12-myths-vs-facts/

Ashe, X. (2018, October 31). DEF CON 26 BLUE TEAM VILLAGE – Xavier Ashe – Cloud Security Myths. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_O7mziH3vM

Hein, D. (2020, August 10). Six Common Cloud Security Myths Debunked and Explained. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://solutionsreview.com/cloud-platforms/six-common-cloud-security-myths-debunked-and-explained/

Perlman, A. (2018, December 05). It’s Time to Get Real: Exposing the Top 10 Cloud Security Myths. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.securityroundtable.org/top-10-cloud-security-myths/

Spark, D. (2015, May 13). 20 of the Greatest Myths of Cloud Security. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.cio.com/article/2922374/20-of-the-greatest-myths-of-cloud-security.html