Design and implementation of a collaborative software as a service based office management system

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>Background of the Study</strong></p><p>File management is the process of storing, accessing, retrieving and manipulating files. The necessity of moving a file from the RAM to a secondary storage calls for future reference (re-usability), availability (having this file ready and at hand at any time anywhere), safety (ensuring data integrity without the fear of loss or damage) and most times privacy (authentication and access control). This purpose is not fully achieved when files are saved just by the traditional file management system usually provided by the user‟s operating system or the manual system. The traditional system is exposed to insecurity, unavailability, and data loss through viral attacks and other malicious software. This created the need of an additional system for saving files (back up mechanism), where files will be available with or without the user‟s workstation, highly secured platform, and cost effective system.</p><p>Storage and access to files which has been a core concept of computing and information technology requires the moving of files to a better environment where availability and security is assured. The cloud system is a recent development which has dramatically changed the landscape of software development. It provides a simple interface where the user is abstracted from the underlying framework of the system. According to Hancleng (2009), Cloud computing is a model of enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on demand network access to shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g networks, servers, storage, application and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.</p><p>Moving files to a cloud system has been a welcomed advancement in file management but has failed in addressing challenges. Some of these challenges include security and cost. Adopting Software as a Service (SaaS) as the befitting cloud computing model for this work does not only provide software availability but also provides an efficient means of billing users. The billing system will be monitored by the number of times the application will be used. That is, keeping a log of records, which in turn aids in monitoring any form of intrusion created by unauthorized access.</p><p>Conclusively, cloud computing and file management has security‟ as its mediator. It is well understood that no one could take an additional step of moving files to the cloud system for storage or backup if such files are not important. Therefore, every cloud computing system should make adequate provisions for security.</p> <br><p></p>