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Starting in the mid 1980’s organizational enterprise has made substantial investments in both hardware and software infrastructure for running computer applications
software. Over that time, computer applications software and more specifically the Microsoft Windows suite of integrated software and applications - Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Expression, and Project - have become the administrative foundation for the vast majority of business enterprise. The programmatic implementation of office and network administration tasks
primarily has been with Microsoft languages and tools: batch file programming, WordBasic, Access Basic, VBA, WSH, and PowerShell.
- New and better methods for inputting and data entry.
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- Style sheets and macros for word processing.
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- Web-enabling data for utilization with the Internet.
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- Integration of networking and search.
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Programmatic presentation and exchange of data to local and remote locations.
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Client- and server- side presentation and storage of information with scalable databases.
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However, everything is now changing. Incremental improvements with technology in the public domain - widespread availability of faster and more reliable data transmission, increased bandwidth, and both additions and enhancements to computer hardware - CPU, storage, internal bus transfer speeds,
utilization of USB: Universal Serial Bus with a variety of high speed devices, have resulted in the development of software products which will be competing with Microsoft computer applications software. A significant percentage of the products will be collaborative software over the web. The distribution and operation will be in the form of software as a service and the medium will be the Internet.
Mobile Computing and Web Apps
The next hardware driven wave of computer technology has commenced. According to leading industry studies, the dynamic growth of desktop personal computing is over. By mid 2012, smartphones and tablets capable of running software applications will be outselling PCs.
Leading industry research firms agree that the common foundation driving the evaluation and selection of the next generation of computer applications will be: 1- Featureset and quality of the software. 2- The improvement in employee productivity or reduction in software licensing cost. 3- Effective strategies for managing the implementation and realizing a return on investment. Organizational enterprise is facing an entirely new set of assumptions regarding how to manage, upgrade, and migrate their existing computer applications
infrastructure. There is a compelling business case to utilize and integrate the free and low cost open source operating systems and applications with Microsoft software. Software as a service, web apps, and mobile devices and web apps
which run on web browsers and platforms other than the Microsoft family of operating systems also will have to be accommodated.
There are over 300 million smartphones using the Google Android OHA: Open Handset Alliance platform and running Android. Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson all
sell Android phones and in the aggregate this translates into market leadership. The Apple iPhone is the single most popular smartphone. As of the first quarter 2012, the MS Windows Phone 7 had negligible market share in the United States. Sales of the new Windows smartphones in Europe show promise.
Mobile devices and web apps present new capabilities through web browsers, mobile operating systems, and FOSS: Free Open Source Software.
In tablet media, the Apple iPad is the leader; the Apple iOS operating system platform is
highly respected in terms of quality and developer support. Google has purchased Motorola Mobility which will allow it to
better integrate its Google Android and Chrome operating system into manufacturing phones, tablet computers, and other consumer devices for the
first time.
PC Desktop Operating Systems and Web Browsers
Microsoft Windows XP remains the most widely used desktop operating system. As the extended support phase of MS Windows XP approaches, organizational enterprise will continue moving to MS Windows 7. MS Windows Vista adoption peaked in the fourth quarter 2009 and its utilization also has continued to steadily decline as part of the upgrade to MS Windows 7. Although it is the emerging desktop standard; a likely scenario is that MS
Windows 7 will be used to servicize virtualized desktop and web browser operating systems. There also will be new challenges in supporting the Windows 7 desktop operating system in conjunction with device and operating
system diversity: smartphones, tablets, and BYOD device support.
Web browsers increasingly are being used to execute applications and manage data. Although Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the leader in desktop browsing, with a 40.6 percent market share, its share has been steadily declining. Both the Google Chrome and Mozilla FireFox open source web browsers are being installed and used on Microsoft Windows desktop operating systems. Chrome surpassed Mozilla Firefox in the fourth quarter of 2011 as the second most
preferred desktop browser, with 25.7 percent market share compared to Firefox's 25.2 percent.2
The Google Chrome and Mozilla FireFox open source web browsers provide reliable value which enhances and automates quality software. Google
Corporation has been expending considerable resources to develop and distribute a service web apps ecosystem to serve as an alternative to Microsoft software.
Google web applications can be accessed from a web browser. A gray cell
indicates that the software is available as FOSS: Free Open Source Software.
Microsoft Operating Systems and
Emerging Hybrid Web Ecosystems
Computer Applications Training by SYS-ED
SYS-ED is a leader in
evaluating software
and incorporating open source software into its MS courses and training programs. The subject matter, examples, sample programs, exercises, and validation assessment have been organized to provide guidance
resolution in hybrid software environments. Our system consultant instructors are experts in teaching how to design and programmatically automate the MS SharePoint with:
Excel,
Access,
and
PowerPoint
for processing information in a variety of data and presentation formats: HTML5 with XML and JSON. We provide specialized training services on the emerging commercial and open source web apps and mobile device operating systems.
In order to assist client organizations in evaluating and implementing legacy applications, SYS-ED has been researching the native desktop and application virtualization capabilities of the desktop operating systems.
Work Environment Prototyping
SYS-ED provides educational consulting expertise in the form of classroom configurations which model an organization’s working environment - actual or planned. As part of our training service, we will
configure working client specific prototypes: operating systems, servers, web servers, and heterogeneous internetworks. This affords your personnel the opportunity to apply the theory presented in
lecture and draw upon the longstanding experience of our systems consultants. As an independent training company, SYS-ED has the privileged perspective to teach Microsoft networks and demonstrate what works as advertised. And truth be told, there have been
occasions where our system consultants have written to the source software companies pointing out errors in the source documentation and bugs in the software. Upon completion of a SYS-ED course, your IT
personnel will have created benchmarks for utilization back on the job and performed problem resolution.
Qualifying a Training Assignment
SYS-ED will not accept a computer applications training assignment without a consultation with the prospective client organization. We review the background of the employees to be trained, operating environment,
documented standards, and project specifications, use that information to select the code snippets, examples, skeleton programs, and hands-on exercises. We then prepare a training strategy: lesson plan,
modular courseware, training aids, and validation assessment. The pre course consultation allow us to identify and differentiate between teaching an industry standard course as compared to the client’s true need for educational consultancy:
implementing open source software, prototyping hybrid web enabled business applications, and extending a database to an e-commerce infrastructure and utilization with mobile devices. And when not confident that we can provide a superior training outcome, will politely turn down an assignment.
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