Technology Since 1997

Life Simplified with Innovative Technology

Today companies and customers alike need speed.  It didn't use to be that way.  Technology has come a long way over the years.

Introduction

To understand what technology encompasses one must first understand the break down by functional technology areas.  I will go through each below.

Organizing Tasks as Workflow

As human beings working alone or withing a team we often define workflow.  A workflow constitutes a sequence of outlined steps involved from the start through to the end of a working process to accomplish a task.  As a result, the task in question goes from incomplete to complete, or raw to processed.  Well-defined workflows allow businesses and other organizations to optimize their operations, increase worker's productivity, and ensure high quality across the board.

Computer Programming / Software Develompment

Computer Programming (aka Software Development) is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program.  Programming involves tasks such as analysis, generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the implementation of algorithms (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly referred to as coding).

The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit.  The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on a computer, often for solving a given problem.  Proficient programming thus usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms, and formal logic.

Tasks accompanying and related to programming include testing, debugging, source code maintenance, implementation of build systems, and management of derived artifacts, such as the machine code of computer programs.  These might be considered part of the programming process, but often the term software development is used for this larger process with the term programming, implementation, or coding reserved for the actual writing of code.  Software engineering combines engineering techniques with software development practices.  Reverse engineering is a related process used by designers, analysts, and programmers to understand an existing program and re-implement its function.

Relational Database Management Systems

A relational database is a type of database that stores and provides access to data points that are related to one another.  Relational databases are based on the relational model, an intuitive, straightforward way of representing data in tables.  In a relational database, each row in the table is a record with a unique ID called the key.  The columns of the table hold attributes of the data, and each record usually has a value for each attribute, making it easy to establish the relationships among data points.  Software utilizes databases to store data in databases, tables, columns and indexes to effectively return the information in a speedy fashion.

Automated Systems

There's a common misconception that automation involves towering robotics, but it can be as simple as a set of tools housed within common business software programs.  At its core, automation is about implementing a system to complete repetitive and easily replicated tasks without the need for human labor.

By automating repetitive business processes, employees are freed up for tasks that are more valuable than those that can be completed by machines.  However, more advanced forms of automation - like machine learning - can now be used to complete higher-order tasks that require a bit more adaptability.  The ability of these software programs to learn over time means they pore through massive troves of data quickly and effectively, before contextualizing that information in a useful way to support internal decision-making.

Network Communications

Assisting communication across many modern optic fibre networks is a protocol known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).  The ATM protocol allows for the side-by-side data transmission mentioned in the second paragraph.  It is suitable for public telephone networks because it establishes a pathway for data through the network and associates a traffic contract with that pathway.

The traffic contract is essentially an agreement between the client and the network about how the network is to handle the data; if the network cannot meet the conditions of the traffic contract it does not accept the connection.  This is important because telephone calls can negotiate a contract so as to guarantee themselves a constant bit rate, something that will ensure a caller's voice is not delayed in parts or cut-off completely.  There are competitors to ATM, such as Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS), that perform a similar task and are expected to supplant ATM in the future.

That gives a general rundown of the core areas of technology which comprises our systems today.  I do not get into payment gateways or sublayer systems that comprise say an eCommerce system or ERP for those higher level systems built on the foundation I briefly mention above.