TECHNOLOGY

What type of network they have?

At&t uses Edge data network, GPRS and also UMTS. These networks are all used for cell phone usages. A network is two or more computers that are connected together so that they can communicate with each other and share information, software, peripheral devices and or processing power.

What kind of interface do they use?

An interface is an expansion card for a desktop computer or a PC card for a notebook computer that connects your computer to a network and provides the doorway for information to flow in and out. The type of interface that the company uses was not available to the public.

What kind of media?

Media is a variety of ways to communicate. Cingular video allows you to watch video on your cell phone. It also allows you to send and to receive messages, email, pictures and video on your cell phone. Today the I Phone has brought everything you need into one single device. Internet, text messaging, video and even ones I pod. All this has been brought to one device and it is called the I Phone.

What kind of communications software? What kind of connecting devices or components?


Communication software is used to provide remote access to systems and exchange files and real-time messages in text, audio and/or video formats between different computers. At&t allows their workers to work from there homes if need be by connecting in to the network. The software that allows them to remote access all depends on which operating system they are running. The type of connecting devices and devices used were not available for public knowledge. The company probably uses such connecting devices such as hubs or switches. A hub and a switch is a wired network that connects many computers to that one network. They allow each computer to talk to each other.

How do they connect to the internet and at what speeds? Do they use Voice over IP?

They connect to the internet through the Edge Network and through the UMTS network. The operating speeds for the Edge Network are 70/135 per minute and for the UMTS is 220/320 per second. At&t provides Broadband and VPN for their customers. Yes they use Voice over IP. "Voice over IP - AT&T has both consumer and business VoIP service offers that provide enhanced voice communications services integrated with IP/Data features." Voice over IP

How do they apply the four principles of network security?

The four principles of network security is Confidentiality, Authenticity, Integrity, and Availability.

Confidentiality- means that information can be obtained only by those who are authorized to access it. Confidentiality includes information such as bank statements, business plans, credit card reports and employee evaluations.

Authenticity- means that information really comes from the source it claims to come from. It’s important to be sure of the authenticity of things like military orders, medical diagnoses and many others. Web sites can also be manipulated. This can be a threat to you because you might not be at the actual website

Integrity- means that the information has not been altered.

Availability- means simply that a service or resources is available when it’s supposed to be. For example if your corporate e-mail server is always down, business partners might not trust working with the company. The company could end up losing millions of dollars.


What is their domain name?

The domain name that AT&T currently is using is http://www.att.com/ AT&T

What are some hardware categories used in (or sold by) your company?

Hardware consists if the physical devices that makes up a computer. Some of the hardware categories that AT&T use and sell are modems, mobile, landlines phones, rotary phone, internet services, touch phone, cell phones and voice over IP. For landline installations for home or business use the wires, the jacks are all part of the installations.

What brands of computer? The brands of computers that they use are mostly Dell. In this center they use Dell, HP, and Compact each center can variety. What types of computers? The company uses personal computer and supercomputers but it all depends on what the usage is for. If it is for a regular call center or store AT&T will provide them with a personal computer but if it is for Technology development then they would use super computers.

Who is responsible for the hardware and software?

The person or department that is responsible for the hardware and software is the Technology Team.

What types of system software is used (sold)? Is Linux used?

Software is a set of instructions that your hardware executes to carry out a specific task for you. The call center that I called told me that they use regular Windows XP and they do not sell any system software. The call center was not sure about the usage of Linux. Linux is a free Unix type of operating system created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers from all around the world.

What types of application software is used (sold)? What brands?

Application software is the software that enables you to solve problems or perform specific tasks. The call center told me that the information of application software and there brands was confidential information.

What are some files used in your company? What databases do they use and what is the brand of database software?

A file is a collection of records; a key field is the way to identify the records. AT&T Inc. has many files and records but this information was not available on the Internet. Most files comprise of customer numbers, names, phone and primary contact. It also uses files for billing information account numbers and social security numbers. The data bases that AT&T uses are customer file and billing file.

What are databases? a database is a software that is designed to offer an organized mechanism for storing, managing and retrieving information.. AT&T Inc. has a network-security database that had been used to store Internet traffic.

There are many brands of databases and Oracle is the 2nd most famous software company after its leading competitor Microsoft. AT&T uses a database that is developed by Aurora is a network-security database that had been used to store Internet traffic data since approximately 2003. The Aurora database contains huge amounts of data acquired by firewalls, routers, honeypots and other devices on AT&T's global IP (Internet Protocol) network and other networks connected to AT&T's network. Aurora DataBase

Who is responsible for the database? How do managers get reports and what types of reports do they recieve?

William Zakrzewski is the AT&T database Administrator. Managers get reports from SQL servers; it generates reports in the typical databases environment. Reports help generate information that each manager would like to know up-to-date information about. The fields of information will come up as one report. The types of reports that are generated are for business intelligence. For example data/logic incorporates neural networks to generate rules for highly successful stock and bond trading systems. It can also incorporate fuzzy logic to analyze real- time technical processes. AT&T Administrator

Is OLAP used? Is a data warehouse used? Are data marts used? Explain.

Online analytical processing (OLAP) is the manipulation of information to support decision making. OLAP is used in business reporting for sales, marketing, management reporting and business process management. Yes AT&T uses OLAP. Microsoft SQL server 7.0 OLAP services and a customized interface for the ProClarity 2.0 OLAP client. This service has helped AT&T find a solution to enable 500 AT&T business analysts, sales professionals, and product managers to analyze vast amounts of data to improve sales targeting and account penetration.OLAP

Yes a data warehouse is used the reason it is high recommended because it makes reporting and analysis easier to be put together. Oracle data warehouse is used to capture process and production data, which is populated nightly into the Oracle data warehouse. Data mart works side by side with the data warehouse. The data mart is subset of a data warehouse in which only a focused portion of the data warehouse information is kept. AT&T uses the data mart in its finance department. The data mart contains only merchandising- specific information and not any information. The data mart software that AT&T uses is called FileTek Solutions for Call Detail Data Warehouse. FileTek

What types of data mining is used? Who is responsible and what software

The main purpose of data mining is to help sort large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. This process is usually used by Business Intelligence (BI) organizations, financial analysts. The types of data mining that is used is daily sales volume of a large number of items sold at several thousand store locations of large retail enterprise, packet loss among several source-destination pairs on the network of a major internet service provider (ISP) like AT&T, percentage of calls received at a call center cross- classified by caller intent and the location of orientating calls number of medical requisitions for different medical tests performed at several lab locations of a major health provider. It was not shown who was responsible for data mining but it was enclosed to contact Rick Becker if there was any questions or comments. They use data mining algorithms and clever databases tools but the name of the software was not disclosed also. Data Mining