Distinguishing Research Purpose and Practical Purpose
Every research activity is triggered by the need for some practical solution to a problem that hinders the achievement of a desired goal (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010). Since the practical solution needs to be backed by evidence, research must be conducted at small scale. Upon successful outcomes, the research study is then implemented on a large population.
At times, there is no synchronisation between the research purpose and practical purpose at a glance. The research purpose focuses on the analysis of current stats whereas the practical purpose is all about the need for change in the current setup. These concepts are going to be explained using the example of desktop virtualization.
Desktop virtualization refers to the idea of catering for the need of having huge resources with every computer in the network. This is because resources such as the printer, high memory space, specialised software, and added features are allocated to the server only.
Nevertheless, these resources are needed to perform organisational functions. At times, when employees are away from the office, they cannot have access to the server resources, and this hinders their performance. Consequently, the organisation suffers due to poor productivity.
This is a problem that needs to be resolved. There can be empirical data pointing to the activities that were supposed to be carried out off-site. However, these activities were not performed due to lack of server resources. There could also be information on activities to be performed off-site and the quantum of those activities. The main issue remains to be how to address this problem.
The answer to this problem can be sought through the provision of the necessary resources at every location. This is a challenge since employees are in constant movement and there is no fixed location. The other option is to limit movement to facilitate resource allocation.
This option is not viable since the business has to be dynamic to succeed. The viable solution is to introduce changes in the system such that it supports working from remote locations.
The proposal for change can be regarded as a practical solution. The change of the system is what has been referred to as desktop virtualization. This will enable employees to access the required resources from anywhere. This will be made possible by granting access to the server or resource contained system. The security measures should be strict to counter any malicious attack.
In this case, the research purpose is to share the resources located at the server. Therefore, the research purpose will be about the number of nodes for desktop virtualization the software required, and the bandwidth consumed.
When viewed from the perspective of a practical purpose, the focus is upgrading the nodes to ensure that they all have resources attached with the server. This serves two core purposes: extended capability at every workstation and cost-effectiveness on the part of the network owner. The practical purpose will entail on how to make all computers access server to save on the cost of allocating resources to all workstations.
Distinguishing Focus and Locus of the study
The focus and locus of the research is critical in the development of the research plan (Thomas, Nelson and Silverman, 2010; Patton, 2002). The focus of this study centres on how desktop virtualization reduces energy consumption. In this respect, the energy levels required at various network points, machines, and access points are analysed. The evaluation of total power requirement is mandatory in designing a robust network.
The purpose of the research is to facilitate resource sharing with the practical aim of achieving cost-effectiveness. Therefore, looking into the various aspects of network and the required tools for implementing desktop virtualization is critical.
In order to meet the objective, the cost of implementing desktop virtualization should not exceed that of attaching the resources with all nodes in the network that are primarily assigned to the server alone.
The locus of the study is the core network, and this refers to the implementation of the initiative of desktop virtualization. The information about energy levels consumed is gathered on the basis of the number of nodes accessing the server resources. This can be evaluated in respect to the distance between the node and server. In other words, the layout topology of the network is also to be studied in determining the energy level.
Analytical Memo Writing
The cost required to allocate designated resources to all nodes within the network forms the biggest problem area of the research study. Since it is impossible to incur the heavy cost of allocating resources to the whole system, resource sharing is implemented. Desktop virtualization presents the best form of resource sharing and this come with notable advantages, as well as disadvantages.
Since the research focuses on energy consumption of the network implementing desktop virtualization, the researcher is possibly looking for advantages and disadvantages associated with the concept. The researcher may also focus on the additional cost requirements to implement the desktop virtualization.
This means that the research is also interested in the extra expenses that an organization has to incur for successful completion of this initiative. In other words, the researcher conducts an analysis on the manner in which desktop virtualization reduces operational costs and how the initiative can be implemented effectively.
Another issue concerns whether desktop virtualization increases the challenges for computing resource management. Also, another aspect of concern is the issues faced by the organisations that implement desktop virtualization.
Possibly, the researcher can get answers to the issues raised in one instance. The researcher may have to see related aspects to get a complete picture. This may include numerous aspects that are hidden at the moment (Grinnell and Yvonne, 2010).
References
Grinnell, R. M. and Yvonne, A. (2010). Social Work Research and Evaluation: Foundations of Evidence-Based Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R. (2010). Research Methods for Business (5th ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Thomas, J. R., Nelson, J. K. and Silverman, S. (2010). Research Methods in Physical Activity (6th ed.). USA: Human Kinetics.