Introduction
Through the years, there have been many devices, which have ventured to offer relief and easy working procedures to many users. These devices are rather expensive but have a vital task to perform in this vast and rapidly growing technology globe.
Such devices include Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), multi-media devices and Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs), which in the current market are for carrying out different tasks, or running different applications for user contentment. The most powerful feature they possess is their ability to receive, hold, store and send large amount of data. Current technology provides devices with huge storage memory or ability to transact large information.
There is urgent need to address the implications of handling or accommodating data of such large capacity. The devices have grown from large handheld devices to small portable memory cards or chips but increased in transformation and data storage capacity. This paper addresses some of the challenges the huge data may pose in the day-to-day transactions.
Radio-Frequency Identification technology (RFID)
“RFID protocol is a communication protocol that uses radio waves to enable the transfer of data from an electronic tag attached to an object for the reader” (Espejo 2009). When passes through a reader, each of the tags generates a string of datum hat makes up a message.
Failure to filter such messages can easily cause clog up on flow of data thus compromise the meaning of data representation or interpretation when another source of data passes through the same threshold. Filtering data therefore facilitates noise reduction, and ability to reduce redundancy of processed data to significant levels.
General Use of the Current Technological Devices
The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is mainly used in maintenance of field data through use of various features such as RFID transceivers that assists in reading and writing on the transponder. The Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and wireless modem also manage data in a similar manner. The GPS detects geographical coordinates and with support of the mobile modem, the information is sent to the database.
Most of the current multimedia devices enhance information processing and search tools funnel streams of data from the reader heads to centralized systems or hold the information in virtual machines during real-time transactions. Various devices such as the GPS, RFIDs and PDAs have common style of warehousing data analogously.
Users have therefore forgotten the need to implement methods of collecting, cleaning, transferring, warehousing and updating this huge data at the appropriate locations. Various inferences such as management strategies for the RFID’s generated data are very important. According to Espejo (2009), the data is delivered in real time and thus requires immediate propagation of the infrastructure.
The devices are mostly used for processing and storing office files, calendar listings, phone numbers, maps, images, system files, mp3s, movies and even games. The PDA has been characterized by high storage memory of over 4GB and high speeds of over 133x for duplicating, uploading and downloading files.
Storage Challenges Caused by Hi-tech Devices
Although many people as well as organizations preferred to process and store their data in these devices, there can be negative aspects that scores of users fail to cover up (Haylor, 2005). Apart from being beneficial, the devices sometimes cause havoc to the data stores and information management systems.
Ignorance over the huge data management has resulted to mismanagement, collapse of the devices or loss of data, which would otherwise be easy to prevent. If users implement good back up systems for their data or avoiding disintegration of information tin various storage location, devices like RFID, GPS and PDAs would be manageable at all levels of usage (Haylor, 2005).
Many organizations have lost important data through theft such as cyber crimes, due to poor storage or lack of traceability options. Huge amount of information is left on machines for and lack of management procedures causes malfunctions.
The portability nature of these devices has made it easy to carry around and be used anywhere, anyhow and anytime according to user’s needs. Portability has also made the information in the machines to become more vulnerable to theft. Malicious attacks on information thefts target portable data devices since it is easy to establish a connection. Increase in theft is also high due to the soaring venerability rates.
Data Loss through Portable Devices
Procedures for storing information have also been altered because these devices are subjected to virus attacks, through sharing and downloading of files.
Managing information loss has been a high cost to many organizations since a lot of online data transfers from one PDA or one portable device to another can end up infecting the device with attached threats, which ends up destroying the Operating Systems and causing major loss of data (Chumbler, 2007).
Information can also be lost through these devices through hacking. Research shows that people who use devices such as the GPS are vulnerable of loosing their data, as they do not enhance security measures such as passwords or device locks. In many cases, people have hacked through database of many organizations through portable devices, which are codeless (Chumbler, 2007).
Another exponential way of information loss has been through damage. These devices are more vulnerable to damages such as physical breakage than any other form of storage mechanism. Increased capacity for storage means that more data becomes venerable to loss such as theft or system collapse. If you subject a PDA, GPS or RFIDs to instant shock, their data plates will disintegrate and break off.
PDAs are also vulnerable to data loss when batteries run out. This is because a PDA never shuts down even on prompt. All the data is usually stored in the Random Access memory (RAM). It is easy to notice this since upon putting it on, the display changes and displays all data, meaning the devise was still on process. This is a contrasting factor for a PDA, which stores large amount of data (Espejo, 2009).
Many people have had total or major losses after loosing their mobile devices. Current devices curry all personal or official information due to huge storage abilities. This form of information loss limits chances of getting back the information since it means finding back the device.
Sometimes getting back the device becomes null since the data might be compromised. Research showed that many people who have lost their PDAs often plead and give offers to someone who can find the devices due to the huge data losses. People often plead for data recovery and not the devices since data loss is much greater than loosing the device. This shows how important the data is for such people.
Recommendations
Current data warehouses for RFID infrastructure depends activities that occur locally at the station. The data faces real-time querying at the source such as the point-of-sales workstation, where it is stored after generation (Espejo, 2009). When one considers getting data from the GPS system, how can one aggregate all generated information to a central point? One of the biggest challenges of managing the collected data therefore involves aggregation since the tag readers can generate and distribute the data to terminals within the network.
Conclusion
The store and forward approach is required to manage data at the source since it is an efficient form of transforming information such as enhancing filtering of data at the source, and querying authenticity of foreign locations. There is general lack of designing data to avoid replication, redundancy and storage without any immediate relocation policies in the mobile devices.
According to Hisrich (2008), data production and storage requires “simple performance policy on immediate (online) updates of local databases in response to tag-read and other events. Such policy allows push of data to the central infrastructure (which may be composed of several distributed servers) using persistent queues.”
References
Chumbler, M. (2007). Access to government in the computer age: an examination of state public Records Laws. Illinois, IL: American Bar Association (ABA) Publishing.
Espejo, R. (2009). RFID Technology: Technology Issues: Michigan, MI: Gale Publishers.
Haylor, P. (2005). Computer Storage: A Manager’s Guide. Indiana: Trafford Publishing.
Hisrich R. D. (2008). International entrepreneurship: starting, developing, and managing a global venture. London, UK: Sage Publication Ltd.