Object-Oriented Information Systems

Information systems are mandatory for the success of businesses. They can solve daily problems, save time, increase productivity, provide data insights, and help in future decisions. However, adopting a new information system is subject to failure if not planned carefully.

An example of such a scenario is a big failure that FoxMeyer, one of the largest drug wholesalers in the US, suffered from in the 90s. This company was seeking a software solution, Enterprise Resource Planning (EPR), to support their supply chain decisions by incorporating real-time data and automating processes. They planned 65 million US dollars for this project hoping to save 40 million US dollars/year. However, the actual cost of implementation rose to 100 million US dollars. The company was able to save only half of the planned amount and went into bankruptcy after a few months (Hamrouni, 2017).

It is surprising how important is planning for an information system. It is even more supervising that the percentage of successful software system development is lower than 40% in Japan and the US (Standish Group, 2016 as cited in Kobayashi, 2018).

The causes of software system failures can be massive. Lauesen (2020) found 37 causes of failure by investigating only 5 failed governmental projects. It is expected to have more causes of failures for different Industrial projects and different types of industries. (Lauesen, 2020; Kobayashi, 2018)

A study showed that 83% of prescription errors were due to the inability to access available information. This could have been solved by the investment in, and the implementation of a proper hospital information system (Lederman & Parkes, 2005). The benefits of such an implementation system extend to physicians, pharmacists, patients, and the hospital in general.

Lack of software testing due to inadequate communication between developers and sales employees is one of the most important factors that lead to failure  (Lehtinen et al., 2014).

Although it is hard to constrict the solutions to avoid software failures in a shortlist, it appears that planning, understanding project objectives, good communication between stakeholders and developers/developing company, management, and testing are all important factors in successful systems from the commencement to the maintenance.

 

References

Hamrouni, W. (2017) 5 of the Biggest Information Technology Failures and Scares | eXo Platform. Available from: https://www.exoplatform.com/blog/5-of-the-biggest-information-technology-failures-and-scares/ [Accessed 12 March 2022].

Kobayashi, K. 2018. A Study on the Causes of Information System Failure.  2018 7th International Congress on Advanced Applied Informatics (IIAI-AAI), 8-13 July 2018 Yonago, Japan. 762-764.

Lauesen, S. (2020) IT Project Failures, Causes and Cures. IEEE ACCESS 8(72059-72067.

Lederman, R. M. & Parkes, C. (2005) Systems Failure in Hospitals—Using Reason’s Model to Predict Problems in a Prescribing Information System. Journal of Medical Systems 29(1): 33-43.

Lehtinen, T. O. A., Mantyla, M. V., Vanhanen, J., Itkonen, J. & Lassenius, C. (2014) Perceived causes of software project failures - An analysis of their relationships. INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY 56(6): 623-643.

 

Traditional relational databases have been the gold standard for many years. However, the massive amount of heterogeneous unstructured data generation we experience nowadays presents challenges to this gold standard. Unstructured data is expected to form the majority of the available data on the internet in the near future. (IBM Cloud Education, 2019). The object-oriented database system is currently one of the solutions for providing reliable storage for such data.

Object database systems are well suited for huge volumes of data that is mainly static in nature like books, emails, images, videos, and sensor data of IoT. Data is stored as objects or packages. Each object is composed of data, metadata, and an Identification number (IBM Cloud Education, 2019).

In addition to the ability to store massive amounts of unstructured data, object database systems have the advantages of scalability through parallel computing, support for semantic data modeling, less complexity in the data storage and retrieval processes, and compatibility with cloud computing; a feature that makes it affordable and compatible with the contemporary needs (IBM Cloud Education, 2019; Doshi, 1998). Also, it supports a more accurate specification of integrity constraints due to the object-oriented nature (Garvey & Jackson, 1989).

Object databases are composed of two tables; one is the object directory table that stores information about the objects and their metadata, and the other is the object storage table that stores the objects themselves (IBM Cloud Education, 2019).

The description of object-oriented data models in the literature appears to be hazy with both object- and object-oriented terms being used, but there is agreement on the necessity for object identity, encapsulation, and support for database functionalities (Connolly et al., 2014).

Approximately, 30% of coding is wasted on managing the conversions between application’s objects and the database data models including object type checking (Connolly et al., 2014). So, it makes sense to design the software and the database in the same object-oriented manner to save time and increase reliability.

A special challenge to object-oriented databased is long-duration transactions that may last for hours or days. This can be problematic and requires special management like versioning or advanced transaction models (Connolly et al., 2014).

 

References

Doshi, N. (1998 Published) ‘Object databases and multi-tier architectures’.Technology of Object-Oriented Languages. TOOLS 26 (Cat. No.98EX176). Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 7 August. 409-411.

Garvey, M. A. & Jackson, M. S. (1989) Introduction to object-oriented databases. Information and Software Technology 31(10): 521-528.

Ibm Cloud Education (2019) Object Storage. Available from: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/object-storage [Accessed 1 May 2022].

Connolly, T., Begg, C., Begg, C. & Connolly, T. (2014) Database Systems: a Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management PDF EBook, Global Edition.Harlow, UNITED KINGDOM: Pearson Education, Limited.Available from: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5174902 [Accessed Date Access 2014].

 

Innovations in information systems have been affecting our lives in an unprecedented manner; delivering fascinating advantages to different sectors, but at the same time impacting our data security and privacy. The increase in the number of data security breaches and system attacks is parallel to the advances we are experiencing in information systems. Having said that, it is no longer acceptable to have simple passwords to protect online accounts; instead, multi-factor authentication should be the norm nowadays (TechTarget, 2020; Valacich, 2014; Brooks et al., 2018).

Multifactor authentication should include at least one additional credential along with the personal password. Sources for such additional credentials can be keys or tokens, biometric data (e.g., fingerprints, face recognition, voice recognition, etc.), geographic position, or time (David, 2019; TechTarget, 2020; University of Michigan, 2019). This provides more complexity against attacks but doesn’t preclude “the man in the middle” problem. That’s why other security measures are recommended, such as the reduction of the number of connections between the user and the server, and the use of cryptographic methods like asymmetric cryptography (i.e., private and public keys) and hash functions (Jabłoński & Robak, 2019).

As Gordon Moore expected, the capability of computers doubles every two years (David, 2019). Moreover, quantum computers are far ahead; one quantum computer can solve complex problems in a few minutes compared to several thousand years on supercomputers. This has serious implications for data security which depends on strong encryption methods that are unsolvable by popular computers (Bisson, 2020; Jabłoński & Robak, 2019). It is very crucial to develop new encryption and authentication methods that address such problems and accommodate other technological advancements like 5G networks and IoT (Bisson, 2020).

Examples of innovations in the encryption methods that may provide post-quantum security are the use of a dynamic group of private keys in addition to the asymmetric cryptography and hash function, the use of elliptic curves, or lattice cryptography (Jabłoński & Robak, 2019; University of Michigan, 2019).

 

References

Bisson, D. (2020) 3 Emerging Innovations in Technology that Will Impact Cyber Security. Available from: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/featured/emerging-technology-cyber-security/ [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Brooks, N. G., Greer, T. H. & Morris, S. A. (2018) Information systems security job advertisement analysis: Skills review and implications for information systems curriculum. Information systems security job advertisement analysis: Skills review and implications for information systems curriculum. 93(5): 213-221.

David, T. B. (2019) Information Systems for Business and Beyond.Available from: https://bus206.pressbooks.com/ [Accessed 28 May 2022].

Jabłoński, J. & Robak, S. (2019) Information Systems Development and Usage with Consideration of Privacy and Cyber Security Aspects. 547-554.

Techtarget (2020) What is Multifactor Authentication (MFA)? Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3rlQVXGKZc&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 29 May 2022].

University of Michigan, E. (2019) Lattice cryptography: A new unbreakable code. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IyotuA8eJc [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Valacich, J. (2014) Information Systems Today, International Edition. Pearson Education UK.