What is Computer RAID? – RAID Levels. 
Computer circuit board or Motherboard. 
Computer security – mobile and computer safety. 
Computer storage – What is the difference between SSD and HDD 
Computer hardware maintenance – Improve performance. 
What are mobile phones about? 
What is computer mediated communication – How does it help? 
How to create a bootable USB drive. 
What are the pros and cons of digitalization? – Is it worth it? 
Considering the generation, we are in today most of you are probably asking yourselves. What are the pros and cons, is it worth it? To digitize the current way of conducting your day to day lifestyle or business. Let’s take some few considerations and I will let you be your own judge at the end of the day.
How can it benefit you?
When you look at it from a business perspective. It eases your access to documents and other resources within your organization. Saving you time and money. Plus excludes you from the frustration that you may encounter while doing these things manually, using the old file system. And if you are running your organization or company within different geographical locations. The chances of data redundancy are quite high with the traditional file system. It would be rather ideal. Introducing a distributed system than a centralized system as you implement the digitization of your organization. You might also like to look into cloud computing as it is the trending technology of accessing and storing data. For both companies or organizations and individual wise. Making it readily available everywhere you might be. Chances of an individual or organization being innovative are also increased. As people can easily access different training programs or build new ones based on the competitive market out there. As they are a few individuals who would like to be left out on trending items. Basically you wouldn’t like be a person or organization who doesn’t know what cool or new gadgets are out there. That can help easy your day to day work or business.
How is life simplified?
On a base of opening up new doors or channels. The digitization of your day to day life. Helps you in creating new communication channels enabling you to have new clients or friends. Throughout your company or life circle. Productivity is also increased as data is easily secured and recovered from disasters. Thereby, increasing efficiency in your corporation. This enables an organization to thrive through in its initial production. Due to the fact that decision-making is made from a large pool of research resources. Apart from all the above that has been said. The main key thing of digitizing how you do things mainly revolves around communication. The modern way of communication involves. The use of communicating devices that take way less than 30 seconds to connect to each other. Just by punching keys on a keypad or a touch screen. Customers and friends can reach you within seconds if they have any query with there purchase. Or simply a catch up with a close friend or relative whom you might have not seen for a long period. This makes it environmentally friendly for both personal and business. Therefore, encouraging team work.
The other side
Some of the biggest issues or cons with digitizing include, privacy concerns. As it has become a major issue. Mostly everyone has the ability to upload there personal data. On social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Concerns arise upon uploading, the user has no control over the image or video clip. Anyone can search the internet and modify that particular upload. To there liking or maybe resort into making a bad impression about the owner. We are becoming more and more socially disconnected to our loved ones. As we can’t make a personal visit and have an enjoyable day with them in real life. Addicted, we become morally isolated from things that matter to us. Spending most of the time depending on these gadgets even for simple tasks that can be done on our own.
Security
A major challenge in digital technology is security. As a single glitch or bleach within the system or database security. Can cause large amount of private data loss. Such as client’s details, credit card information, companies’ operations and so on. Third party handling of personal or organization information also raises concerns. On company and individual who have backed up there data or are using that cloud service. Most security problems arise from.
- Loss of control: – clients lose control of their data, application and resources. As they are located and managed by the cloud providers and this also includes there access management.
- Lack of trust: – arises when the data is being managed by a third party as this becomes more of a risk taking.
- Multi-tenancy: – Conflict between tenants with opposing goals. Since Tenants using the same cloud service maybe sharing a pool of resources and have opposing goals.
The verdict
Having looked at the pros and cons of digital technology or digitizing. We found out that life becomes easier with technology. And business moves at a faster rate than the old fashion way. But then the issue of data, rises concerns of security which might put you in doubt. If you think the pros outweigh the cons please feel free to digitize. But if you feel like the cons outweigh the pros. Please feel free to live life as you want it to be.
I think that the pros of digitalizing information far outweigh the cons. The ability to connect on this level has improved our ability to share necessary information and, especially in the medical field, has improved our quality of life. While the risk of security breaches is a real concern, this is nothing new. People have been stealing identities and valuables since the beginning of time. We just need to make sure (as we’ve always had to) that we’re being careful with our information!
Digitizing of our modern ways of doing things has the greatest advantage, the only issue that concerns all is security. If we can work on our security and improve on it, that would be a great advancement in modern technology.
Hello there! I was just wondering about this the other day too! With technology, things can become much more simplified like you said. Rather than moving huge paper files here and there, this can all be done with a few clicks. In addition when searching for files, you can just type what you need in the search button rather than having to manually search for it (and it becomes a headache if the file becomes misplaced).
Although it makes things convenient, we also have several cons like you mentioned. A couple of times at work (I used to work for a medical clinic), but our electronic health record system would go down and so we wouldn’t have access to medical files, it was quite tough when seeing patients especially for those raised in the technology era. Fortunately some of our staff were old-timers and were used to the paper charting days so we quickly switched to that and were able to be productive throughout the day (until the internet came back).
Hi mike, thanks for your comment. And I would advise the use of both in term of medical services due to emergencies that happen there. Am glad that you had old-timers to help out during the crisis.
Cyber security and online safety are real issues, but I think the benefits of digitization far outweigh the cons. As individuals we can take steps to reduce our exposure to social media. Digitization is a business is essential these days for employees to share information and to access information remotely. It also takes up far less space than traditional paper files.
I recently started digitizing old family photographs nd it is great to preserve them for future generations and the space saving benefits are huge.
I think the first step of security normally starts with an individual then levels up. Cause if we secure everything and mostly what content we publicize on social media, then we can be safe from issues that deal with security.
Hey Volkert. Very interesting article. Personally I can’t imagine not having my data digitized in cloud. Its crucial for my business to have access to all documents on all devices. And for private stuff its just more convenient. Of course there is always matter of security, and there are no shortcuts here. Password need to be strong and we need to change if frequently. But I believe that if we are reasonable and control our data its great tool with limited risk.
Yep it is a reasonable tool and a great one to simplify business and other personal staff..
I think everything ought to be digitalized. We are certainly in that era now and people are failing to acknowledge that. Even our currency is becoming digitalized, I am a big fan of everything being digital. This has been an amazing article and I appreciate the information you have presented here.
You are most welcome Misael and thank you for finding this information useful.
This is a very interesting and relevant topic in today’s world.
I agree that digitization has both its pros and cons.
In light of the global pandemic, we are all experiencing I believe digitization is a very good thing for these reasons:
1. While many have lost their jobs because of lockdowns, there have also been countless others who have been able to work from home allowing them to maintain a much-needed source of family income.
2. It has enabled many people to remain connected with family and friends helping to maintain good mental health.
3. It allows us to continue purchasing the things we need in a safe manner. For example, here in Canada, I can order my groceries online then I just drive to the store at the appointed time and staff will place the groceries in my trunk.
4. Internet banking is a very convenient tool. We have been paying our bills online for years.
Yes, there are risks. But, it is up to each individual to assess that risk and take any measures necessary to minimize that risk.
Thank you for a very thought-provoking article.
We are glad that you found this article interest and quite an interesting feedback you have about digitalization👍
Hello there, thank you for sharing this wonderful information and I have been my glad that there is some really good information online for all of us at see and make the best of and this is one very good information you have here for us. For me there are so many things to consider before giving it a try and so far I’ll go with it because it’s really helpful for us all.
Hi Sean, there is always something for everybody and am glad you found this helpful.
It certainly brings many advantages but also some disadvatages. Now, during the lockdown, digital devices keep us connected to our loved ones. I also store a lot in Google docs and drive, but I am tempted to start using cloud storage, since everyone is telling me how great and easy to use it is. There is also a high storage limit on iclouds, I believe.
Security is a bit of a problem, ad it’s scary to know that hackers are becoming more ingenious every time. a few months ago I read a story about a hacker who broke into a school online teaching platform … Always using improved antivirus programs, this can be beaten, but when you store your documents on iclouds, then you are not entirely in control of security and if there is a breach … I don’t even want to think about it …
All in all, though, I think that the pros highly outweigh the cons. Digitalization has made my life easier in many aspects.
Hello Christine, cloud storage is the key thing of digitalization. Not only can you store your information but also gives you easy accessibility to your data from anywhere around the globe. Security has been a challenge and is the only major drawback for digitalization. If we can take a step forward improving our data security, we can be safe from hackers and malicious users.
Digitalization is definitely the way to go moving forward with any business but for me, the main concern will always be security. It’s amazing just how easily our personal data can be accessed and the more of ourselves we put online the greater the risk of our systems being infiltrated by nefarious groups for malevolent purposes.
Thank you, Volkert
You are absolutely right there, as the more we expose ourselves, the more we are vulnerable to hackers and malicious users.
Hey Volkert, you make valid points concerning the digitalization trend our civilization is following. Digital technology, like any other technology, has the potential to be helpful or unhelpful to us. It’s like a hammer; if we know how to use it we can hammer in nails, but if we’re ignorant about how to use a hammer we might wind up hurting ourselves and those around us.
The same applies to digital tech. It’s up to us to educate ourselves so that we can intelligently use the powerful technologies which are disrupting every aspect of our lives. If we fail to do so, we could wind up hurting ourselves, like developing an addiction to technology or isolating ourselves from our social circles.
Hello Erick, thank you for taking time in reading this article and leaving a comment behind. I like how you have outline digital technology as a Hammer and thumbs up to that. Technology can truly harm us if we take it light with security, but it can also be enjoyable and good to use if security is taken with caution.
This is a topic that I have thought about a lot. We really can’t get around this technological new age but is all of it good for us? You covered all the important points. I do think running your company with secure data storage with backups is efficient time use and gives you easier access but this data is sometimes lost and that is awful. It then takes an enormous amount of time to put it all back together again (so did we really save anytime?). The privacy and isolation issues concern me as well.
I try to walk a fine line between being involved and using digitalization and keeping the time with family face to face and enjoy the moment. Go for walks, enjoy the sunshine and be in the moment. These are tools and should be a good part of our lives to give us more time to be with our family, friends and live life. It’s all about choosing.
In most cases digitalization has advantages in making life easier, but the obvious fact is that digital technology can not solve the actual sensation we get when we do have our loved ones closer to us. And on second thought it also helps getting us in touch when loved ones are away from home. Although data security has been a challenge for sometime now.
With knowledge come power, now people are moving away from filing cabinets and cards. Digitizing is an easier and more productive method. There is an issue of security however everything has issues since noting is perfect. With time the issuse of secured will be addressed, work in progress and information at your finger tips.
Hello Diana, nothing is 100% perfect cause even us humans ain’t perfect, and seeing technology being something inverted by man means it has errors too. True with knowledge comes power and its great when you have it on your finger it or mobile phone or iCloud.
I agree with you, I don’t want to be a person who doesn’t know what gadgets are and all the novelties that can make our everyday lives easier! We have to keep up with the times, technology is going to go from day to day, we’re the ones who need to adapt because we live in a world of progress. I wish you a lot of success every day in increasing results day in and day out!
Hello Jas, we are living in a world of progress and everyday that goes by technology is being advanced, thank you for leaving a comment behind.
I think that digitization can be a great benefit in our lives today. However, when talking about sensitive or valuable data, digitizing has to be accompanied by encryption. I didn’t come across as that being part of the service.
From a personal standpoint, I think that the commercial services that offer digitizing of one’s analog media, like movie films and slides, make a great deal of sense. No encryption is necessary here.
Another factor is the cost of the service. I would like to know what this kind of service would cost.
Cheers.
Edwin
Digitization is the best practice in the modern world of today. With that being done, it comes associated with risk factors and security concerns. As to who has access to my data and what harm can be done if the data was misused. When it comes to the cost of media services that is mostly determined by the services providers. Based on how much it costs them for the maintenance and keeping the service to the running.