Post #5 – Computers in the Workplace

 Hello,

I will tell you a tale of two systems for this week's discussion. The first is the business side of a cement manufacturing plant. On this side, we have online cloud storage for documents and files, which gives us much more fluidity in working anywhere in the plant or even the world – with appropriate safety protocols.  This online storage is backed up automatically daily on a weekly sweep; in other words, it is a weekly full backup with a daily incremental backup for any changes. Because we are concerned about security and do our best to maintain our systems, each computer has anti-virus software and limited ability to change software based on a domain-controlled system. Each computer has internet access and Microsoft Office applications that are needed for the position held. Each employee is responsible for knowing how to use the applications they need; however, for the most part, they do not need to know more about the computer than to turn it on.  We have dedicated IT specialists who take care of any problem. If you can, get in touch with them.

The second system is the one I spend most of my time with on the automation side. For this system, we have a dedicated network that is completely separate from the internet. In this case, each computer must be backed up to a storage unit inside the network. Because of the differing use cases, there are differing levels of backup. The engineering computers are backed up daily because that is where we see the most change and important files. We keep one month's worth of files plus a monthly summary for one year's time.

On the other hand, the client computers have almost no change and are backed up quarterly, with a complete system backup once a year – when we try to do all the outstanding updates from Microsoft and our software vendors. Servers are weekly, and Analyst computers are monthly, so we have all types of timetables. Although we keep them separated from the internet, we still have anti-virus software running, which is not updated as frequently. For many of these updates, we must weigh the consequences on our vendor-specific software and the effects on our Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC).

Many of the users of the computers on this network need very little computer knowledge other than point-and-click. The engineering staff is much more involved in these circumstances and needs to know networking, storage, and PLC commands.

Considering the changes noticed in the last 20 years, it is likely that this trend will continue. With a limited number of people becoming increasingly computer-knowledgeable and busy all the time. Most users will continue to be of the point-and-click type. With increasing automation and graphical interfaces that let the operator know what is happening anywhere in the plant, it is unlikely that many will want to know the underlying foundation.  I can see that in many other parts of the world right now. We will need faster and more functional computing resources to keep up with the increasing number and size of processed data.