A) Each of the following companies would benefit from either software-defined architecture or conventional-owned hardware and software. State which you would advise each of the following organizations to adopt and explain why.

1. StableCo is a firm that sells industrial paper shredders. Its business has remained steady for two decades and it has a strong and diverse customer base.

2. DynamicCo is a fast-growing six-year-old firm that has relied on three to five key wholesale customers for its entire existence. However, the list of key customers changes every year, and during two of the years, sales declined sharply.

3. Plastics3000 is an old, stable plastics manufacturing firm that has kept its sales steady in the face of competitors as the result of an active research and development team that uses advanced software to analyze large amounts of data to develop new compounds. Once or twice a week, office personnel complains of the network becoming very slow.

4. A downtown Las Vegas casino monitors each slot machine continuously for early detection of malfunctions such as winnings or losses trending beyond their threshold limits.

5. CallPerfect provides call center services to pharmacies. Phone calls are routed to the company after hours and messages are delivered to the pharmacy manager the next morning.

6. At the IRS, tax forms are available online for citizens to complete and file with the IRS electronically by April 15. A call center routes calls to agents who answer taxpayers questions.

7. At LittlePeople, Inc., a daycare center, parents are called to use the software on the administrators computer when there is a weather emergency. The school has averaged 120 families for many years.

B) What, in your opinion, is the difference between a decentralized architecture and a centralized architecture? What is an example of a business decision that would be affected by the choice of the architecture?

From your personal experience, what is an example of Software as a Service (SaaS)? Of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)?