Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Flashcards
IT Infrastructure
Is the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications
Five stages of IT infrastructure evolution
- mainframe and mini computing era (1959 -present)
- personal computer era (1981 -present)
- client/server era (1983 - present)
- enterprise computer era (1992 - present)
- cloud and mobile computing era (2000 - present)
mainframe and mini computing era (1959 -present)
mainframes mainly for centralised computing (e.g. in corporate data center), largest category of computers
personal computer era (1981 -present)
Wintel as the standard personal desktop combination, mostly stand-alone systems, development of various software tools for private and corporate users
client/server era (1983 - present)
Desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities
enterprise computing era (1992 - present)
move toward integrating disparate networks, applications using Internet standards and enterprise applications
cloud and mobile computing era (2000 - present)
- cloud computing : computing power and software applications supplied over internet or other network
- fastest growing form of computing
Moore’s Law
Computing power (micrprocessors) doubles every 2 years
Law of Mass Digital Storage
- the amount of data being stored each year doubles
- cost of storing digital information is falling at exponential rate
Metcalfe’s Law
value or power of a network grows exponentially as the network takes on more members
Declining communication costs and the Internet
rapid decline in costs of communication and growing agreement in the technology industry to use computing and communications standards are driving an explosion of computer use
IT Infrastructure has seven main components
- computer hardware platforms
- operating system platforms
- enterprise software applications
- data management and storage
- networking/ telecommunications platforms
- internet platforms
- consulting and system integration services
Gartner Hype cycle
reports from analysts that try to predict what will impact business
The mobile digital platform (trend)
- smartphones & tablets as main form of accessing the internet
- tablet computers
- netbooks
- wearables
Consumeration of IT and BYOD (bring your own device) (trend)
- new IT emerges in consumer markets first and spreads to business organisations
- forces business and IT departments to rethink how IT equipment and services are acquired to and managed
Quantum computing (trend)
- uses quantum physics to represent and operate on data
- dramatic increases in computing speed
Virtualisation (trend)
- allows single physical resource to act as multiple resources
- each virtual server looks like a real physical server to software programs
- reduces hardware and power expenditures
Cloud computing (trend)
- on-demand computing service obtained over network
- virtualised IT structure in a remote location, can be accessed on as-needed basis
- cloud can be private or public
- drwabacks: concerns of security of data
Edge computing (trend)
- optimising cloud computing systems by performing some data processing on a set of linked servers at the edge of network, near source of data
- servers at the edge of the internet
- reducing latency, and network traffic - less data flowing back and forth, only important data
Green computing (Green IT) (trend)
- practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of computing and networking hardware
- minimise impact on environment, reducing power consumption is a high priority
- data centres designed with efficiency in mind: air-cooling, energy-efficient equipment etc.
High performance, power-saving processors (trend)
- multiple cores on a single chip, less power requirements, prolonging battery life
- multicore processors: integrated circuit in which two or more processor cores are attached for enhanced performance, less power consumption, more efficient processing of multiple tasks
Open-source software
- software produced by a community of several programmers
- free and modifiable by user
Linux
- Open Source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms
Java and JavaScript
software and scripting language for making web applications more interactive
HTML5
hypertext markup language - web page description language
Ruby and Python
popular programming tools for web applications
Web services
- loosely coupled software components that exchange information using Web standards and languages
- can be used to create applications that link disparate systems within a company
XML: Extensible Markup Language
- more powerful and flexibel than HTML
- tagging allows computers to process data automatically
- can perform presentation, communication and storage of data
- tagging selected elements of the content of documents for their meanings computers can manipulate and interpret data
SOA: service-oriented architecture
- set of self-contained services that communicate with one another to create a working software application
- software developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble other applications as needed
challenges of managing IT infrastrucure
- dealing with platform and infrastructure change: need for flexibility and scalability (as firms grow or shrink)
- Infrastructure Management and governance
- making wise infrastructure investments
