Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

Question 1

IT Infrastructure

Answer 1

Is the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications

Question 2

Five stages of IT infrastructure evolution

Answer 2

• 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)

Question 3

mainframe and mini computing era (1959 -present)

Answer 3

mainframes mainly for centralised computing (e.g. in corporate data center), largest category of computers

Question 4

personal computer era (1981 -present)

Answer 4

Wintel as the standard personal desktop combination, mostly stand-alone systems, development of various software tools for private and corporate users

Question 5

client/server era (1983 - present)

Answer 5

Desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities

Question 6

enterprise computing era (1992 - present)

Answer 6

move toward integrating disparate networks, applications using Internet standards and enterprise applications

Question 7

cloud and mobile computing era (2000 - present)

Answer 7

• cloud computing : computing power and software applications supplied over internet or other network
• fastest growing form of computing

Question 8

Moore’s Law

Answer 8

Computing power (micrprocessors) doubles every 2 years

Question 9

Law of Mass Digital Storage

Answer 9

• the amount of data being stored each year doubles
• cost of storing digital information is falling at exponential rate

Question 10

Metcalfe’s Law

Answer 10

value or power of a network grows exponentially as the network takes on more members

Question 11

Declining communication costs and the Internet

Answer 11

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

Question 12

IT Infrastructure has seven main components

Answer 12

• computer hardware platforms
• operating system platforms
• enterprise software applications
• data management and storage
• networking/ telecommunications platforms
• internet platforms
• consulting and system integration services

Question 13

Gartner Hype cycle

Answer 13

reports from analysts that try to predict what will impact business

Question 14

The mobile digital platform (trend)

Answer 14

• smartphones & tablets as main form of accessing the internet
• tablet computers
• netbooks
• wearables

Question 15

Consumeration of IT and BYOD (bring your own device) (trend)

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

Quantum computing (trend)

Answer 16

• uses quantum physics to represent and operate on data
• dramatic increases in computing speed

Question 17

Virtualisation (trend)

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

Cloud computing (trend)

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

Edge computing (trend)

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

Green computing (Green IT) (trend)

Answer 20

• 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.

Question 21

High performance, power-saving processors (trend)

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

Open-source software

Answer 22

• software produced by a community of several programmers
• free and modifiable by user

Question 23

Linux

Answer 23

• Open Source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms

Question 24

Java and JavaScript

Answer 24

software and scripting language for making web applications more interactive

Question 25

HTML5

Answer 25

hypertext markup language - web page description language

Question 26

Ruby and Python

Answer 26

popular programming tools for web applications

Question 27

Web services

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

XML: Extensible Markup Language

Answer 28

• 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

Question 29

SOA: service-oriented architecture

Answer 29

• 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

Question 30

challenges of managing IT infrastrucure

Answer 30

1. dealing with platform and infrastructure change: need for flexibility and scalability (as firms grow or shrink)
2. Infrastructure Management and governance
3. making wise infrastructure investments