IS Architecture Flashcards
What do ICT infrastructure typically consist of?
Most organisations have or use some ICT infrastructure. Typically, it consists of
- Hardware, including computers and other devices such as disk drives, printers and scanners. The computers may include desktop PCs, laptops, mobile devices, servers, mainframes, supercomputers and so on.
- System software, such as operating systems, and software applications, which may be generic applications like Microsoft Word and applications with more specific purposes such as ERP software and accounting software.
- Local area networks such as WiFi networks, wide area networks such as the Internet; private networks, and all of the equipment used in networking: switches, routers and hubs.
What is SaaS?
Software as a Service
Use of applications on demand
What PaaS?
Platform as a Service
Build, run and manage web applications
What IaaS?
Infrastructure as a Service
Use IT infrastructure for any purpose
What are enterprise architecture frameworks?
The idea of an enterprise architecture framework came about because of the increasing complexity of IT. It became obvious that organisations should plan their business and IT together, in order to make best use of the technology and gain competitive advantage. But there weren’t clear ways of doing that.
Enterprise Architecture started to gain traction in the 1980s as a rational way of designing both the organisation and its supporting technology. It was an attempt to address the perennially perceived lack of alignment between IT and business goals.
What is TOGAF?
The Open Group Architecture Framework
The Open Group Architecture Framework is the most used framework for enterprise architecture today that provides an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture. TOGAF is a high-level approach to design.
What is the Zachman framework?
Its used to specify artifacts, a grid to show what should be created
What are the 4 level of TOGAF?
Business - processes and activities use…
Data - that must be collected, safeguarded and distributed using…
Applications - such as custom or off the shelf software that run on…
Technology - such as computer systems and telephone networks.
What is needed to conform to International Standard, IEEE Standard 1471 (2000)?
Architecture description
Architecture viewpoint
Architecture framework
Architecture description language
What is International Standard, IEEE Standard 1471 (2000)?
IEEE 1471 is a superseded IEEE Standard for describing the architecture of a “software-intensive system”, also known as software architecture.
In 2011 it was superseded by ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011,
What are some example of SaaS?
Salesforce, Webex and Dropbox
What are some example of PaaS?
Heroku, Google App Engine
What are some example of IaaS?
AWS, Azure
What is enterprise application integration / system integration?
System integration has been important for many years. It’s the concept of linking up an organisation’s software applications share so that they can inter-operate and share data, instead of having data in silos or separate repositories.
What is the need for enterprise application integration / system integration?
Part of the reason for wanting to do that is to avoid the problems associated with having duplicated or fragmented data.
- If data is duplicated, we can easily get in a position where we have inconsistency and confusion.
- If the data is fragmented, then it can be very difficult to use the data in a joined-up way.
Another driving force is the need to support business processes that span business functions and departments.
What are 3 main application integration methods?
Point-to-point interfaces - Write code to link two applications, works well when there aren’t many applications and the data isn’t too large
Middleware (e.g. SOA/enterprise service bus) -Site between applications and acts as a hub to share information
Messages and middleware - middleware present on systems to communicate with the network and transfer messages
What are the advantage and disadvantages of enterprise application integration / system integration?
Advantages are: real time data sharing simpler processes, efficiency data integrity ease of development and maintenance Disadvantages are: high development costs requires smart design
What is an ERP system?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is defined as the ability to deliver an integrated suite of business applications. ERP tools share a common process and data model, covering broad and deep operational end-to-end processes, such as those found in finance, HR, distribution, manufacturing, service and the supply chain.
When do many organisations model their data assets?
An important part of the enterprise architecture is the architecture of the organisation’s information. It’s essential for organisations to have a good idea of where their key data resources are held and to ensure suitable levels of data integrity, security and so on.
Therefore, many organisations model their data assets at a corporate level as part of the enterprise architecture. This helps in data governance and can help guide development of the organisation’s information systems.
What is used to model an organisations data assets?
enterprise data architecture
What are the levels of enterprise data architecture?
A high level data model shows primary data entity types and is typically a UML class diagram. Realisation overviews describe the relationship between conceptual data types and their implementation. It represents the end users view of the data and shows that data is duplicated in several areas and can be quite contradictory Source and consumer models give more information on the conceptual and realisation entity types and their relation, also shows you producers and consumes the data Transportation and transformation model shows how the data changes as it moves around.
How do organisation avoid data fragmentation?
With most organisations operating a portfolio of information systems, data resources are often fragmented—spread across multiple un-integrated applications. It can be difficult to avoid duplication, ensure consistency and allow data to be brought together when necessary for reporting, or to answer important business questions. One solution is data integration.
1960s - Master files (batch systems)
1970s - Disk files (interactive systems with point-to-point integration)
1980s/1990s - Corporate database
2000s - Service-oriented architecture (enterprise service bus)
Is data quality a big issue in many organisations?
Information systems must produce dependable information to be useful. Information need to meet various quality criteria: it should be complete, unambiguous, meaningful and correct.
Almost all datasets have problems, and the problems can be costly. For example, many organisations use spreadsheets to support certain business functions. But the data in spreadsheets is often incorrect, unvalidated and/or duplicated (seehttps://blogs.oracle.com/smb/10-of-the-costliest-spreadsheet-boo-boos-in-history).
Even in professionally-produced systems, data quality is a major headache. IBM estimates that poor-quality data costs organisations over $3 trillion per year, globally.
What is enterprise content management?
Content management technology arose in response to the need to manage unstructured data. While databases hold structured data, according to IBM, 90% of data held by organisations is unstructured—in documents, web pages, reports and so on. When we are talking about the management of digital information, we cannot focus entirely on structured data managed by database technology.
One aspect of content management is web content management—that is, managing what appears on web pages. When the web first emerged, the only way to create web pages was to code in HTML. That was fine for programmers, but not so good for professional writers, marketing people and others who needed to originate content for web pages.
Enterprise content management includes:
- Web content management
- Document management
- Workflow management
- Search and collaboration
- Records management
- Capture and scanning
- Digital asset management
What is a CIO?
Chief Information Officer
What are some frameworks relevant to IT management?
Here are some of the frameworks relevant to IT management. Most of them are produced by professional industry bodies and some have been adopted as national or international standards.
- PRINCE2, PMBOK and MSP are concerned with project and programme management
- ITIL and ISO20000 addresses IT service management
- COBIT and ISO38500 addresses IT governance
What is ITIL?
ITIL is a framework which addresses IT service management. ITIL stands for “information technology infrastructure library”. It was developed in the 1980s by the UK Government, when the quality of IT services provided to government departments was considered less than sufficient. The idea was to offer IT as a service to end users and customers rather than simply offering a range of technologies.
What are the 4 Ps in ITIL?
ITIL addresses the 4 Ps:
- People
- Processes
- Products
- Partners
What are the five main stages of ITIL based on an IT service?
Service strategy Service design Service transition Service operation Continual service improvement......
What is COBIT?
COBIT stands for Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology
COBIT is a framework for IT governance and management. COBIT came out of IT auditing practice and was developed to help organisations address concerns about the governance of IT (or lack thereof), especially given the high cost of technology and frequent failure of IT projects.
The difference between governance and management is an important one to understand.Governance is to do with oversight, stakeholder objectives and direction. It’s not the same thing as management, which is more to do with planning, executing and monitoring activities and should be done in alignment with the direction of the governance body
What problems can occur if COBIT is not used?
Problems that can occur without using something like COBIT which provides guidance and best practices for management to govern IT within the enterprise: Increasing IT costs Insufficient IT skills Issues implementing new systems Problems with external IT service providers Serious operational IT incidents Lower than expected RoI IT security or privacy incidents
List and explain five key information systems such an organisation would typically need?
Accounting information system Sales processing system Inventory management system Business intelligence system Online shop
What are TOGAFs criticisms?
TOGAF is difficult to understand
TOGAF does not have enough practical exercises
TOGAF gives an impression of how enterprise architecture works that is quite divorced from reality
What is the role of the Service desk in ITIL?
A service desk is a communications center that provides a single point of contact (SPOC) between a company and its customers, employees and business partners. The purpose of a service desk is to ensure that users receive appropriate help in a timely manner.
What are the benefits of enterprise architecture?
The enterprise architecture benefits include more efficient business operation with lower costs, more shared capabilities, lower management costs, more flexible workforce, more organisation, less duplication and redundancies and improved business productivity.
What is technical architecture?
Technical Architecture (TA) is a form of IT architecture that is used to design computer systems. It involves the development of a technical blueprint with regard to the arrangement, interaction and interdependence of all elements, so that system-relevant requirements are met.
What is data architecture?
In information technology, data architecture is composed of models, policies, rules or standards that govern which data is collected, and how it is stored, arranged, integrated, and put to use in data systems and in organizations.
What is business architecture?
In the business sector, business architecture is a discipline that “represents holistic, multidimensional business views of: capabilities, end‐to‐end value delivery, information, and organizational structure; and the relationships among these business views and strategies, products, policies, initiatives, and stakeholders.
What is application architecture?
An applications architecture describes the behavior of applications used in a business, focused on how they interact with each other and with users.
