Week 4

Question 1

IT infrastructure

Answer 1

An IT infrastructure consists of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise.

Question 2

What else does IT infrastructure include?

Answer 2

IT infrastrucutes aso include services budgeted by management composed of both human and technical capabilities.

Question 3

What do IT infrastrucutre services include?

Answer 3

• Computing platforms used to connect employees, customers and suppliers in a coherent digital environemnt, including large mainframes, midrange computers, laptops and desktops.
• Telecommunication platform used for connectivity.
• Data management services that store, manage and analyze corporate data.

Question 4

Moore’s Law

Answer 4

Originally Gordon Moore assumed that chip performance per dollar was doubling every18 months. Then it got adjusted by Moore to every 2 years, starting 1980. Now it is speculated to be every 2.5 years.

Question 5

Chips&Transistors

Answer 5

Moor’s law refers to a chip based technology, devices using circuits with integrated transistors.

Question 6

What is a transistor?

Answer 6

A transistor is a semiconductor-based switch, whose invention miniatuirized electronics. (1956 Nobel prize)

Question 7

Chip-based components

Answer 7

• Microprocessor (executes programs)
• Random access data/RAM (volatile memory, data is lost when powered down)
• Flash or solid state drives (nonvolatile, data is retained)

Question 8

Mechanical/moving components

Answer 8

• Hard disck drives (nonvolatile memory, uses magnetic rotating disk)
• Fans
• Disk drives

Question 9

Data transmission

Answer 9

Exponential growth, isn’t limited to the microchip performance

Question 10

Mainframe era (since 1959)

Answer 10

• late 1950’s IBM introduced a range of centralized “data processing systems” that replaced vacuums with transistor tubes
• mainframes larger, less powerful than today’s computers
• mainframes still relevant, powerful to enterprise networks
• IBM still the leading provider of mainframe

Question 11

Minicomputers

Answer 11

1965 minicomputers, allowed decentralized computing

Question 12

Personal computing era (since 1981)

Answer 12

• IBM PC introduced in 1981 (not the first)
• Standalone systems
• People started using them more at home=> Increasing use at work
• Software development (presentations, spreadsheet, games…)
• Multi-decade dominance of Microsoft operating systems

Question 13

Client-server era (since 1983)

Answer 13

• Distinguishes between providers and requesters. Lap/dektops are clients that are networked to powerful server computers that provide client computers with variety of resources and capabilities.
• Clients initiate communication, but don’t share resources
• In Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks, participants are both suppliers and consumers of resources.

Question 14

Application transfer protocols:

Answer 14

• HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol): for communication between web browser and web server
• SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol): for email transmission
• FTP (file transfer protocol): for file transfers between clients and servers

Question 15

Internet Resources

Answer 15

URL (unifrom resource locator) used to find resources on the internet.

Question 16

Cloud computing

Answer 16

Cloud computing refers to the provision of IT sources through the internet.
- Instead of on-premise hardware, servers are provisioned through the internet on demand.
- Instead of purchasing and intalling software on your computer, you can access it as a web service through a browser.

Question 16

What is Service Hosting?

Answer 16

Service hosting is usually shared between servers, which allows for higher fault tolerance and to balance and share requests.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): standard language used to format websites

Question 16

TCP/IP

Answer 16

TCP (transmission control protocol) and IP (internet protocol) enable data transfer across the internet.
- TCP slices data into packages that are to be sent to the source computer.
- IP routes these packages to the target computer.
- TCP at the host computer checks for completeness and reassembles packages.

Question 17

DNS

Answer 17

The domain name service (DNS) is like the phonebook of the internet.
- It takes host and domain as input and return the IP address of the server providing the requested resources
- DNS hacks one of the most dangerous, it can redirect users to malicious websites.

Question 18

Advantages of cloud computing

Answer 18

• lower upfornt costs
• increases flexibility for scaling

Question 18

IP adresses

Answer 18

IP adresses are assigned to every device connected to the internet. Provide unique identifier IPv4 consists of 4 blocks of digits ranging from 000 to 255.
- Allows for 4,3 billion addresses (reached in 2015)
- IPv6 extends to 2128 possible addresses by using 8 blocks of hexidecimal digits
- IPv6 additional improvements, but is not backwards compatible and adaption is slow.

Question 19

DIsadvantages of cloud computing

Answer 19

• might increase long-term costs
• dependance on providers (bankruptcy)
• moving legacy systems to cloud may be costly

Question 20

Types of computing services

Answer 20

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service
• Platform-as-a-Service
• Software-as-a-Service

Question 21

IaaS

Answer 21

• Allows users to instantly obtain or give up IT hardware resources, such as storage, computing, networking capabilities.
• Cuztomization, firms can choose what to install, develop and maintain

Question 22

PaaS

Answer 22

• Allows users to work in a development and deployment environment over the internet.
• Provides development and intelligence tools to create new applications and analyse storage data.

Question 23

SaaS

Answer 23

• Allows users to connect to and use cloud based apps over the internet.
• Wether operating systems belong to Laas or Paas is debatable.

Question 24

Mobile technology developments until now

Answer 24

1980- 1G, voice transmission
1990- 2G, voice, SMS, data
2000- 3G, 42 MBPS, dotcom bubble
2007- smartphone
2010- 4G, 3 GPBS, LTE pro
2020- 5G, 10 GPBS
2020+- Internet of Things IoT

Question 25

Mobile technology developments upcoming

Answer 25

• Quantum computing: instead of just 1 or 0, qubits use superposition, where a state can be both 1 and 0 at the same time. Deals with uncertainty, can solve problem in minutes.
• Optical computer: using photons instead of electrons for computing. Also called photonic computing, it uses light. High performance, low energy, lower costs.
• DNA computing: using DNA molcules for highly-parallelized computing/ ‘biological computing’, uses molecules to store data.

Question 26

Net Neutrality

Answer 26

NN is the principle that all internet traffic should be treated eqally and ISPs shouldn’t discriminate, slow down access or charge differently based on content, platform, application, equipment, user or communication mode.
- ISPs complain that NN restrictions disincentive infractructure investment.
- Lack of NN is feared to hamper digital enterpreneurship and investment.