Chapter 4: Information Technology Infrastructure; IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technology

Software Outsourcing

Enables a firm to contract custom software development or maintenance of existing legacy programs to outside firms.

iOS

Operating system for Apple Ipad, Iphone, and Ipod Touch

Scalability

The ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number of users without breaking down

Server

Where clients computers are networked to; Typically processes and stores shared datas, serves up Webpage, or manages network activities; Refers to both the software application and the physical computer on which the network software runs; Could be a mainframe but are more likely to be a more powerful version of personal computer, based on the inexpensive chips and often using multiple processors in a single computer box

Web Server

Will serve a web page to a client in response to a request for service; A server whose software is responsible for locating and managing stored Web pages

Wintel Pc

Windows operating system software on a computer with an Intel microprocessor and it has become the standard desktop computer when it was introduced in 1981; At first, it uses the DOS operating system, a text-based command language, and later the Microsoft Windows operating system; Its dominance as a computing platform is receding as Iphone and Android devices sales increase; Came to be in the Personal computer era which started in 1981

Enterprise Computing era

4th era of IT Infrastructure; Started from 1992; Links different pieces of computer software hardware and smaller networks into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely across the organization and between the firm and other organizations; Can link different types of computer hardware, including mainframes, servers, PCs, and mobile devices, and it includes public infrastructures such as the telephone systems, the Internet, and public network services; Requires software to link disparate applications and enable data to flow freely among different parts of the business.

Cloud and Mobile Computing

5th era of IT infrastructure that started in 2000; Came to be the growing bandwidth power of the Internet has pushed the client/server model on step further.

Metcalfe's Law

A claim made by Robert Metcalfe in 1970 that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members (The increasing return to scale that network members receive as more and more people join the network); As the number of members in the network grows linearly, the value of the entire system grows exponentially and continues to grow forever as members increase; the demand of information technology is driven by social and business value of digital network, which leads to more members joining the network.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

A page description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page and for creating dynamic links to other Web pages and objects; With these links, users need only point at a highlighted keyword or graphic, click on it, and immediately be transported to another document

Software package

A prewritten commercially available set of software programs that eliminates the need for a firm to write its own software programs that eliminates the need for a firm to write its own software programs for a certain functions

Green computing

Also known as Green IT; Practices and technologies for designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated devices such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communication systems to minimize impact on the environment

HTML5

An evolution of HTML; Allow HTML to embed video, audio, images, and other element directly into a document without processor-intensive add-ons; Makes it easier for Web pages to function across different displace devices, and it'll support the storage of data offline for apps that run over the Web

Multicore processor

An integrated circuit to which 2 or more processor cores have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks; Enables 2 or more processing engines with reduced power requirements and heat dissipation to perform tasks faster than a resource-hungry chip with a single processing core

Multitouch

An interface where users employ one or more fingers to manipulate objects on a screen without a mouse or keyboard.

Measured device

Charges for cloud resources are based on amount of resources actually used; Essential characteristic of cloud computing.

Ubiquitous network access

Cloud resources can be accessed using standard network and Internet devices, including mobile platform; Essential characteristic of cloud computing.

Mashups

Composite software applications that depend on high-speed networks, universal communication standards, and open-source code

Blade servers

Computers consisting of a circuit board with processors, memory and network connections that are stored in rack, which takes up less storage space than traditional box-based PC servers

Hybrid cloud

Computing model where firms use both their own IT infrastructure and also public cloud computing services

Location-independent resource pooling

Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple servers, with differential virtual resources dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally doesn't know where the computing resource are located; Essential characteristic of cloud computing.

Rapid Elasticity

Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand; Essential characteristic of cloud computing.

On-demand computing

Computing services from remote providers and pay only for the amount of computing power they actually use or are billed on a monthly or annual subscription basis

Storage area networks

Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage; Creates a large central pool of storage that can be rapidly access and shared by multiple servers.

On-demand self-service

Consumers can obtain computing capabilities such as server time or network storage as needed automatically on their own; Essential characteristic of cloud computing.

Software as a service

Customer use software hosted by the vendor on the vendor's cloud infrastructure and delivered over a network; Users access these applications from a Web browser, and the data and software are maintained on the providers' remote servers; Services for delivering and providing access to software remotely as a Web-based service which provides on-demand software services for customer relationship management

Infrastructure as a service

Customers are processing, storage, networking, and other computing resources from cloud service providers to run their information systems; Users pay only for the amount of computing and storage capacity they actually use.

Platform as a service

Customers use infrastructure and programming tools supported by the cloud service provider to develop their own applications

Client server computing

Desktops are laptops computers (clients) are networked to powerful server computers that provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities; the 3rd era of IT infrastructure that started in 1983; Its simplest form consists of a client computer networked to a server computer, with a processing split between the two types of machines (two-tiered client/server architecture); Enables businesses to distribute computing work across a series of smaller, inexpensive machines that cost much less than centralized mainframe systems. The result is an explosion in computer power and applications throughout the firm

Client

Desktops or laptops computers that are networks to a powerful server computers; User point of entry

Tablet computers

Devices such as Ipad and digital e-book readers that are becoming an important means of accessing the Internet and are increasingly used for business computing as well as consumer applications

Web browser

Easy to use software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying Web pages and for accessing the Web and other Internet resources; Ex: Firefox, Microsoft Explorer, and Google Chrome

Service level Agreement (SLA)

Formal contract between customers and their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of service expected by the customer; Typically specify the nature and level of services provided, criteria for performance measurement, support options, provisions for security and disaster recovery, hardware and software ownership and upgrades, customer support, billing, and conditions for terminating the agreement

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

Foundation tech. for Web services; Developed in 1966 by the World Wide Web Consortium as a more powerful and flexible markup language than hypertext markup language for Web pages; Can perform presentation, communication, and storage of data; A number in this language can represent a price, date, or a zip code; Makes it possible for computers to manipulate and interpret their data automatically and perform operations on the data without human intervention; Provides a standard format for data exchange, enabling Web services to pass data from one process to another

Application server

If the client request access to a corporate system, the request is passed through here; A serve whose software handles all application operations between a user and an organization's back-end business systems; May reside on the same computer as the Web server or on its own dedicated computer.

Web hosting service

Maintains a large Web server, or series of servers, and provides a fee-paying subscribers with space to maintain their Web servers

Linux

Make up 65% of the corporate servers; Unix operating systems; Inexpensive robust open source relative of Unix; Scalable, reliable, and much less expensive than mainframe operating systems.

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Model can be used to analyze these direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the actual cost of specific technology implementation

Moore's Law

Named after Gordon Moore; 3 variations: 1) The power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months. 2) Computing power doubles every 18 months. 3) The price of computing falls by half every 18 months

Consumerization of IT

New information technology that first emerges in the consumer markets spreads into business organizations; Includes not only mobile personal devices but also business uses of software devices that originated in the consumer marketplace; Forces business, especially large enterprises, to rethink the way they obtain and manage information technology equipment business departments are playing a much larger role in technology selection

Legacy systems

Older transaction processing systems created for mainframe computers that continue to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning them; Replacing these systems is cost prohibitive and generally not necessary if these older systems can be integrated into a contemporary infrastructure

Android

Open source operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google

Private cloud

Operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise; Are able to allocate storage, computing power, or other resources seamlessly to provide computing resources and a cloud service model while retaining control over their own IT infrastructure are gravitating toward these private clouds

Java

Operating system-independent, processor-dependent, objective-oriented programming language that has become the leading interactive environment of the Internet; Designed to run on any computer or computing device, regardless of specific microprocessor or operating system the device uses; Most popular for Android devices

Public cloud

Owned and maintained by a cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web services, and made available to the general public or industry group

Minicomputers

Produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1965; Cheaper than the IBM mainframe and make decentralized computing possible which customized to the specific needs of individual departments or business units rather than time sharing on a single huge mainframe; In recent years, it has evolved into a midrange computer or midrange server and is part of a network.

Chrome OS

Provides a lightweight operating system for cloud computing using a Web-connected computer

Cloud computing

Refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of computing resources (computers, storage, applications,and services) over a network, often the Internet; These resources can access on an as-needed basis from any connected device or location; A model of computing in which computer processing, storage, software, and other services are provided as a pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the internet

Mainframe

Represents the first era of IT infrastructure; Came onto its own thanks to the introduction of the IBM 360 series; The IBM 360 was the first commercial computer with a powerful operating system that could provide time sharing, multitasking, and virtual memory in a more advanced model; Powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals connected to the centralized mainframe using proprietary protocols and proprietary data lines; This era was a period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and systems operators (usually in a corporate data centers), with most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendors, the manufacturer of hardware and software

Windows 8

Runs on Tablet as well as PCs, has a user interface optimized for touch, but also works with mouse and keyboard

Web services

Set of loosely coupled software components that exchange information with each other using universal Web communication standards and language; Allow for info. exchange between 2 different systems regardless of the operating systems or programming languages on which the systems are based; Used to build open standard Web-based applications linking systems of 2 different organizations, and they can also be used to create applications that link disparate systems within a single company; Not tied to any one operating system or programming language. and different applications can use them to communicate with each other in a standard way without time-consuming custom coding

Service-oriented architecture (SOA)

Set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working software application in which business tasks are accomplished by executing a series of these services; Software developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble other applications as needed

Information technology infrastructure

Shared technology resources that provide platform for the firm's specific information systems application; Includes investment in hardware, software, and services like consulting, and training; Provides the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business proccesses

Apps

Small specialized software programs that runs on the Internet, computer, or mobile phone and tablet; Starting to influence the design and function of traditional Web sites as consumers are attracted to the look and feel of apps and their speeds of operation

Open source software

Software produced by a community of several hundred thousand programmers around the world; free and can be modified by users and works derived from the original code must also be free and can be redistributed without additional licensing; Not restricted to any specific operating system or hardware technology, although most is currently based on Linux or Unix operating system

Technology standards

Specifications that establish the compability of products and the ability to communicate in a network; Unleash a powerful economy of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard

Law of Mass digital storage

The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year but the cost of storing it is falling at an exponential rate of 100% a year

Virtualization

The process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as computing power of data storage) so that they can be accessed in ways not restricted by physical or geographical configuration; Enables a single physical resource to appear to the user as multiple logical resources; Also enables multiple physical resources to appear as a single logical source; Most common method of reducing technology costs by providing the ability to host multiple systems on a single physical machine

Multitiered client/server architecture

Used by most businesses; Complex and also known as N-tier client/server architecture; The work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers, depending on the kind of service being requested

Operating systems

Used to manage the resources and activities of the computers; Examples; Windows 8, 7, or Vista

Nanotechnology

Uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit

Quantum computing

Uses the principles of quantum physics to represent data and perform operations on these datas; Emerging technology with the power to find answers to problem that would take conventional computers many years to solve; Gain enormous processing power through the ability to be in many different states at once, allowing it to perform multiple operations simultaneously and solve some scientific and business problems million times faster than can be done today