MIS Chapter 5

Emergency

a sudden unexpected event requiring immediate action

Vulnerability

a system weakness that can be exploited by a threat

Incident management

the process responsible for managing how incidents are identified and corrected

Cold site

A separate facility that does not have any computer equipment, but is a place where employees can move after a disaster

Warm site

A separate facility with computer equipment that requires installation and configuration

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A service that delivers hardware networking capabilities, including the use of servers, networking, and storage over the cloud using a pay-per-use revenue model.

Failover

A specific type of fault tolerance, occurs when a redundant storage server offers an exact replica of the real-time data and if the primary server crashes the users are automatically directed to the secondary server or backup server.

Supporting change

Agile MIS Infrastructure includes the hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provides the underlying foundation to support the organization's goals.

Web accessibility

Allows people with disabilities to use the Web

Backup

An exact copy of a system's information

Carbon emissions

Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced by business processes and systems. When left on continuously, a single desktop computer and monitor can consume at least 100 watts of power per hour

Disaster recovery cost curve

Charts (1) the cost to the organization of the unavailability of information and technology and (2) the cost to the organization of recovering from a disaster over time

Corporate social responsibility

Companies' acknowledged responsibility to society

Hardware

Consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Delivers applications over the cloud using a pay-per-use revenue model.

Smart grid

Delivers electricity using two-way digital technology.

Capacity planning

Determines future environmental infrastructure requirements to ensure high-quality system performance

Single-tenancy

Each customer or tenant must purchase and maintain an individual system

Reliability

Ensures a system is functioning correctly and providing accurate information. Reliability is another term for accuracy when discussing the correctness of systems within the context of efficiency IT metrics

Supporting operations

Information MIS infrastructure identifies where and how important information, such as customer records, is maintained and secured.

Dynamic scaling

Means that the MIS infrastructure can be automatically scaled up or down based on needed requirements.

Performance

Measures how quickly a system performs a process or transaction

Technology failure

Occurs when the ability of a company to operate is impaired because of a hardware, software, or data outage

Accessibility

Refers to the varying levels that define what a user can access, view, or perform when operating a system

Software

The set of instructions the hardware executes to carry out specific tasks

Cloud fabric

The software that makes possible the benefits of cloud computing, such as multi-tenancy

Availability

Time frames when the system is operational

Incident

Unplanned interruption of a service

Administrator access

Unrestricted access to the entire system

Virtualization

Creates multiple "virtual" machines on a single computing device

Cloud computing

an individual or business pays only for the services they need, when they need them and where, much as we use and pay for electricity. In the past, a company would have to pay millions of dollars for the hardware, software, and networking equipment required to implement a large system such as payroll or sales management. A cloud computing user can simply access the cloud and request a single license to a payroll application. The user does not have to incur any hardware, software, or networking expenses. As the business grows and the user requires more employees to have access to the system, the business simply purchases additional licenses. Rather than running software on a local computer or server, companies can now reach to the cloud to combine software applications, data storage, and considerable computing power.

Emergency preparedness

ensures a company is ready to respond to an emergency in an organized, timely, and effective manner

Sustainable, or "green," MIS

Describes the production, management, use, and disposal of technology in a way that minimizes damage to the environment

MIS infrastructure

Includes the plans for how a firm will build, deploy, use, and share its data, processes, and MIS assets

High availability

System is continuously operational at all times

Recovery

The ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure

Characteristics of an agile MIS infrastructure

Accessibility, Availability, Maintainability, Portability, Reliability, Scalability, Usability

Unavailable

Time frames when a system is not operating and cannot be used

Usability

The degree to which a system is easy to learn and efficient and satisfying to use

Hot site

A separate and fully equipped facility where the company can move immediately after a disaster and resume business

Grid computing

A collection of computers, often geographically dispersed, that are coordinated to solve a common problem. With grid computing a problem is broken into pieces and distributed to many machines, allowing faster processing than could occur with a single system. Computers typically use less than 25 percent of their processing power, leaving more than 75 percent available for other tasks. Innovatively, grid computing takes advantage of this unused processing power by linking thousands of individual computers around the world to create a "virtual supercomputer" that can process intensive tasks

Network

A communications system created by linking two or more devices and establishing a standard methodology in which they can communicate

Server

A computer dedicated to providing information in response to requests.

Client

A computer designed to request information from a server.

Disaster recovery plan

A detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood. Hurricanes, floods, fires, and many other types of natural disasters can have devastating effects on businesses.

Data center

A facility used to house management information systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems

Fault tolerance

A general concept that a system has the ability to respond to unexpected failures or system crashes as the backup system immediately and automatically takes over with no loss of service.

Enterprise architect

A person grounded in technology, fluent in business, and able to provide the important bridge between MIS and the business

Business continuity planning (BCP)

A plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical function(s) within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption

Maintainability

How quickly a system can transform to support environmental changes. Organizations must watch today's business, as well as tomorrow's, when designing and building systems. Systems must be flexible enough to meet all types of business changes

Serviceability

How quickly a third-party can change a system to ensure it meets user needs and the terms of any contracts, including agreed levels of reliability, maintainability, or availability

Scalability

How well a system can scale up, or adapt to the increased demands of growth

Business impact analysis

Identifies all critical business functions and the effect that a specific disaster may have upon them

Three Primary Side Effects Of Businesses' Expanded Use Of Technology

Increased Electronic Waste, Increased Energy Consumption, and Increased Carbon Emissions

Failback

Occurs when the primary machine recovers and resumes operations taking over from the secondary server. A single backup or restore failure can cost an organization more than time and money; some data cannot be recreated, and the business intelligence lost from that data can be tremendous. Chief information officers (CIO) should have enough confidence in their backup and recovery systems that they could walk around and randomly pull out cables to prove that the systems are safe. The CIO should also be secure enough to perform this test during peak business hours.

Utility computing

Offers a pay-per-use revenue model similar to a metered service such as gas or electricity.

Hardware failures come from

One of the most common types of hardware failures occurs from rats, mice, and squirrels chewing on cords, cables, and devices.

There are four primary cloud computing environments

Public cloud, Private cloud, Community cloud, Hybrid cloud

Sustainable data centers

Reduces carbon emissions, Reduces required floor Space, Chooses Geographic location

Ewaste

Refers to discarded, obsolete or broken electronic devices

Moore's Law

Refers to the computer chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months

Sustainable MIS disposal

Refers to the safe disposal of MIS assets at the end of their life cycle

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Supports the deployment of entire systems including hardware, networking, and applications using a pay-per-use revenue model.

Supporting the environment

Sustainable MIS infrastructure identifies ways that a company can grow in terms of computing resources while simultaneously becoming less dependent on hardware and energy consumption.

Portability

The ability of an application to operate on different devices or software platforms

Energy consumption

The amount of energy consumed by business processes and systems. Huge increases in technology use have greatly amplified energy consumption. The energy consumed by a computer is estimated to produce as much as 10 percent of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by an automobile

Multi-tenancy

The cloud means that a single instance of a system serves multiple customers