Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

Client

Desktop or laptop computers -user point of entry

6. Internet platforms

Hardware, software, management services to support company websites, intranets internet hardware server market web development tools/suites

ubiquitous network access

cloud resources can be accessed using standard network and internet devices, including mobile platforms

Multitiered (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 system

to manage the resources and activities of the computer

2) Consumerization of IT and BYOD

-Bring your own device -new information technology that first emerges in the consumer market spreads into business organizations -forces businesses and IT departments to rethink how IT equipment and services are acquired and managed

7) High Performance, Power-saving processors

-Multicore processors: integrated circuit to which 2 or more processor cords have been attached for enhanced performance -power efficient microprocessors

6) Green Computing (Green IT)

-Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of computing and networking hardware -Reducing power consumption a high priority -Data centers

1 - Dealing with platform and infrastructure change

-as firms shrink or grow, IT needs to be flexible and scalable -for mobile computing and cloud computing: new policies and procedures for managing these new platforms, contractural agreements with firms running clouds and distributing software required

5) Cloud Computing

-on demand computing services obtained over network (infrastructure, software, platform) -cloud can be public or private -allows companies to minimize IT investments -Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability -Hybrid Cloud computing model

Cloud Computing Essential Characteristics

-on demand self-service -ubiquitous network access -location-independent resource pooling -rapid elasticity -measured service

4) Virtualization

-process of presenting a set of computing resources so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. -allows single physical resource to act as multiple resources (run multiple instances of OS) -reduces hardware and power expenditures -facilitates hardware centralization -software defined storage (SDS)

SOA Service Oriented architecture

-set of self contained services that communicate with one another to create a working software app -software developers raise these services in other combinations to assemble other apps as needed

1 Linux and Open-source software

-software produced by a community of several hundred thousand programmers around the world -Linux: leading operating system for servers, mainframe computers, and supercomputers -EX. Mozilla Firefox browser, open office, Linux

3 - Making wise infrastructure investments

-under investment and over investment can hamper firm performance -rent vs buy -cloud computing: security requirements, impact on business processors and workflow -outsourcing

3) Quantum computing

-uses quantum physic to represent and operate on data -dramatic increases in computing speed

4 Major Themes in contemporary software platform evolution

1 Linux and open source software 2 Java, HTML, and HTML5 3 Web services and service-oriented architecture 4 Software outsourcing and cloud services

3 Challenges of Managing IT Infrastructure and Management solutions

1. Dealing w/ platform and infrastructure change 2. mangement and governance 3. Making wise infrastructure investments

Cloud computing consists of 3 different types of services

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) 2. Software as a service (SaaS) 3. Platform as a service (PaaS)

Competitive Forces Model for IT Infrastructure Investment

1. Market demand for your firms services 2. Firms business strategy 3. Firms IT strategy, business infrastructure, and cost 4. IT assessment 5. Competitor firm services 6. Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments Answers how much should our firm spend on IT infrastructure?

Total Cost Ownership (TCO) Model

Analyzes indirect and direct costs Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO TCO can be reduced.

3. Platform as a service (PaaS)

Customers use infrastructure and programming tools supported by the cloud service provider to develop their own applications IBM offers Bluemix service software for development and testing on the IBM cloud.

2. Software as a service (SaaS)

Customers use software hosted by the vendor on the vendor's cloud infrastructure and delivered as a service over a network Google Apps, Salesforce.com

1. Computer Hardware Platforms

Dell, IBM, Oracle, HP, Apple Client machines Servers Mainframes

2 HTML and HTML5

Hypertext markup language, a page description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are place don a webpage and for creating dynamic links to other webpages and objects

The IT Infrastructure Ecosystem (7)

Internet Platforms Computer Hardware platforms Operating systems platforms Enterprise software applications Networking/telecommunications Consultants and system integrators Data management and storage

Evolution of IT Infrastructure

Mainframe/Minicomputers Personal Computer Client/server Enterprise computing Cloud computing

2. Operating System Platforms

Microsoft, Unix, Linux, Mac OX, Android corporate servers -windows servers client levels - Microsoft, Android

2 Java

Operating system independent, processor independent, object oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems that has become the leading interactive programming environment for the web

3. Enterprise Software Applications

SAP, Oracle, Microsoft 2016 = 321 billion on software for enterprise applications largest providers: SAP and Oracle middleware providers: IBM, Oracle

7 Hardware trends

The mobile digital platform, Consumerization if IT and BYOD, Quantum computing, Virtualization, Cloud computing, Green computing, High-performance/power-saving processors

Moore's Law

The rate of growth doubles every two years. 3 variations 1. power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months 2. computing power doubles every 18 months 3 price of computing falls by half every 18 months

2 Web browser

an easy to use software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying webpages and accessing internet

Android

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

Technology Standards

are specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network. -unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard.

Measured service

charges for cloud resources are based on amount of resources actually used.

Location-independent resource pooling

computing resources are pooled to serve multiple users, with different virtual resources dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally does not know where the computing resources are located

Rapid elasticity

computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand

on demand self-service

consumers can obtain computing capabilities such as server time or network storage as needed automatically on their own

1. Infrastructure as a service IaaS

consumers use processing, storage, networking, and other computing resources from cloud service providers to run their information systems Amazon uses Simple Storage Service and Elastic Compute Cloud services

4. Data management and storage

database software provides physical data storage for large scale systems

4 Software outsourcing

enables a firm to contract custom software development or maintenance of existing legacy programs to outside firms, which often operate offshore in low-wage areas of the world

7. Consulting and system integration services

even large firms do not have resources for full range of support for new, complex infrastructure -leading consulting firms: Accenture, IBM, HP... -software integration: ensuring new infrastructure works with legacy systems -legacy systems: older TPs created for mainframes that would be too costly.

4 Service Level agreement (SLA)

formal agreement between customers and their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of services provided

Legacy systems

generally 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 contemporary infrastructure.

application server

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.

Robert Metcalfe

inventor of Ethernet local area network technology, claimed that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members.

Web hosting service

maintains a large web server, or series of servers, and provides fee-paying subscribers with space to maintain their websites

5. Networking/ telecommunications platform

network operating systems network hardware providers telecommunications services

Private Cloud

operated solely for an organization. May be managed by the organization or a third party and may be hosted either internally or externally.

iOS

operating system for the phenomenally popular Apple products

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

4 Software package

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

Server

provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities -refers to both the software application and the physical computer on which the network software runs.

Cloud computing

refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of computing resources (computers, storage, applications, and services) over the network, often the Internet. -the fastest growing form of computing.

web server

serve a webpage to a client in response to a request for service. -responsible for locating and managing stored webpages.

1) Mobile Digital Platform

smartphones, netbooks, tablets, digital e-book readers, wearable devices

Scalability

the ability to expand and serve large number of users

Law of Mass Digital Storage

the amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year. The cost of storing digital information is falling at an exponential rate of 100% a year. the number of megabytes that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 from 1950 to the present roughly doubled every 15 months. in 2016, a 500 gigabyte hard disk drive sells at retail for about $50

Multitouch interface

users employ one or more fingers to manipulate objects on a screen without a mouse or keyboard

Nanotechnology

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

3 Web services and Service Oriented Architecture

web services loosely coupled software componenets that exchange information with eachother -XML= extensible markup language -SOA= Service oriented architecture

Hybrid Cloud Computing Model

where they use their own infrastructure for their most essential core activities and adopt public cloud computing for less-critical systems or for additional processing capacity during peak business periods.

Software defined storage

which separates the software for managing data storage from storage hardware.

2 - Management and Governance

who controls IT infrastructure? How should IT department be managed? - Centralized, central IT departments makes decisions Decentralized, business unit IT departments makes own decisions How are costs allocated between divisions, departments?