Chapter 5
Name and describe the three external sources for software.
1. software packages from a commercial software vendor (most ERP systems) - A software package is a prewritten commercially available set of software programs that eliminates the need for a firm to write its own software programs for certain functions, such as payroll processing or order handling. 2. outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor (which may or may not be offshore) - 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. 3. cloud-based software services and tools (SaaS/PaaS) - Cloud-based software and the data it uses are hosted on powerful servers in data centers and can be accessed with an Internet connection and standard web browser. In addition to free or low-cost tools for individuals and small businesses provided by Google or Yahoo, enterprise software and other complex business functions are available as services from the major commercial software vendors.
Define and describe open source software and Linux and explain their business benefits.
A multicore processor is technology that allows multiple processors to be used in one CPU. This enhances performance, reduces power requirements and allows for more efficient processing.
Name and describe the management challenges posed by IT infrastructure.
Creating and maintaining an IT infrastructure raises multiple challenges, including making wise infrastructure investments. IT infrastructure is a major capital investment for the firm. If too much is spent on infrastructure, it lies idle and constitutes a drag on firm financial performance. If too little is spent, important business services cannot be delivered, and the firm's competitors will outperform the under-investing firm. dealing with scalability and technology change. As firms grow, they can quickly outgrow their infrastructure. As firms shrink, they can get stuck with excessive infrastructure purchased in better times. Scalability refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a larger number of users without breaking down. management and governance. Responsibility for controlling and managing the firm's IT infrastructure.
Define Java and HTML5 and explain why they are important.
Java: A programming language that can deliver only the software functionality needed for a particular task, such as a small applet downloaded from a network; can run on any computer and operating system. Java is important because of the dramatic growth of Web applications. HTML5: Next evolution of HTML, which makes it possible to embed images, video, and audio directly into a document without add-on software. Solves the problem of add-ons requiring additional programming and putting strains on computer processing.
Define IT infrastructure from both a technology and a services perspective.
The technical perspective is defined as the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm's specific information system applications. It consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise. The services perspective of IT infrastructure defines it as a set of firm-wide services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical capabilities. It provides the foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business processes.
Explain how businesses can benefit from virtualization, green computing, and multi-core processors.
Virtualization refers to the use of virtual servers, using one physical computer to provide the capabilities of multiple servers, possibly running different operating environments. It means that servers can be accessed without regard to physical location. It allows organizations to reduce costs and to run multiple operating systems (possibly for legacy systems) without additional hardware. Green computing, or green IT, refers to practices and technologies for designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated devices such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems to minimize impact on the environment.
Define and describe web services and the role played by XML.
Web services: Set of universal standards using Internet technology for integrating different applications from different sources without time-consuming custom coding. Used for linking systems of different organizations or for linking disparate systems within the same organization. XML (Extensible Markup Language): The foundation technology for web services. A general-purpose language that describes the structure of a document and can perform the presentation, communication, and storage of data, allowing data to be manipulated by the computer.
Describe Moore's Law and the Law of Mass Digital Storage.
Moore's Law: assertion that the number of components on a chip doubles each year. Law of Mass Digital Storage: the amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year.
Describe how network economics, declining communications costs, and technology standards affect IT infrastructure.
Network economics: Metcalfe and others point to the increasing returns to scale that network members receive as more and more people join the network. As the number of members in a network grows linearly, the value of the entire system grows exponentially and continues to grow as members increase. Declining communications costs: As communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach zero, utilization of communication and computing facilities explode. Technology standards: Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network. Technology standards unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard. Without these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than is currently the case.
Explain how using a competitive forces model and calculating the TCO of technology assets help firms make good infrastructure investments.
The competitive forces model can be used to determine how much to spend on IT infrastructure and where to make strategic infrastructure investments, starting out new infrastructure initiatives with small experimental pilot projects and establishing the total cost of ownership of information technology assets. The total cost of owning technology resources includes not only the original cost of acquiring and installing hardware and software—it also includes the ongoing administration costs for hardware and upgrades, maintenance, technical support, training, and even utility and real estate costs for running and housing the technology. The TCO model can be used to analyze these direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the actual cost of specific technology implementations.
List and describe the components of IT infrastructure that firms need to manage.
computer hardware platforms: ex. IBM, Oracle Sun, HP, Apple operating system platforms: ex. Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, MacOS, Chrome, Android, iOS enterprise software platforms: ex. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM network and telecommunication platforms: ex. Microsoft Windows Server, Linux, Cisco, AT&T, Verizon database management software: ex. IBM, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, Apache, Hadoop internet platforms: ex. Apache, Microsoft IIS, .NET, Unix, Cisco, Java consulting services and system integrators: ex. IBM, HP, Accenture
Describe the evolving mobile platform, consumerization of IT, and cloud computing.
evolving mobile platform: smartphones and tablets are becoming the primary means of accessing the Internet and are increasingly used for business computing as well as for consumer applications. consumerization of IT: new information technology originating in the consumer market that spreads to business organizations. cloud computing: a model of computing in which computer processing, storage, software, and other services are provided as a shared pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the Internet.
List each of the eras in IT infrastructure evolution and describe its distinguishing characteristics.
general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era (1959 to present): a period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and systems operators (usually in a corporate data center), with most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendor, the manufacturer of the hardware and the software. personal computer era (1981 to present): standalone desktop computers with office productivity tools. client/server era (1983 to present): desktop or laptop clients networked to more powerful server computers that handle most of the data management and processing. enterprise computing era (1992 to present): large numbers of PCs linked together into local area networks and growing use of standards and software to link disparate networks and devices into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely across the organization. cloud and mobile computing era (2000 to present): computing power and software applications provided over the Internet.
Define and describe software mashups and apps.
software mashups: composite software applications that depend on high-speed networks, universal communication standards, and open-source code. apps: small, specialized software programs that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your mobile phone or tablet and are generally delivered over the Internet.
Define and describe the following: web server, application server, multitiered client/server architecture.
web server: software that manages requests for web pages on the computer where they are stored and that delivers the page to the user's computer. application server: software that handles all application operations between browser-based computers and a company's back-end business applications or databases. multitiered client/server architecture: client/server network in which the work of the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers.
