MIs Chapter 5

Cloud bursting

When a company uses its own computing infrastructure for normal usage and accesses the cloud when it needs to scale for peak load requirements, ensuring a sudden spike in usage does not result in poor performance or system crashes

disaster recovery cost curve

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

Storage virtualization

combines multiple network storage devices so they appear to be a single storage device

Network virtualization

combines networks by splitting the available bandwidth into independent channels that can be assigned in real time to a specific device

Server virtualization

combines the physical resources, such as servers, processors, and operating systems, from the applications

hardware

consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system

Virtualization

creates multiple "virtual" machines on a single computing device; a good analogy is a computer printer

smart grid

delivers electricity using two-way digital technology; it is meant to solve the problem of the world's outdated electrical grid, making it more efficient and reliable by adding the ability to remotely monitor, analyze, and control the transmission of power

Sustainable, or green, MIS

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

Emergency preparedness

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

business impact analysis

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

Grid computing

is a collection of computers, often geographically dispersed, that are coordinated to solve a common problem

cloud computing

is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction

vulnerability

is a system weakness, such as a password that is never changed or a system left on while an employee goes to lunch, that can be exploited by a threat; reliable systems ensure that _____ are kept at a minimum to reduce risk

cloud fabric controller

is an individual who monitors and provisions cloud resources, similar to a server administrator at an individual company

Energy consumption

is the amount of energy consumed by business processes and systems

software

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

cloud fabric

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

Multi-tenancy in the cloud

means that a single instance of a system serves multiple customers

technology failure

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

Failback

occurs when the primary machine recovers and resumes operations, taking over from the secondary server

Utility computing

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

Public cloud

promotes massive, global, and industrywide applications offered to the general public; customers are never required to provision, manage, upgrade, or replace hardware or software; Pricing is utility-style and customers pay only for the resources they use.; its the type used by service providers to offer free or paid-for services to the general public. They are open, but often with standard restrictions requiring passwords ex. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Windows Azure, and Google Cloud Connect.

Ewaste

refers to discarded, obsolete, or broken electronic devices; includes CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, printer cartridges, cell phones, iPods, external hard drives, TVs, VCRs, DVD players, microwaves, and so o

Maintainability (or flexibility)

refers to how quickly a system can transform to support environmental changes; _____ helps to measure how quickly and effectively a system can be changed or repaired after a failure

Sustainable MIS disposal

refers to the safe disposal of MIS assets at the end of their life cycle; ensures that ewaste does not end up in landfills causing environmental issues

upcycle

reuses or refurbishes ewaste and creates a new product

Community cloud

serves a specific community with common business models, security requirements, and compliance considerations; Community clouds are emerging in highly regulated industries such as financial services and pharmaceutical companies

Private cloud

serves only one customer or organization and can be located on the customer's premises or off the customer's premises; optimal solution for an organization such as the government that has high data security concerns and values information privacy; far more expensive than public clouds because costs are not shared across multiple customers

unavailable

when it is not operating and cannot be used

corporate social responsibility

Companies' acknowledged responsibility to society

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Delivers hardware networking capabilities, including the use of servers, networking, and storage, over the cloud using a pay-per-use revenue model

Scalability

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

business continuity planning (BCP)

Details how a company recovers and restores critical business operations and systems after a disaster or extended disruption, ______ includes such factors as identifying critical systems, business processes, departments, and the maximum amount of time the business can continue to operate without functioning systems

Capacity planning

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

Reliability (or accuracy)

Ensures a system is functioning correctly and providing accurate information

Data as a Service (DaaS)

Facilitates the accessibility of business-critical data in a timely, secure, and affordable manner; depends on the principle that specified, useful data can be supplied to users on demand, irrespective of any organizational or geographical separation between consumers and providers

Technology recovery strategies

Focus specifically on prioritizing the order for restoring hardware, software, and data across the organization that best meets business recovery requirements

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

single-tenancy

In which each customer or tenant must purchase and maintain an individual system

carbon emissions

Includes the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, produced by business processes and systems

MIS infrastructure

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

Moore's Law

Refers to the computer chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months. Although ____ originally assumed a two-year period, many sources today refer to the 18-month figure

Availability

Refers to the time frames when the system is operational

Accessibility

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

Fault tolerance

The ability for a system to respond to unexpected failures or system crashes as the backup system immediately and automatically takes over with no loss of service

Recovery

The ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure that includes restoring the information backup

System virtualization

The ability to present the resources of a single computer as if it is a collection of separate computers ("virtual machines"), each with its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage, and operating system

Usability

The degree to which a system is easy to learn and efficient and satisfying to use; providing hints, tips, shortcuts, and instructions for any system, regardless of its ease of use, is recommended

Incident management

The process responsible for managing how incidents are identified and corrected

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

Clean computing

A subset of sustainable MIS, refers to the environmentally responsible use, manufacture, and disposal of technology products and computer equipment.

emergency

A sudden, unexpected event requiring immediate action due to potential threat to health and safety, the environment, or property

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

backup

An exact copy of a system's information

emergency notification service

An infrastructure built for notifying people in the event of an emergency

web accessibility initiative (WAI)

Brings together people from industry, disability organizations, government, and research labs from around the world to develop guidelines and resources to help make the web accessible to people with disabilities, including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities

green personal computer (green PC)

Built using environment-friendly materials and designed to save energy

incidents

Unplanned interruption of a service

administrator access

Unrestricted access to the entire system

Performance

Measures how quickly a system performs a process or transaction

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 a system in the event of a catastrophic disaster; includes such factors as which files and systems need to have backups and their corresponding frequency and methods along with the strategic location of the storage in a separate physical site that is geographically dispersed

Date center

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

enterprise architect

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

hot site

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

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

information infrastructure provides three primary elements

Backup and recovery plan. Disaster recovery plan. Business continuity plan

Software as a Service (SaaS)

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

Hybrid cloud

Includes two or more private, public, or community clouds, but each cloud remains separate and is only linked by technology that enables data and application portability; ex. a company might use a private cloud for critical applications that maintain sensitive data and a public cloud for nonsensitive data applications; the usage of both private and public clouds together is an example of a hybrid cloud

Supporting operations

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

dynamic scaling

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

Big Data as a Service (BDaaS)

Offers a cloud-based Big Data service to help organizations analyze massive amounts of data to solve business dilemmas; is a somewhat nebulous term often used to describe a wide variety of outsourcing of various Big Data functions to the cloud. This can range from the supply of data, to the supply of analytical tools with which to interrogate the data (often through a web dashboard or control panel) to carrying out the actual analysis and providing reports

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

Offers backup services that use cloud resources to protect applications and data from disruption caused by disaster

Web accessibility

People with disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities, can use the web

Portability

Refers to the ability of an application to operate on different devices or software platforms, such as different operating systems

Capacity

Represents the maximum throughput a system can deliver; for example, the capacity of a hard drive represents its size or volume

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Supports the deployment of entire systems, including hardware, networking, and applications, using a pay-per-use revenue model; is a perfect solution for a business because it passes on to the service provider the headache and challenges of buying, managing, and maintaining web development software

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