Chapter 5

Wintel PC

A Windows Operating System software on a computer with an Intel microprocessor

Metcalfe's Law

A network's value to participants grows exponentially as the network takes on more members

Java

An operating system (and hardware) independent programming language that is the leading interactive programming environment for the Web

On-Demand computing

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

IT infrastructure

Consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise

IBM DB@, Oracles, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, EMC, Apache, Hadoop

Data Management and storage

Law of Mass Digital Storage

Deals with the exponential decrease in the cost of storing data, stating that the number of kilobytes of data that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 roughly doubles every 15 months

Moore's Law

Exponential increase in processing power and decline in the cost of computer technology, stating that every 18 months, the power of microprocessors doubles and the price of computing falls in half

Cloud Computing

Firms and individuals obtain computing power and software as services over a network, including the Internet, rather than purchasing and installing the hardware and software on their own computers

Mainframe

Highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and system operators - Most elements provided by the manufacturer of the hardware and the software

Cloud-based software service

Instead of buying and installing software programs, subscribing companies rent the same functions from these services, with users paying on wither a subscription or per-transaction basis

Apache, Microsoft IIS, .NET, Unix, Cisco, and Java

Internet Platforms

IT Infrastructure

Shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm's specific information system applications

Service-Oriented Architecture

Software architecture of a firm built on a collection of software programs that communicate with each other to perform assigned tasks to create a working software application

Application server

Software that handles all application operations between browser-based computers and a company's back-end business applications or databases

Operating System

Software that manages the resources and activities of the computer

Application Server

Software the handles all application operations between browser-based computers and a company's back-end business applications or databases

Total Cost of Ownership

Used to analyze direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the actual cost of specific technology implementations

Nanotechnology

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

Hybrid Cloud Computing

Where a large firm uses it own infrastructure for its most essential core activities and adopts public cloud computing for less-critical systems or for additional processing capacity during peak business periods

Software as a Service (SaaS)

it consists of services for delivering a providing access to software remotely as a Web-based service

Competitive Forces Model

used to determine how much to spend on IT infrastructure and where to make strategic infrastructure investments

Minicomputer

1965 Powerful machines at a far lower price than a mainframe - made decentralized computing possible -customized to the specific needs of individual departments or business units rather than time sharing on a single mainframe

Web Services

Loosely coupled software components based on open Web standards that work with any application software and operating system

Client/server computing

Model for computing that splits processing between clients and servers on a network, assigning functions to the machine most able to perform the function

Private Cloud

Operated solely for an organization

Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, Chrome, Android, and iOS

Operating systems platforms

Virtualization

Organizes computing resources so that their use is not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location

Internet Platforms

Overlap with, and must relate to, the firm's general network infrastructure and hardware and software platforms

Public Cloud

Owned and maintained by a cloud service provider and made available to the general public or an industry group

Threat to Wintel

People own smartphones and access the internet from there

Mainframe Era

Period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and system operators

Software Package

Prewritten commercially available set of software programs that eliminates the need for a firm to write its own software for certain functions, such as payroll processing or order handling

Software outsourcing

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