Chapter 5

• IT Infrastructure


  The components that make up a firm's technology platform, including hardware, software, data management, networking, and technology services
• Components of IT infrastructure

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Data management technology
  • Networking technology
  • Technology services
• Hardware


  Technology for computer processing, data storage, input and output
• Software


  System software - Manages the resources and activities of the computer

  Application software - Applies the computer to a specific task for an end user
• Data management


  Organises, manages and processes business data concerned with inventory, customers & vendors
• Networking


  Data, voice & video connectivity to employers, customers & suppliers
• Services


  Business need people to run and manage infrastructure components - sometimes these are external consultants
• Types of computers


  • Personal computers (PC)

  Mobile devices (smartphones, tablets)

  Workstations

  Servers

  Mainframes

  Supercomputers

  Grid computing
• Servers


  • Support computer network, sharing files and resources

  Provide hardware platform for e-commerce
• Mainframes


  • Large-capacity, high-performance computer that can process large amounts of data very rapidly

  Used by airlines to handle thousands of reservations per second
• Supercomputers


  • More sophisticated computer used for tasks requiring extremely rapid and complex calculations with thousands of variables, millions of measurements

  Used in engineering, scientific simulations, military/weapons research, weather forecasting
• Grid computing


  • Power of geographically remote computers connected into single network to act as "virtual supercomputer"

  By using the combined power of thousands of PCs, the grid can solve complicated problems at supercomputer speeds at far lower costs
• Client/server computing


  Form of distributed computing (multiple computers linked by a communications network)

  Splits processing between "clients" (user point of entry) and "servers" (store and process shared data and perform network management activities)
• Two-tiered client/server architecture


  • Uses two types of machines
• Multi-tiered client/server architecture (N-tier)


  • Balances load of network over several levels of servers

  Example: Web servers and application servers
• Web server


  Will serve a web page to a client & manages stored web pages
• Application server


  Handles all application operations between the user and the back end system
• Primary secondary storage technologies

  • Magnetic disk: Hard drives, USB flash drives, Solid state drives (SSDs)

  Optical disks: CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-RW

  Universal Serial Bus (USB)

  Magnetic tape
• Storage networking: SANs


  • Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage
• Input devices


  • Keyboard

  Computer mouse

  Touch screen

  Pen-based input

  Optical character recognition

  Magnetic ink character recognition

  Digital scanner

  Audio input

  Sensors
• SAN (Storage Area Network)

  A typical SAN consists of a server, storage devices, and networking devices, and is used strictly for storage. The SAN stores data on many different types of storage devices, providing data to the enterprise. The SAN supports communication between any server and the storage unit as well as between different storage devices in the network.
• Input devices


  • Keyboard
  • Computer mouse
  • Touch screen
  • Pen-based input
  • Optical character recognition
  • Magnetic ink character recognition
  • Digital scanner
  • Audio input
  • Sensors
• Input devices


  Gather data and convert them into electronic form
• Output devices


  • Monitor (flat-panel, CRT)
  • Printer (impact, nonimpact)
  • Audio output
• Mobile digital platform


  • Mobile devices
  • Smartphone
  • Netbooks
  • Tablet computers
  • E-book readers
• Consumerization of IT


  New technology that emerges in consumer market spreads into business organizations
• BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)


  Business use of personal mobile devices
• Nanotechnology


  Uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices thousands for times smaller than current technologies. Increases processing power while shrinking chip size.
• Nanotubes


  • Tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, consisting of rolled up sheets of carbon hexagons, with potential uses as minuscule wires or in ultrasmall electronic devices, and are very powerful conductors of electrical current.
• Quantum computing


  Uses principles of quantum physics to represent data and perform operations on the data, enabling processing times that are millions of times faster than current high-speed processing.
• Virtualization


  Process of presenting a set of computing resources so they can be accessed in ways that are unrestricted by physical configuration or geographic location. Enables single physical resource to appear to the user as multiple resources. Enables companies to host multiple systems on single machine.
• Cloud computing models


  • Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
  • Cloud platform as a service (PaaS)
  • Cloud software as a service (SaaS)
  • Public clouds
  • Private clouds
• Cloud computing


  A model of computing in which firms and individuals obtain computing resources over the Internet. Enables utility computing and on-demand computing. Data storage security is in hands of provider.
• In cloud computing, hardware and software capabilities are provided as services over the Internet. Businesses and employees have access to applications and IT infrastructure anywhere at any time using an Internet-connected device.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a collection of web services that Amazon provides to users of its cloud platform.
• System software


  Consisting of operating systems, language translators, and utility programs, controls access to the hardware.
• Application software


  Including programming languages and "fourth-generation" languages, must work through the system software to operate.
• Operating systems


  • Windows (Windows 10)
  • Mac (OSX Lion)
  • UNIX
  • Linux (open source)
  • Chrome
  • Android
  • iOS
• Programming languages for business

  • C
  • C++
  • Visual Basic
  • Java
• Software packages and desktop productivity tools

  • Word processing software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Data management software
  • Presentation graphics
  • Software suites
  • Web browsers