ITM100 Chapter 5: Infrastructure and platforms sustainable technologies

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the 'Infrastructures and Platforms: Sustainable Technologies' lecture, including MIS infrastructure types, support operations, disaster recovery, business continuity, and agile MIS infrastructure characteristics.

Client

A computer designed to request information from a server.

Server

A computer dedicated to providing information in response to requests.

MIS infrastructure

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

Information MIS Infrastructure

Supports operations by providing plans for system backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

Agile MIS Infrastructure

Supports change by providing characteristics like accessibility, availability, maintainability, portability, reliability, scalability, and usability.

Sustainable MIS infrastructure

Supports the environment through environmentally friendly processes and resources.

Backup

An exact copy of a system’s information.

Recovery

The ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure.

Disaster recovery plan

A detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood.

Disaster recovery cost curve

Charts the cost to an organization of unavailability of information and technology versus the cost to recover from a disaster over time.

Hot site

A separate and fully equipped facility where a 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.

Business continuity planning (BCP)

A plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical function(s) within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption.

Emergency

A sudden unexpected event requiring immediate action.

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.

Technology failure

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

Incident

An unplanned interruption of a service.

Incident management

The process responsible for managing how incidents are identified and corrected.

Accessibility

The varying levels that define what a user can access, view, or perform when operating a system.

Web accessibility

Allows people with disabilities to use the Web.

Administrator access

Unrestricted access to the entire system.

Availability

The time frames when a system is operational.

Unavailable

Time frames when a system is not operating and cannot be used.

High availability

A system that is continuously operational at all times.

Maintainability

How quickly a system can transform to support environmental changes.

Portability

The ability of an application to operate on different devices or software platforms.

Reliability

Ensures a system is functioning correctly and providing accurate information; another term for accuracy in IT metrics.

Vulnerability

A system weakness that can be exploited by a threat.

Scalability

How well a system can scale up, or adapt to the increased demands of growth.

Performance

Measures how quickly a system performs a process or transaction.

Capacity planning

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

Usability

The degree to which a system is easy to learn and efficient and satisfying to use.

Serviceability

How quickly a third-party can change a system to ensure it meets user needs and contract terms.