Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

IT infrastructure

IT infrastructure

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

Computing platforms

used to provide computing services that connect employees, customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital environment

Telecommunications services

provide data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers

Data management services

store and manage corporate data and provide capabilities for analyzing the data

Application software services

provide enterprise-wide capabilities such as enterprise resource planning

Physical facilities management services

develop and manage the physical installations required for computing, telecommunications, and data management services

IT management services

plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate with the business units for IT services

IT standards services

t provide the firm and its business units with policies that determine which information technology will be used

IT education services

provide training in system use to employees and offer managers training in how to plan for and manage IT investments

IT research and development services

t provide the firm with research on potential future IT projects and investments that could help the firm differentiate itself in the marketplace

mainframe era

period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and systems operators

minicomputers

offered powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM mainframes

Moore's Law

(1) the power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months; (2) computing power doubles every 18 months; and (3) the price of computing falls by half every 18 months.

Nanotechnology

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

Metcalfe's Law and Network Economics

the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members

The Law of Mass Digital Storage

The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year

technology standards

are specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network

Linux

an inexpensive and robust open source relative of Unix

operating system

manage the resources and activities of the computer

Android

an open source operating system for mobile devices

Google's Chrome OS

provides a lightweight operating system for cloud computing using netbooks

iOS

the operating system for the phenomenally popular Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

multitouch

users employ one or more fingers to manipulate objects on a screen without a mouse or keyboard

Storage area networks (SANs)

connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage

Web hosting service

maintains a large Web server, or series of servers, and provides fee-paying subscribers with space to maintain their Web sites

Legacy systems

are generally older transaction processing systems created for mainframe computers that continue to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning them

Software integration

ensuring the new infrastructure works with the firm's older, so-called legacy systems and ensuring the new elements of the infrastructure work with one another

BYOD MEANS

"bring your own device"

BYOD

aspect of the consumerization of IT, in which new information technology that first emerges in the consumer market spreads into business organizations

Grid computing

involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid

Virtualization

the process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as computing power or data storage) so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not restricted by physical configuration or geographic location

CLOUD COMPUTING

s a model of computing in which computer processing, storage, software, and other services are provided as a pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the Internet

public cloud

owned and maintained by a cloud service provider

private cloud

operated solely for an organization

hybrid cloud

computing model where they use their own infrastructure for their most essential core activities and adopt public cloud computing for less-critical systems or for additional processing capacity during peak business periods

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 the impact on the environment

multicore processor

an integrated circuit to which two or more processor cores have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks

Edge Computing

servers at the edge of the internet

Autonomic computing

industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction

Open source software

software produced by a community of several hundred thousand programmers around the world

Java

an operating system-independent, processor-independent, object-oriented programming language that has become the leading interactive environment for the Web and was created by Jamed Gosling

Web browser

an easy-to-use software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying Web pages and for accessing the Web and other Internet resources

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

a page description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page and for creating dynamic links to other Web pages and objects

Web services

refer to a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange information with each other using universal Web communication standards and languages

Extensible Markup Language

was developed in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, the international body that oversees the development of the Web) as a more powerful and flexible markup language than hypertext markup language (HTML) for Web pages

serviceoriented architecture (SOA)

is set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working software application

software package

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

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

software as a service (SaaS).

Services for delivering and providing access to software remotely as a Web-based service

a service level agreement (SLA)

is a formal contract between customers and their service providers that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of service expected by the customer

mashups

individual users and entire companies mix and match these software components to create their own customized applications and to share information with others

Apps

small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your mobile phone or tablet and are generally delivered over the Interne

Scalability

refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number of users without breaking down

total cost of ownership (TCO)

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

Quantum computing

-Uses quantum physics to represent and operate on data
-Dramatic increases in computing speed