Info Systems Quiz 5

Defining IT infrastructure

computing platforms, telecommunications services, data management services, application software services, physical facilities management services, IT management services, IT standards services, IT education services, IT research and development services

Evolution of IT infrastructure (five eras)

general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing, personal computers, client/server networks, enterprise computing, and cloud and mobile computing

Mainframe

largest category of computer, used for major business processing

era was a period of highly centralized computing under the control of professional programmers and system operators with most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendor

Minicomputers 

middle-range computers used in systems for universities, factories, and research laboratories 

made decentralized computing possible and customized to the specific needs of individual departments or business units rather than sharing on a single huge mainframe 

Wintel PC

Any computer that uses intel microprocessors (or compatible processors) and a Windows operating system

Client/server computing 

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

Client

the user point-of-entry for the required function in client/server computing. normally a desktop computer, workstation, or laptop computer

Server

computer specifically optimized to provide software and other resources to other computers over a network

typically processes and stores shared data, serves up web pages, or manages network activities.

two-tiered client/server architecture

simplest client/server network consists of a client computer networked to a server computer, with processing split between the two types of machines

multitiered client/ server architectures (n-tier client/serve architectures)

client/server network in which the work of the entire network is balanced over several different level of servers, depending on the kind of service being requested

web server

software that manages requests for web pages on the computer where they are stored and that delivers the page to the user’s computer

application server

handles all application operations between a user and an organization’s back-end business systems and between browser based computers

Windows

Microsoft family of operating systems for both network servers and client computers

Cloud Computing

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

Moore’s Law

assertion that the number of components on a chip doubles each year

computing power doubles each year

Nanotechnology

technology that builds structures and processes based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules

Law of Mass Digital Storage

the amount of data being stored each year doubles

Metcalfe’s Law and network economics

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

technology standards

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

unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines

Components of IT infrastructure

computer hardware platforms, operating system platforms, enterprise software applications, data management and storage, networking/telecommunications platforms, internet platforms,consulting system integration services

Unix

operating systems for all types of computers, which is machine independent and supports multiuser processing, multitasking, and networking

used in high end servers and workstations

Linux

reliable and compactly designed operating system that is an offshoot of UNIX and that can run on many different hardware platforms and is available free or at very low cost, alternative to UNIX

Operating System

software that manages the resources and activities of the computer

Multitouch

interface that features the use of one or more finger gestures to manipulate lists or objects on a screen without using a mouse or a keyboard 

web hosting service

company with large web server computers to maintain the websites of fee-paying subscribers

legacy systems

a system that has been in existence for a long time and that continues to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning it