Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure

Question 1

Define IT infrastructure

Answer 1

Shared tech resources that provide the platform for a firm’s specific information system application

Question 2

What are components of IT infrastructure?

Answer 2

• computer hardware platforms
• operating system platforms
• enterprise software platforms
• networking & telcom platforms
• data management software
• Internet platforms
• consulting services & system integrators

Question 3

What are the 5 stages of IT infrastructure evolution?

Answer 3

1. mainframe & minicomputer era (1959 - present)
   –> centralized computing (largest computer category)
2. personal computer era (1981 - present)
   –> Wintel stardard personal desktop combination, stand-alone systems, development of software tools
3. client (desktop/ laptop computer)/ server (powerful computers) era (1983 - present)
   –> two-tiered & multitiered client/server architecture, Internet as largest implementation
4. enterprise computing era (1992 - present)
   –> free flow of information in an enterprise-wide network based on pieces of computer hardware & smaller networks
5. cloud & mobile computing era (2000 - present)
   –> delivery of computing services (servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence) over the Internet

Question 3

What does Moore’s Law state?

Answer 3

Every 18 months the power of microprocessors & computers doubles & the price of computing falls in half
–> strictly views not valid, because computational power mainly driven by advances in supercomputers, cloud computing & new ways of writing software

Question 4

What does the Law of Digital Storage state?

Answer 4

• exponential decrease in the cost of storing data with the number of kilobytes of data that can be stored for 1$ roughly doubling every 15 months
• annual exponential increase in amout of digital information produced worldwide

Question 5

What does Metcalfe’s law state?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What drives the increasing computer use?

Answer 6

• rapid decline in costs
• growing agreement in the tech industry to use certain computing & communication standars

Question 7

What are the main trends in computer hardware platforms (7)?

Answer 7

• mobile digital platform
• quantum computing: ability to be in more than one state at the same time
• comsumerization of IT (Gartner): business use of IT that originated in the consumer market (e.g. WhatsApp for business)
• cloud computing: computing power & software as services over a network (incl. Internet) without purchasing & installing hard- & software
• edge computing (emerging paradigm in IS): optimizing cloud computing by performing data processing closer to the data source enabling processing at greater speeds & volumes
• green computing: practices & tech for producing, using & disposing of IT hardware in a sustainable way
• multicore processors: microprocessors with multiple cores for enhanced performance

Question 8

What are the main computer software platforms (5)?

Answer 8

• open source software: downloadable for free, high transparency, produced 6 maintained by global community of programmers
• Linux: powerful, resilient open source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms
• Java & JavaScript: provide softare for making web applications more interactive
• HTML5: enabling embedded images, audio & video directly in web documents without add-on programs
• web services: loosely coupled software components based on open web standards that work with any application software & operating system

Question 9

What are the main trends in computer software platforms (7)?

Answer 9

• online software services as a service (SaaS): License & distribution model with which software applications are offered via the Internet, i.e. abonnements
• infrastructure as a service (IaaS): on-demand access to computing resources such as servers, storage, networking, and virtualization
• platform as a service (PaaS): complete cloud platform consisting of hardware, software and infrastructure for the development, execution and management of applications
• software mashups
• apps
• service-oriented architecture (SOA): set of self-contained services that communicate with one another to create working software application
• enterprise applications

Question 10

Challenges of managing IT infrastructure?

Answer 10

• dealing with platform & infrastructure change, need for scalability & flexibility
• infrastructure management & governance
• making wise infrastructure investments

Question 11

How can the challenges of managing IT infrastructure be met?

Answer 11

• competitive forces model to determine how much & where to invest
• establishing total cost of ownership of information (TCO) of tech assets (original cost, upgrades, maintenance, staff training)
• cloud computing to reduce IT platform costs
• usage of mobile device management (MDM) across the enterprise