What is IT infrastructure?
IT components
- hardware,
- software,
- networks, and
databases
IT services.
- developing information systems,
- managing security and risk, and
- managing data.
Describe the evolution of IT infrastructure
Stand-alone mainframes
to
Mainframe and dumb terminals
to
Standalone personal computers
to
Local area networks (client/server computing)
to
The internet ubiquity TCP/IP networking protocol
today:
Cloud computing and mobile computing
Describe on premise-computing
A model of IT management in which companies own their IT infrastructure and maintain it in their data centres.
New needs, new investment in new systems.
On-premise computing can actually inhibit an organization’s ability to respond quickly and appropriately to today’s rapidly changing business environments.
What is cloud computing?
A type of computing that delivers convenient, on-demand, pay-as-you-go access for multiple customers to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., servers, networks, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly and easily accessed over the Internet.
Name the characteristics of cloud computing
Provides On-Demand Self-Service
Encompasses the Characteristics of Grid Computing and of Utility Computing
Uses Broad Network Access
Pools Computing Resources
Often Occurs on Virtualized Servers
What does grid computing do?
Grid computing shares the processing resources of many geographically dispersed computers across a network.
- Grid computing enables organizations to use their computing resources more efficiently.
- Grid computing provides fault tolerance and redundancy, meaning that there is no single point of failure, so the failure of one computer will not stop an application from executing.
- Grid computing makes it easy to scale up—that is, to access increased computing resources (i.e., add more servers)—to meet the processing demands of complex applications.
- Grid computing makes it easy to scale down (remove computers) if extensive processing is not needed.
Explain utility computing
A service provider makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to a customer as needed.
- The provider then charges the customer for its specific usage rather than a flat rate.
- Utility computing enables companies to efficiently meet fluctuating demands for computing power by lowering the costs of owning the hardware infrastructure.
Describe virtual servers
- uses software-based partitions to create multiple virtual servers—called virtual machines—on a single physical server.
- each server no longer has to be dedicated to a particular task.
- Multiple applications can run instead on a single physical server, with each application running within its own software environment.
- enables companies to increase server usage:
1. First, they do not have to buy additional servers to meet peak demand.
2. Second, they reduce their utility costs because they are using less energy.
Name the cloud types
Public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds
Describe public clouds
- Public clouds are shared, easily accessible, multicustomer IT infrastructures that are available nonexclusively to any entity in the general public (individuals, groups, and organizations).
- Public cloud vendors provide applications, storage, and other computing resources as services over the Internet.
- These services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model.
Describe private clouds
- Private clouds/internal clouds/corporate clouds
- IT infrastructures that can be accessed only by a single entity or by an exclusive group of related entities that share the same purpose and requirements, such as all of the business units within a single organization.
- Private clouds provide IT activities and applications as a service over an intranet within an enterprise.
- Enterprises adopt private clouds to ensure system and data security.
- For this reason, these systems are implemented behind the corporate firewall.
Describe hybrid clouds
- Hybrid clouds are composed of public and private clouds that remain unique entities, but are nevertheless tightly integrated.
- This arrangement offers users the benefits of multiple deployment models.
- Hybrid clouds deliver services based on security requirements, the mission-critical nature of the applications, and other company-established policies.
Describe vertical clouds and their uses
A vertical cloud is a set of cloud computing services optimized for use in a particular industry.
- Construction business,
- finance, or
- insurance businesses.
Describe infrastructure as a service
- With the IaaS model, cloud computing providers offer remotely accessible servers, networks, and storage capacity.
- They supply these resources on demand from their large resource pools, which are located in their data centres.
- IaaS customers are often technology companies with IT expertise.
- These companies want access to computing power, but they do not want to be responsible for installing or maintaining it.
- Companies use the infrastructure to run software or simply to store data.
- Think Shopify (www.shopify.ca) or AWS.
Describe platform as a service
- In PaaS model, customers rent servers, operating systems, storage, a database, software development technologies such as Java and .NET, and network capacity over the Internet.
- The PaaS model allows the customer to both run existing applications and to develop and test new applications.
- Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.
List the advantages of platform as a service
i. Underlying computing and storage resources automatically scale to match application demand.
ii. Operating system features can be upgraded frequently.
iii. Geographically distributed development teams can work together on software development projects.
iv. PaaS services can be provided by diverse sources located throughout the world.
v. Initial and ongoing costs can be reduced by the use of infrastructure services from a single vendor rather than maintaining multiple hardware facilities that often perform duplicate functions or suffer from incompatibility problems.
Describe software as a service
- With the SaaS delivery model, cloud computing vendors provide software that is specific to their customers’ requirements.
- SaaS is the most widely used service model, and it provides a broad range of software applications.
- SaaS applications reside in the cloud instead of on a user’s hard drive or in a data center.
- SaaS providers typically charge their customers a monthly or yearly subscription fee.
- Highly scalable - applications can run on as many servers as is necessary to meet changing demands.
List the benefits of cloud computing
- Positive impact on employees
- Can save money
- Can improve organisational flexibility and competitiveness
What are the risks and concerns around cloud computing?
- Legacy IT Systems: These systems cannot easily be transferred to the cloud because they must first be untangled and simplified.
- Reliability
- Privacy
- Security
- The Regulatory and Legal Environment
- European Union prohibits consumer data from being transferred to nonmember countries without the consumers’ prior consent and approval.
- Criminal Use of Cloud Computing
- The huge amount of information stored in the cloud makes it an attractive target for data thieves. Also, the distributed nature of cloud computing makes it very difficult to catch criminals.
Define on-premise computing
A model of IT management in which companies own their IT infrastructure (their software, hardware, networks, and data management) and maintain it in their data centres.
What are Web services?
Web services are applications delivered over the Internet (the cloud) to select and combine through almost any device (personal computers to mobile phones).
Use a set of shared protocols
Applications allow different systems to “talk” with one another (share data and services).
What is service-oriented architecture
The collection of web services that are used to build a firm’s IT applications constitutes a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
What are the benefits of web service?
- They can be employed in a variety of environments: over the Internet, on an intranet inside a corporate firewall, or on an extranet set up by business partners.
- The organization can use the existing Internet infrastructure without having to implement any new technologies.
- Organizational personnel can access remote or local data without having to understand the complexities of this process.
- Organization can create new applications quickly and easily
What is XML?
•a computer language that makes it easier to exchange data among a variety of applications and to validate and interpret these data.
Where HTML is limited to describing how data should be presented in the form of web pages, XML can present, communicate, and store data.
in XML a number is not simply a number. The XML tag also specifies whether the number represents a price, a date, or a postal code.
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Chapter 243
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Chapter 525
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Appendix 5.626
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Chapter 731
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Chapter 1229
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CH10 - Information within the organization67
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CH11 - CRM and SCM46
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CH06 - Telecommunications and networking43
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CH08 - Wireless, mobile computing and mobile commerce39
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CH04 - Information security and controls40
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Technology guide 3 - Cloud Computing30
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Technology guide 4 - Artificial intelligence23
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CH03 - Ethics and Privacy23
