IS 12 Hardware Software Information Technology Infrastructure the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm s specific information system applications Evolution of IT Infrastructure general purpose mainframe minicomputer computing personal computers client server networks enterprise computing cloud computing period of very centralized computing manufacturer of hard software provided all elements of infrastructure Mainframe era Minicomputer Era Personal Computer Era Client Server Era offered powerful machines at lower prices than mainframes made decentralization possible customized to certain needs of different departments Wintel PC standard desktop personal computer rise of personal software tools word processors spreadsheets etc desktops laptops called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide services capabilities client is user point of entry Server refers to both software application and the physical computer multitier client server architecture work of entire network is balanced over several levels of servers 1st layer web server software is responsible for locating and managing stored web pages 2nd layer application server handles all application operations between a user and an organization s Enterprise Computing Era back end business systems firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise wide infrastructure uses TCP IP Cloud Computing model of computing where firms and individuals obtain computing power and software applications over the Internet Moore s Law of components on a chip with the smallest manufacturing costs doubles every two years variations 1 power of microprocessor doubles every 18 months 2 computing power doubles every 18 months 3 price of computing falls by half every 18 months Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution Moore s Law and Micro pressing Power The Law of mass Digital Storage amount of digital info is roughly doubling every year cost of storing digital info is falling at 100 per year Metcalfe s Law increasing returns to scale value as more and more people join the network rapid decline in costs of communication Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit technology standards specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network result in powerful economies of scale Infrastructure Components 1 Computer Hardware Platforms stored in racks much more space efficient 2 Operating System Platforms blade servers ultrathin computers consisting of a circuit board processors memory and network connections manage resources and activities of computer allows multiple programs to share a single computer Storage Area Networks connect multiple storage devices on a separate high speed network Web Hosting Service maintains large web server and provides fee paying subscribers with space for a website Legacy Systems generally older transaction processing systems created for mainframe computers that continue to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning 3 Enterprise Software Applications 4 Data Management and Storage 5 Networking Telecommunications Platforms 6 Internet Platforms 7 Consulting and System Integration Services netbooks small low cost subnotebooks Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends Emerging Mobile Digital Platform Virtualization and Multi core Processors Cloud Computing and the Computing Utility Grid Computing connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid most computers in us only use 25 of processing units grid computing uses the idleness for other tasks firms do not need to make large investments in hardware software Computing Utility pay only for computing power that firm actually uses Autonomic Computing industry wide effort to develop systems that can configure themselves optimize and tune themselves and heal protect themselves from outside intruders self destruction virtualization process of presenting a set of computing resources so that they can be accessed breaks physical and geographic boundaries Multi core Processors integrated circuit to which two or more processors have been attached for enhanced performance reduced power consumption and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks Contemporary Software Platform Trends Open Source Software produced by a community of several programmers around the world FREE and can be modified by users mostly based on Linux or Unix premise better than commercial software b c thousands of programmers can perfect software without pay Linux example of open source software Software for the Web Java operating system independent processor independent object oriented programming language that has become the leading interactive programming environment for the Web Web Browser easy to use software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying Web Pages and for designed for any computer can handle text data graphics sound and video accessing the web Ajax asynchronous JavaScript and XML web development technique for creating interactive web apps Web services loosely coupled software components that exchange info with each other Extensible Markup Language XML language foundation for web services more powerful flexible markup language than hypertext HTML HTML page description language for specifying how text graphics and sound are placed on web page Service Oriented Architecture set of self contained services that communicate with each other to Mash ups mix and match these software components to create their own customized applications Widgets small software programs that can be added to web pages or placed on the desktop to provide create a working software application additional functionality Software as a Service services for delivering and providing access to software remotely as a web based service Outsourcing service level agreement formal contract between customers and service providers IS 13 Telecommunications 1 Telephone networks handles voice communication 2 Computer networks handles data traffic Networking and Communication Trends 2 traditional types of networks Both voice and data communication networks have become faster more portable