IS Chapter Notes Chapter 9 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies pages 251 298 Information technology infrastructure o The shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm s specific information systems applications o Includes investment in hardware software and services consulting education and training that are shared across the entire firm o Provides the foundation for serving customers working with vendors and managing internal processes Service platform perspective makes it easier to understand the business value provided by infrastructure investments General Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era 1959 Present o Introduction of IBM 1401 and 7090 transistorized machines in 1959 marked beginning of widespread commercial use of mainframe computers o In 165 IBM introduced 360 series which was the first commercial computer with a powerful operating system that could provide time sharing multitasking and virtual memory o IBM dominated mainframe computing from then on o Mainframe computers became powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals connect to a centralized mainframe o Mainframe era was characterized by highly centralized computing under control of professional programmers and systems operators Most elements of infrastructure were provided by a single vendor the manufacturer of the hardware and software o This changed in 1965 with the introduction of minicomputers by Digital Equipment Corporation DEC DEC minicomputers offered powerful machines at lower prices than IBM This made decentralized computing possible as well as customization to the specific needs of individual departments rather than time sharing on single mainframe Personal Computer Era 1981 Present o Wintel PC became standard desktop PC Used DOS operating system then Windows operating system o Popularity of PCs in 1980s to early 90s launched a lot of desktop productivity software tools like word processors spreadsheets electronic presentation software and small data management programs o PCs were stand alone systems until software in 1990s made it possible to link them into networks Client Server Era 1983 Present o Client Server computing desktop laptops called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide clients with a variety of services capabilities Computer processing work is split between the two types Client is user point of entry Server processes and stores shared data serves up Web pages or manages network activities Server refers to both the software application and physical computer on which network software runs o Server could be mainframe but today servers are usually powerful PCs based on inexpensive chips and often using multiple processors in a single computer box or in server racks o Simplest client server network consists of a client computer networked to a server computer with processing split between two types of machines Called two tiered cline server architecture and is found in smaller businesses o More complex is where the entire network is balanced over several different levels of servers Called multitiered or N tier client server architectures and is used more in corporations o Different servers are used for different purposes Web server will serve a webpage to a client in response to a request for service Responsible for locating and managing stored Web Pages Application server will handle application operations between a user and organization s back end business system Client server computing enables businesses to distribute computing work across a series of smaller inexpensive machines that cost less than centralized mainframes o In early 1990s firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate different networks and applications through a firm o After internet became more trustworthy in communications 1995 businesses began seriously using Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol networking standard to do this o Resulting infrastructure links different pieces of computer hardware and smaller networks into an enterprise wide network so information can flow freely in organization and between firm and other organizations Can link different types of computer hardware like mainframes servers PCs and mobile devices and includes public infrastructures like telephone system internet and public network services o Requires software to link disparate applications and allow data to flow freely Enterprise Computing Era 1992 Present Cloud and Mobile Computing Era 2000 to Present o The growing bandwidth power of the Internet has pushed client server model to Cloud Computing Model Cloud computing is a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of computing resources over a network usually the Internet Can be accessed on an as needed basis from any connected device and location Fastest growing form of computing o Companies spending 109 billion on public cloud services est to be 207 billion by end of 2016 o Software firms such as Google Microsoft SAP Oracle and Salesforce com sell software applications as services delivered over Internet Technology drivers of infrastructure o Changes in IT infrastructure result from developments in technology o Moore s Law and Microprocessing Power In 1965 Gordon Moore wrote in Electronics magazine that since the first microprocessor chip was introduced in 1959 number of component on a chip with smallest manufacturing costs per component had doubled each year Later reduced it to doubling every two years Three variations of Moore s law none of which Moore ever stated 1 The power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months 2 Computing power doubles every 18 months 3 The price of computing falls by half every 18 months Exponential growth in number of transistors and power of processors coupled with the exponential decline in computing costs is likely to continue By using nanotechnology chip manufacturers can shrink transistors to size of several atoms Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices Chip manufacturers are trying to develop manufacturing that could produce nanotube processors economically o IBM has just started making microprocessors in a production o Law of Mass Digital Storage setting using this tech The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year Fortunately the cost of storing digital information is falling at an exponential rate of 100 percent a year o Metcalfe s Law and Network