Chapter 5 IT infrastructure and emerging technologies
Learning objectives:
5.1 What is IT infrastructure, and what are the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
5.2 What are the components of IT infrastructure?
5.3 What are current trends in computer hardware platforms
5.4 What are the current computer software platforms and trends?
5.5 What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?
5.6 How will MIS help my career?
Cases
Southeast Asia’s Grab Leverage Information Technology to Enhance Its Services
Open Source Innovation: The New Competitive Advantage
Glory Finds Solutions in Cloud
Is BYOD Good for Business
5.1 What is IT infrastructure, and what are the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
IT infrastructure = shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific
information system applications
IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to
operate the entire enterprise. But it also includes a set of firmwide services budgeted by
management and composed of both human and technical capabilities. These services include the
following: 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
1. General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era (1959 to Present)
2. Personal Computer Era (1981 to Present)
Wintel PC computer (=windows operating systems software on a computer with an intel
microprocessor)
3. Client/Server Era (1983 to Present)
In client/server computing, desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to
powerful server computer to provide the client computers with a variety of services and
capabilities. Server refers to the software application and the physical computer on which
the network software runs; server could be a mainframe, but today they are more powerful
versions of personal computers based on inexpensive chip and often using multiple processor
in a single computer box or in server racks. Simplest client/server network is two-tiered
client/server architecture, most corporations have multitiered client/server architectures
(often called N-tier client/server architecture)
4. Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present)
Firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate disparate
networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide infrastructure. After
1995 (development of the internet) business firms began seriously using the Transmission
Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking standard to tie their disparate
networks together
5. Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)
, Cloud computing refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of
computer resources (computers, storage, applications, and services) over the network, often
the internet.
Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
- Moore’s law and micro processing power
Three variations of Moore’s Law which he never stated. The power of microprocessors
doubles every 18 months (1), computing power doubles every 18 months (2) and the price of
computing falls by half every 18 months (3).
Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other
devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit. Chip
manufacturers are trying to develop a manufacturing process to produce nanotube
processors economically.
- The law of mass digital storage
The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year (Lyman and Varian, 2003),
but the cost of storing digital information is falling at an exponential rate of 100 percent a
year.
- Metcalfe’s law and network economics
Demand for information technology has been driven by the social and business value of
digital networks, which rapidly multiply the number of actual and potential links among
network members.
- Declining communications costs and the internet
Rapid decline in the costs of communication and the exponential growth in the size of the
internet. To take advantage of the business value associated with the internet, firms must
greatly expand their internet connections, including wireless connectivity and greatly expand
the power of their client/server networks, desktop clients, and mobile computing devices
- Standards and network effects
Today’s enterprise infrastructure and internet computing would be impossible without
agreement among manufacturers and widespread consumer acceptance of technology
standards (= specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to
communicate in a network). Technology standards unleash powerful economies of scale and
result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standards.
Without these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than
is currently the case
5.2 What are the components of IT infrastructure?
The seven major components constitute investments that must be coordinated with one another
to provide the firm with a coherent infrastructure. Firm’s IT infrastructure will increasingly be an
amalgam of components and services that are partially owned, partially rented or licensed,
partially located on site, and partially supplied by external vendors or cloud services.
Seven major components (page 209-212):
1. Computer hardware platforms
2. Operating system platforms
3. Enterprise software applications
4. Data management and storage
5. Networking/telecommunications platforms
Learning objectives:
5.1 What is IT infrastructure, and what are the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
5.2 What are the components of IT infrastructure?
5.3 What are current trends in computer hardware platforms
5.4 What are the current computer software platforms and trends?
5.5 What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?
5.6 How will MIS help my career?
Cases
Southeast Asia’s Grab Leverage Information Technology to Enhance Its Services
Open Source Innovation: The New Competitive Advantage
Glory Finds Solutions in Cloud
Is BYOD Good for Business
5.1 What is IT infrastructure, and what are the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?
IT infrastructure = shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific
information system applications
IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to
operate the entire enterprise. But it also includes a set of firmwide services budgeted by
management and composed of both human and technical capabilities. These services include the
following: 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
1. General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era (1959 to Present)
2. Personal Computer Era (1981 to Present)
Wintel PC computer (=windows operating systems software on a computer with an intel
microprocessor)
3. Client/Server Era (1983 to Present)
In client/server computing, desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to
powerful server computer to provide the client computers with a variety of services and
capabilities. Server refers to the software application and the physical computer on which
the network software runs; server could be a mainframe, but today they are more powerful
versions of personal computers based on inexpensive chip and often using multiple processor
in a single computer box or in server racks. Simplest client/server network is two-tiered
client/server architecture, most corporations have multitiered client/server architectures
(often called N-tier client/server architecture)
4. Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present)
Firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate disparate
networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide infrastructure. After
1995 (development of the internet) business firms began seriously using the Transmission
Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking standard to tie their disparate
networks together
5. Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)
, Cloud computing refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of
computer resources (computers, storage, applications, and services) over the network, often
the internet.
Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
- Moore’s law and micro processing power
Three variations of Moore’s Law which he never stated. The power of microprocessors
doubles every 18 months (1), computing power doubles every 18 months (2) and the price of
computing falls by half every 18 months (3).
Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other
devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit. Chip
manufacturers are trying to develop a manufacturing process to produce nanotube
processors economically.
- The law of mass digital storage
The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year (Lyman and Varian, 2003),
but the cost of storing digital information is falling at an exponential rate of 100 percent a
year.
- Metcalfe’s law and network economics
Demand for information technology has been driven by the social and business value of
digital networks, which rapidly multiply the number of actual and potential links among
network members.
- Declining communications costs and the internet
Rapid decline in the costs of communication and the exponential growth in the size of the
internet. To take advantage of the business value associated with the internet, firms must
greatly expand their internet connections, including wireless connectivity and greatly expand
the power of their client/server networks, desktop clients, and mobile computing devices
- Standards and network effects
Today’s enterprise infrastructure and internet computing would be impossible without
agreement among manufacturers and widespread consumer acceptance of technology
standards (= specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to
communicate in a network). Technology standards unleash powerful economies of scale and
result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standards.
Without these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than
is currently the case
5.2 What are the components of IT infrastructure?
The seven major components constitute investments that must be coordinated with one another
to provide the firm with a coherent infrastructure. Firm’s IT infrastructure will increasingly be an
amalgam of components and services that are partially owned, partially rented or licensed,
partially located on site, and partially supplied by external vendors or cloud services.
Seven major components (page 209-212):
1. Computer hardware platforms
2. Operating system platforms
3. Enterprise software applications
4. Data management and storage
5. Networking/telecommunications platforms
