Laudon ch.5

IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Chapter 5

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

Learning Objectives

• Define IT infrastructure and describe its components.

• Identify and describe the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution.

• Assess contemporary computer hardware platform trends.

• Assess contemporary software platform trends.

• Evaluate the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions.


IT Infrastructure

• IT infrastructure:

– Set of physical devices and software required to operate enterprise

– Shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system

– Set of firmwide services including: • Computing platforms providing computing services that connect

employees, customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital environment.

• Telecommunications services provide data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers.

• Data management services that store and manage corporate data and provide capabilities for analyzing the data


• Application software services, online software services, that provide enterprise-wide capabilities such as enterprise resource planning,

• Physical facilities management services, develop and manage the physical installations required for computing, telecommunications, and data management services

• IT management services plan and develop the infrastructure, IT expenditures, standards, education,

• research and development services, provide the firm with research on potential future IT projects and investments that could help the firm differentiate itself in the marketplace

• “Service platform” perspective makes it easier to understand the business value provided by infrastructure investments. analyzing the actual services enabled by new technology tools


IT Infrastructure


CONNECTION BETWEEN THE FIRM, IT INFRASTRUCTURE, AND BUSINESS CAPABILITIES

IT Infrastructure

The services a firm is capable of providing to its customers, suppliers, and employees are a direct function of its IT infrastructure. Ideally, this infrastructure should support the firm’s business and information systems strategy. New information technologies have a powerful impact on business and IT strategies, as well as the services that can be provided to customers.

• Evolution of IT infrastructure – General-purpose mainframe & minicomputer era: 1959 to present

• 1958 IBM first mainframes introduced, with OS provide time sharing and multitasking

• powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals connected to the centralized mainframe. High computing capacity, extremely powerful servers

• 1965 Less expensive decentralized DEC minicomputers introduced

– Personal computer era: 1981 to present • 1981 Introduction of IBM PC, widely adopted by American businesses. • Proliferation in 80s, 90s resulted in growth of personal software.

• Wintel Pc became the standard desktop personal computer

– Client/server era: 1983 to present • Desktop clients networked to servers, with processing work split

between clients and servers • Servers processes and stores shared data, serves up Webpages, or

manages network activities.

• Network may be two-tiered or multi-tiered (N-tiered) • Various types of servers (network, application, Web)


IT Infrastructure


STAGES IN IT INFRASTRUCTURE EVOLUTION

Illustrated here are the typical computing configurations characterizing each of the five eras of IT infrastructure evolution.

IT Infrastructure

• Evolution of IT infrastructure (cont.)

– Enterprise computing era: 1992 to present • Move toward integrating disparate networks, applications

using Internet standards and enterprise applications • so that information can flow freely across the organization

and between the firm and other organizations.

– Cloud Computing: 2000 to present • Refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals

obtain computing power and software applications over the Internet or other network.

• Accessed as-needed basis • Fastest growing form of computing. • 207$ billion estimated spending by end of 2016.


IT Infrastructure


STAGES IN IT INFRASTRUCTURE EVOLUTION (cont.)

IT Infrastructure

Illustrated here are the typical computing configurations characterizing each of the five eras of IT infrastructure evolution.


In a multi-tiered client/server network, client requests for service are handled by different levels of servers.

A MULTITIERED CLIENT/SERVER NETWORK (N-TIER)

IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution

– Moore’s law and micro-processing power

• Computing power doubles every 18 months • the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18

months • the price of computing falls by half every 18 months • Nanotechnology:

– Shrinks size of transistors to size comparable to size of a virus

– Law of Mass Digital Storage

• The amount of data being stored each year doubles. • The cost of storing digital information is falling at an

exponential rate of 100% a year.


IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.) – Metcalfe’s Law and network economics

• Value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members.

• Metcalfe points to the increasing return to scale that

network members receive as more and more people join the network

• As network members increase, more people want to

use it (demand for network access increases) and the value to the entire system grows.


IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.)

– Declining communication costs and the Internet

• An estimated 3 billion people worldwide have Internet access

• As communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach 0, utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes


IT Infrastructure


• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.)

– Standards and network effects

• Technology standards: – Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the

ability to communicate in a network

– Unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard.

• Wintel Pc became the standard desktop and mobile client computing platform.

• In telecommunications, the Ethernet standard enabled PCs to connect together in small local area networks

• and the TCP/IP standard enabled these LANs to be connected into firmwide networks, and ultimately, to the Internet. Communication protocol.


IT Infrastructure

Infrastructure Components

• IT Infrastructure has 7 main components

1. Computer hardware platforms

2. Operating system platforms

3. Enterprise software applications

4. Data management and storage

5. Networking/telecommunications platforms

6. Internet platforms

7. Consulting system integration services



THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE ECOSYSTEM

There are seven major components that must be coordinated to provide the firm with a coherent IT infrastructure. Listed here are major technologies and suppliers for each component.


• Computer hardware platforms

– Client machines

• Desktop PCs, mobile devices – PDAs, laptops

– Servers

• Blade servers: ultrathin computers stored in racks

– Mainframes:

• IBM mainframe equivalent to thousands of blade servers.

• reliably and securely handle huge volumes of transactions, for analyzing very large quantities of data, and for handling large workloads in cloud computing centers.

– Top chip producers: AMD, Intel, IBM

– Top firms: IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems

– The industry has collectively settled on Intel as the standard processor for business computing



• Operating system platforms

– Operating systems

• Server level: 35% run Windows; 65% run Unix or Linux

• Client level:

– 90% run Microsoft Windows (7.0, 8.0, etc.)

– Handheld device OS’s (Android, iPhone OS) (touch technology)

– Cloud computing OS’s (Google’s Chrome OS)

• Enterprise software applications

– Enterprise application providers: SAP and Oracle

– Middleware “bridge” : middleware software supplied by vendors such as IBM and Oracle for achieving firmwide integration by linking the firm’s existing application systems.



• Data management and storage

– Database software: for organizing and managing the firm’s data so

that they can be efficiently accessed and used. • IBM (DB2), Oracle, Microsoft (SQL Server), Sybase (Adaptive

Server Enterprise), MySQL – Physical data storage:

• EMC Corp (large-scale systems), Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital

– Storage area networks (SANs): • Connect multiple storage devices on dedicated network. • The SAN creates a large central pool of storage that can be

rapidly accessed and shared by multiple servers.



• Networking/telecommunications platforms – Telecommunication services

• typically provided by telecommunications/telephone services companies that offer voice and data connectivity, wide area networking, wireless services, and Internet access.

• AT&T, Verizon

– Network operating systems: • Windows Server, Linux, Unix

– Network hardware providers: • Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Juniper Networks



• Internet platforms: overlap with and must relate to the firm’s networking infrastructure.

– Hardware, software, management services to support company Web sites, (including Web hosting services, routers, and cabling or wireless equipment).

– Internet hardware server market: Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM, Sun (oracle)

– Web development tools/suites: Microsoft .NET IBM (WebSphere), Sun (Java), independent software developers: Adobe, RealMedia



• Consulting and system integration services

– Even large firms do not have resources for a full range of support for new, complex infrastructure

– Software integration: ensuring new infrastructure works with legacy systems

– Legacy systems: older TPS created for mainframes that would be too costly to replace or redesign

– Accenture, IBM Global Services, EDS, Infosys, Wipro

– Business systems consultant today involves developing business processes and supporting systems



The current trends in computer Hardware Platform

1. The emerging mobile digital platform

– Cell phones, smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone)

• Have taken on many functions of PCs, including data transmission, Web surfing, e-mail and IM duties

• managers are increasingly using these to coordinate work and communicate with employees

– Netbooks:

• Small, low-cost lightweight notebooks optimized for wireless communication and core computing tasks

• Tablets (iPad)

• Networked e-readers (Kindle)

– Wearable computing devices


2. CONSUMERIZATION OF IT AND BYOD

– BYOD “Bring Your Own Device” is one aspect of the consumerization of IT, in which new information technology that first emerges in the consumer market spreads into business organizations.

– Allowing employees to use their personal mobile devices in the workplace.

– Consumerization of IT is forcing businesses, especially large enterprises, to rethink the way they obtain and manage information technology equipment and services.

– Software services that originated in the consumer marketplace (Facebook, google, etc)

– BYOD security policy


Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends

3. Virtualization

– Allows single physical resource to act as multiple resources (i.e., run multiple instances of OS)

– helps organizations increase equipment utilization rates, conserving data center space and energy usage.

• Fewer computers required to process the same amount of work

• Reduces hardware and power expenditures

• Reduced data center space to house machines

– Facilitates hardware centralization and consolidation of hardware administration

– VMware is a leading Virtualization software vendor.



4. Cloud computing

– On-demand (utility) computing services obtained over network

– Cloud can be public or private.

– Hybrid cloud

– Infrastructure services, Platform services (Customers use infrastructure and programming tools supported by the cloud service provider to develop their own applications), and Software as a services.

– Allows companies to minimize IT investments

– Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability



• Cloud computing as having the following essential characteristics:

– On-demand self-service: Consumers can obtain computing capabilities such as server time or network storage as needed automatically on their own.

– Ubiquitous network access: Cloud resources can be accessed using

standard network and Internet devices, including mobile platforms. – Location-independent resource pooling: Computing resources are

pooled to serve multiple users, with different virtual resources dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally does not know where the computing resources are located.

– Rapid elasticity: Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned,

increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand. – Measured service: Charges for cloud resources are based on amount

of resources actually used. “pay-as-you-grow subscription method” Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh


5. Green computing – Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of

computing and networking hardware to minimize impact on the environment.

– Reducing computer power consumption has been a very high “green” priority.

– Virtualization on of the technologies promoting green computing.

6. High performance, power-saving processors

– Multi-core processors: integrated circuit to which two or more processor cores have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks.



• Software outsourcing and cloud services – Three external sources for software:

1. Software packages and enterprise software

2. Software outsourcing (domestic or offshore) – enables a firm to contract custom software development or

maintenance of existing legacy programs to outside firms,

3. Cloud-based software services – Software as a service (SaaS)

– Users pay on subscription or per-transaction

– Mashups and Apps (the new browsers). • Mashup: The idea is to take different sources and produce a

new work that is “greater than” the sum of its parts.


Contemporary Software Platform Trends

Management Issues

• Dealing with platform and infrastructure change

– As firms shrink or grow, IT needs to be flexible and scalable

– Scalability:

• Ability to expand to serve larger numbers of users

– For mobile computing and cloud computing

• New policies and procedures for managing these new platforms

• They will need to inventory all of their mobile devices in business use and develop policies and tools for tracking, updating, and securing them and for controlling the data and applications that run on them.


• Firms using cloud computing and SaaS will need to fashion new contractual arrangements (service level agreement SLA) with remote vendors

• to make sure that the hardware and software for critical applications are always available when needed

• and that they meet corporate standards for information security and disaster recovery.

• Criteria for performance measurement.

• Conditions for terminating the agreement


Management Issues

• Management and governance

– Should departments and divisions have the responsibility of making their own information technology decisions or should IT infrastructure be centrally controlled and managed? Centralized IT department or decentralized

– How will infrastructure costs be allocated among business units?

Each organization will need to arrive at answers based on its own needs.


Management Issues

• Making wise infrastructure investments

– Amount to spend on IT is complex question • Rent vs. buy, The decision either to purchase your own IT assets or

rent them from external providers

– Total cost of ownership (TCO) model • Analyzes direct and indirect costs • Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO • Other costs: Installation, training, support, maintenance,

infrastructure, downtime, space and energy • TCO can be reduced through use of cloud services, greater

centralization and standardization of hardware and software resources

• managers must pay close attention to administration costs to understand the full cost of the firm’s hardware and software.


Management Issues


Management Issues

• Competitive forces model for IT infrastructure investment. how much your firm should spend on IT infrastructure.

1. Market demand for firm’s services: find out if the services you currently offer are meeting the needs of each group.

2. Firm’s business strategy, Analyze your firm’s five-year business strategy and try to assess what new services and capabilities will be required to achieve strategic goals.

3. Firm’s IT strategy, infrastructure, and cost, • Examine your firm’s information technology plans for the

next five years and assess its alignment with the firm’s business plans.

• Determine the total IT infrastructure costs. You will want to perform a TCO analysis.


Management Issues

4. Information technology assessment. – It is usually not desirable to spend resources on advanced technologies

that are still experimental, often expensive, and sometimes unreliable.

– spend on technologies for which standards have been established and IT vendors are competing on cost, and multiple suppliers

5. Competitor firm service – Try to assess what technology services competitors offer to customers,

suppliers, and employees. / Qualitative and quantitative measures

6. Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments – Benchmark your expenditures for IT infrastructure against your

competitors.

– Your firm does not necessarily need to spend as much as, or more than, your competitors. Perhaps it has discovered much less-expensive ways of providing services, and this can lead to a cost advantage.


Management Issues


COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL FOR IT INFRASTRUCTURE

There are six factors you can use to answer the question, “How much should our firm spend on IT infrastructure?”

Management Issues

Education

Laudon ch.5