Module 4

IT infrastructure

shared technology resources that provide the platform for a firm's information system applications; it consists of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise

examples of IT infrastructure

computing platforms; telecommunications services; data management services; application software services; IT management; IT education

evolution of IT infrastructure

1. General Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer 1959; 2. Personal Computer 1981; 3. Client/Server 1983; 4. Enterprise Computing 1992; 5. Cloud and Mobile Computer 2000

Components of IT infrastructure

computer hardware platforms; operating system platforms; enterprise software applications; data management and storage; networking telecommunications platforms; internet platforms; consulting and system integration services

8 Hardware trends

mobile digital platform; consumerizartion of IT and BYOD; quantum computing; virtualization; cloud computing; edge computing; green computing; high performance processors

BYOD

bring your own device; allowing employees to use their own devises at a workplace

computer network

two or more connected computers

network operating system (NOS)

manages communications on the network and coordinates network resources

software-defined networking (SDN)

networking approach, in which many of these control functions are managed by one central program; helpful in cloud computing environment

Key Digital Networking Technologies

Client/server computing; Packet Switching; TCP/IP and Connectivity

technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution

Moore's law and microprocessing power; Law of Mass Digital Storage; Metcalfe's Law and network economics

Moore's Law and microprocessing power

computing power doubles every 2 years; nanotechnology - uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips that are thousands of times smaller than currently technologically possible; Moore's law means decreasing costs

Law of Mass Digital Storage

the amount of data being stored each year doubles; the cost of storing digital information is falling exponentially

Metcalfe's Law and network economics

value of power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members; increasing returns to scale

Future of computers

Quantum computing; DNA (molecular); optical computers

Quantum computing

uses quantum physics to represent and operate on data; can process units of data as 0,1 or both; dramatic increases in computing speed

DNA (molecular)

emerging branch of computing that uses DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology hardware

optical computers

computer that use light particles called photons

Cloud computing

vision of IT resources over the internet; servers are provisioned over the internet on-demand, not on-premise as usual; software is assessed as a web service through a browser, not downloaded as usual from the Internet

advantages of cloud computing

reduces upfront costs; increases flexibility for scaling

disadvantages of cloud computing

may lead to higher long-term costs; dependence on providers; moving legacy systems to cloud may be costly

Types of Cloud computing

Iaas; Paas; Saas

Infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas)

allows users to instantly obtain or give up IT hardware resources such as company storage and networking capabilities; offers the most customisation

Platform-as-a-service (Paas)

allows users to work within a complete development and deployment environment over the internet; provides development and intelligence tools that help to quickly create new applications and analyse usage data

Software-as-a-service (Saas)

allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the internet; for example email, office tools, calendars, mobile apps, corporate software tools CRM and ERP

the Internet

decentralised system of networks that links devices around the globe and enables data transmission among them

common application transfer protocols

HTTP; SMTP; FTP

HTTP

Hypertext transfer protocol; used for communication between web browsers and web servers

SMTP

simple mail transfer protocol; for email transmission

FTP

file transfer protocol; for file transfers between clients and servers

URL

uniform resource locator; is used to find resources on the Internet; HTML - Hypertext Markup Language is a standard language to format websites

IP Addresses

are assigned to every device connected to the Internet; 32-bit number

DNS

Domain name system; the phone book of the Internet; DNS converts IP addresses to domain names

TCP/IP

Transmission Control and internet protocol; enable data transfer across the Internet; TCP slices data that is to be set into packets at the source computer; IP routes packets to the computer; TCP at the computer checks for completeness, reassemble packets

net neutrality

all internet traffic should be treated equally, no preferential treatment toward any users by the Internet Service Providers

Evolution of mobile technologies

1980 - 1G (analog voice transmission), 1990 - 2G (digital transmission), 2000 - 3G, bust of the dot-com bubble, 2007 - smartphone era, 2010 - 4G, 2020 - 5G, IoT era