INFRASTRUCTURE FOR

HARDWARE AND
SOFTWARE
 IT Infrastructure:
Hardware and Software
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers

• Servers:
• Type of midrange computer.
• Support computer network, sharing files and resources.
• Provide hardware platform for e-commerce.
• Mainframes:
• Large-capacity, high-performance computer that can process
large amounts of data very rapidly
• E.g., used by airlines for thousands of reservations per second
• Mainframes are still a major revenue and profit source for
IBM, one of the last large-scale commercial manufacturers of
mainframe computers. They are used often as huge Web
servers where they are more efficient than tens of thousands of
PCs in processing large volumes of records
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• What are the components of IT infrastructure?

• What are the major computer hardware, data storage, input, and
output technologies used in business?
• What are the major types of computer software used in business?
• What are the most important contemporary hardware and software
trends?
• What are the principal issues in managing hardware and software
technology?
• What is the meaning of Moore’s Law
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Infrastructure Components

• IT infrastructure: provides platform for supporting all information

systems in the business
• Computer hardware
• Computer software
• Data management technology
• Organizes, manages, and processes business data concerned
with inventory, customers, and vendors
• Networking and telecommunications technology
• Technology services
• E.g., consultants for systems integration with legacy systems
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

IT Infrastructure Components

A firm’s IT infrastructure is
composed of hardware,
software, data management
technology, networking
technology, and technology
services.

Figure 4-1
 Moore’s Law predicts that the number of
transistors fitting on a computer chip will
double every one and a half to two years.
 This prediction about density also captures
advances in processing speed, storage
capabilities, cost, and other component
features.
 Processing power and speed and storage
capabilities have increased exponentially as the
cost of computing devices has decreased.

 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
• Computers come in different sizes with varying capabilities for
processing information.
• FLOPS (Floating point operations per second)
• Smartphones, netbooks, e-book readers
• Today’s smartphones are far more powerful than the early PCs
of the 1980s
• PCs
• Workstations
• More powerful mathematical and graphics-processing
capabilities than a PC
• Used primarily for advanced design or engineering work
requiring powerful graphics or computational capabilities.
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers

• Servers:
• Type of midrange computer.
• Support computer network, sharing files and resources.
• Provide hardware platform for e-commerce.
• Mainframes:
• Large-capacity, high-performance computer that can process
large amounts of data very rapidly
• E.g., used by airlines for thousands of reservations per second
• Mainframes are still a major revenue and profit source for
IBM, one of the last large-scale commercial manufacturers of
mainframe computers. They are used often as huge Web
servers where they are more efficient than tens of thousands of
PCs in processing large volumes of records
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Types of Computers

• Supercomputer:
• More sophisticated computer used for tasks requiring
extremely rapid and complex calculations with thousands of
variables, millions of measurements
• Used in engineering, scientific simulations, military/weapons
research, weather forecasting
• Grid computing: Video
• Power of geographically remote computers connected into
single network to act as “virtual supercomputer”
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers

• Client/server computing:

• Form of distributed computing

• Splits processing between “clients” and “servers”

• Clients: user point of entry

• The user generally interacts directly only with the client

portion of the application, often to input data or retrieve
data for further analysis.

• Servers: store and process shared data and perform network

management activities
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Client/Server Computing

In client/server
computing,
computer
processing is
split between
client machines
and server
machines linked
by a network.
Users interface
with the client
machines.

Figure 4-2
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Storage, Input, and Output Technology

• Primary secondary storage technologies

• Magnetic disk:
• Hard drives, USB flash drives
• RAID: can package hundreds of drives for massive storage
requirements
• Optical disks
• CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD
• Magnetic tape
• Storage networking: SANs
• Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed
network dedicated to storage
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
A Storage Area Network (SAN)

SANs are an effort by corporations to reduce

storage costs, manage information, increase
flexibility, and provide near-certain backup.
One of the major worries of business firms is
losing customer or other digital data.
Extraordinary efforts are taken to make
redundant copies of digital information, and
placing it on separate secure servers, even
remote servers in separate facilities.

A typical SAN consists of a server,

storage devices, and networking
devices, and is used strictly for
storage. The SAN stores data on
many different types of storage
devices, providing data to the
enterprise. The SAN supports
communication between any server
and the storage unit as well as
between different storage devices in
the network.
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Storage, Input, and Output Technology

• Input devices:
• Gather data and convert them into electronic form.
• Keyboard
• Computer mouse
• Touch screen
• Optical character recognition
• Magnetic ink character recognition
• Pen-based input
• Digital scanner
• Audio input
• Sensors
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Storage, Input, and Output Technology

• Output devices:
• Display data after they have been processed.
• Monitor
• Printer
• Audio output
• Information systems collect and process information in one of two
ways.
• Batch processing: transactions stored for predefined amount
of time, then processed as group
• Online processing: transactions processed immediately
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Contemporary Hardware Trends

• The emerging mobile digital platform

• Based on new handheld hardware like cell phones, netbooks,

and tablet computers. A new “platform.”
• Wireless communications through 3G cell networks and Wi-
Fi.
• New software apps.
• Nanotechnology: video

• Uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer

chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller
than current technologies permit.
• Nanotechnology shrinks the size of transistors down to the
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Examples of Nanotubes

Nanotubes are tiny

tubes about 10,000
times thinner than a
human hair. They
consist of rolled up
sheets of carbon
hexagons, have
potential uses as
minuscule wires or in
ultrasmall electronic
devices, and are very
powerful conductors of
electrical current.

Figure 4-5
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Contemporary Hardware Trends
• Cloud Computing: video
• A model of computing in which firms and individuals obtain
computing resources over the Internet
• Cloud infrastructure as a service
• customers use processing, storage, networking, and other
computing resources from cloud service providers to run
their information systems.
• Cloud platform as a service
• customers use infrastructure and programming tools hosted
by the service provider to develop their own applications.
• Cloud software as a service
• customers use software hosted by the vendor.
• Top Free Cloud Computing Software
 Eliminates need for large up-front capital investments in
systems
 Eliminates lengthy implementations on corporate
computers
 Low cost subscriptions; no expensive licensing and
maintenance fees
 No hardware for subscribers to purchase, scale, and
maintain
 No operating systems, database servers or applications
servers to install
 No consultants and staff
 Accessible via standard Web browser with behind-the-
scene software updates
 May not be attractive to larger companies for
their application needs
 Responsibility of data storage and control is in
the hands of the provider
 Security risks may increase and open
vulnerabilities to data maintenance
 System reliability issues
 Users dependency on the cloud computing
provider
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

Cloud Computing Platform

In cloud computing, hardware and software capabilities are provided as services over the Internet. Businesses and employees have access to
applications and IT infrastructure anywhere at any time using an Internet-connected device.

Figure 4-6
• Autonomic computing:

• Development of systems that can configure

themselves, heal themselves; e.g., self-updating
antivirus software
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Contemporary Hardware Trends

• Virtualization: video
• Process of presenting a set of computing resources so they can
be accessed in ways that are unrestricted by physical
configuration or geographic location

• IBM’s mainframes run tens of thousands of separate instances

of Windows or Linux on a single large mainframe computer,
giving users the impression they have their own dedicated
computer

• Server virtualization: running more than one operating system

at the same time on single machine.

• Virtual memory is memory which fools the processor into

thinking it is hardware memory but in fact is memory located
on a hard drive.
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware

Contemporary Hardware Trends

• Multicore processors:
• Integrated circuit with two or more processors

• Enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and

more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

Operating System Software

• The software that manages and controls the computer’s activities

• PC operating systems and graphical user interfaces
• GUIs
• Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003
• UNIX
• Linux
• Open-source software
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

The Major Types of Software

The relationship among the

system software, application
software, and users can be
illustrated by a series of nested
boxes. System software—
consisting of operating systems,
language translators, and utility
programs—controls access to the
hardware. Application software,
including programming
languages and “fourth-
generation” languages, must
work through the system software
to operate. The user interacts
primarily with the application
software.
Figure 4-7
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

Software for the Web: Java, AJAX, and HTML

• Java:
• Operating system-independent, processor-independent,
object-oriented programming language
• AJAX:
• Allows a client and server to exchange data behind the
scenes to avoid reloading a Web page after each change
• Hypertext markup language (HTML):
• Page description language for specifying how elements
are placed on a Web page and for creating links to other
pages and objects
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

Web 2.0 Video

• Web services:
• Software components that exchange information with one another using
universal Web communication standards and languages
• It’s a “messaging system” which allows diverse computing applications in
a firm to communicate data with one another without extensive integration
of the constituent applications (which tends to be very expensive)
• XML (extensible markup language)
• SOAP (simple object access protocol)
• WSDL (Web services description language)
• UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration)
• Service oriented architecture (SOA)
• In a service-oriented architecture, various applications provide
“services” (data) on request to other applications needing data.
• SOA is a major alternative to installing large scale enterprise
systems.
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software

How Dollar Rent-A-Car Uses Web Services

Dollar Rent-A-Car uses Web

services to provide a
standard intermediate layer
of software to “talk” to
other companies’
information systems. Dollar
Rent-A-Car can use this set
of Web services to link to
other companies’
information systems
without having to build a
separate link to each firm’s
systems.

Figure 4-9
 IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Software Trends

• Open Source Software

• Linux, Apache
• Cloud Computing
• Google Apps, Office Web Apps
Mashups are Web applications that combine content or data from
multiple online sources into new Web applications
• Contents are continually updated
• Content for mashups often comes from Web feeds and Web
services
• Amazon uses mashup technologies to aggregate product
descriptions with partner sites and user profiles, commentaries,
and images.
• Travel sites, such as Travelocity, Kayak, Matador, and Travature,
integrate standard content (such as airfare search engines, travel
guides, maps, and hotel reviews) with comments, ratings, and
images from users.
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
 Managing Hardware and Software Technology

• Capacity planning
• Process of predicting when hardware system becomes saturated
• Ensuring firm has enough computing power for current and future needs
• Factors include:
• Maximum number of users
• Impact of current, future software
• Performance measures
• minimum response time for processing business
transactions.
• Throughput
• Scalability: ability of system to expand to serve large number of users
without breaking down
• Organizations must ensure they have sufficient computer processing,
storage, and network resources to handle surging volumes of digital
transactions and to make such data immediately available online.
 Managing Hardware and Software Technology

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model

• Used to analyze direct and indirect costs to help determine the
actual cost of owning a specific technology
• Direct costs: hardware, software purchase costs
• Indirect costs: ongoing administration costs, upgrades,
maintenance, technical support, training, utility, and real estate
costs
• Hidden costs: support staff, downtime, additional network
management
• Five year TCO for computing equipment can be 3 – 10 times the
original purchase price
• TCO can be reduced through increased centralization,
standardization of hardware and software resources.
Hardware acquisition Purchase price of hardware including computers, terminals, storage and
printers

Software acquisition Purchase or license of software for each user

Installation Cost to install hardware and software

Training Cost to train IT staff and end-users

Support Cost to provide ongoing technical support; help desks, documentation etc

Infrastructure Cost to acquire, maintain and support related infrastructure such as

networks and specialized equipment (including storage and backup units)

Downtime Lost productivity if hardware or software failures cause the system to

unavailable for processing user tasks

Space and energy Real estate and utility costs for hosing and providing power for the
technology
 Commercial off-the-shelf software solutions
are ready-made and available for licensing or
sale to the general public
 Off-the-shelf software systems that cannot be
modified to meet the specific needs of a particular
organization are sometimes called turn-key systems
or software

 Custom software development describes how

an organization develops and builds software
tailored specifically to its needs.
 Strategies for Creating and Deploying Software continued

• Using technology service providers

• Outsourcing
• Using external provider to:
• Run networks.
• Host, manage Web site(s).
• Develop software (offshore software
outsourcing).
• Manage IT infrastructures.
• Requires Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• a formal contracts between customers and service
providers that define the specific responsibilities
of the service provider and the level of service
expected by the customer.
 Allows a business to concentrate on its core competencies
rather than focusing on technology issues.
 Instead of purchasing all the necessary hardware and
software for hosting a Web site, a business can use a Web
hosting service that maintains a large Web server
 Outsourcing custom software development or maintenance
to outside firms benefits a company because it won’t have to
hire programmers, analysts, and managers with the
necessary skills.
 An outsourcer often has the technical and management
skills to do the job better, faster, and more efficiently.
 Even though it’s often cheaper to outsource the maintenance
of an IT infrastructure and the development of new systems
to external vendors, a business must weight the pros and
 Managing Hardware and Software Technology

• Using cloud services

• Small businesses “rent” infrastructure from another firm to

avoid expenses of maintaining hardware and software on their
own.
• Off-loading peak demand to remote data centers

• Amazon Markets http://www.amazonservices.com/

• Amazon provides cloud services to major business firms, and

also to thousands of small merchants who want to use Amazon
software to sell their goods and services.

• Managing mobile platforms

• Balancing gains in productivity from using mobile devices with
expenses of equipping employees with these devices

• TCO for wireless devices ranges from $1,000 to $3,000

 Managing Hardware and Software Technology

• Managing software localization for global

business
• Local language interfaces
• English not typically standard at middle, lower levels
• Interfaces are complex: menu bars, error messages,
online forms, search results, and so on
• Differences in local cultures
• Differences in monetary structure
• Differences in business processes