Management Information Systems:

Managing the Digital Firm

Sixteenth Edition

Chapter 4
I T Infrastructure and Emerging
Technologies

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Learning Objectives
4.1 What is I T infrastructure, and what are the stages and
drivers of I T infrastructure evolution?
4.2 What are the components of I T infrastructure?
4.3 What are the current trends in computer hardware
platforms?
4.4 What are the current computer software platforms and
trends?
4.5 What are the challenges of managing I T infrastructure
and management solutions?

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Defining I T Infrastructure

Set of physical devices and software required to operate an

enterprise

Set of firm-wide services including:

Computing platforms providing computing services
Physical facilities management services
I T management, education, and other services

“Service platform” perspective

More accurate view of value of investments

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Figure 5.1 Connection Between the
Firm, I T Infrastructure, and Business
Capabilities

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Evolution of I T Infrastructure
• General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era: 1959
to present
• Personal computer era: 1981 to present
• Client/server era: 1983 to present
• Enterprise computing era: 1992 to present
• Cloud and mobile computing: 2000 to present
• Evolution of Computer 1930 To 2021 || History of the Comp
uter - YouTube

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Figure 5.2 Stages in I T Infrastructure Evolution

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Figure 5.3 A Multitiered (N-Tier)
Client/Server Network

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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure
Evolution (1 of 2)
• Moore’s law and microprocessing power
– Computing power doubles every 2 years
– Nanotechnology
• Law of Mass Digital Storage
– The amount of data being stored each year doubles
• Metcalfe’s Law and network economics
– Value or power of a network grows exponentially as a
function of the number of network members.

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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure
Evolution (2 of 2)
• Declining communication costs and the Internet
– Exponential growth in size of the Internet
• 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

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Figure 5.4 Moore’s Law and
Microprocessor Performance

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Figure 5.5 Falling Cost of Chips

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Nanotubes

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Figure 5.6 The Amount of Storage Per
Dollar Rises Exponentially, 1950–
2016

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Figure 5.7 Exponential Declines in
Internet Communications Costs
($/M B P S)

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What Are the Components of I T
Infrastructure?

Computer hardware platforms

Operating system platforms

Enterprise software applications

Data management and storage

Networking/telecommunications platforms

Internet platforms

Consulting system integration services

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Figure 5.8 The I T Infrastructure
Ecosystem

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Computer Hardware Platforms

Client machines Servers Mainframes

Digital workhorse for

Mobile computing:
Desktop P C s, Desktop chips vs. banking and
smartphones, I B M mainframe
laptops mobile chips telecommunications
tablets
networks

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Operating System Platforms

Corporate servers Client level

Android, i O S,
Google’s Chrome O
Windows Server Unix Linux Microsoft Windows Windows 10
(mobile/multitouch) S (cloud computing)

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Enterprise Software Applications
• In 2018, firms spend $389 billion on software for enterprise
applications
• Largest providers: S A P and Oracle
• Middleware providers: I B M, Oracle
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZPtSjVEbSI

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Data Management and Storage
• I B M (D B 2)
• Oracle
Database • Microsoft (S Q L Server)
software • Sybase (Adaptive Server
providers Enterprise),
• My S Q L
• Apache Hadoop

Physical
data • Dell E M C
storage for • Hewlett Packard
large-scale Enterprise (H 3 C)
systems

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Networking/Telecommunications
Platforms
Network operating Windows Server,
systems Linux, Unix

Network hardware Cisco, Juniper

providers Networks

Telecommunications,
Telecommunication cable, telephone
company charges for A T&T, Verizon
services voice lines and
Internet access

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Internet Platforms
Hardware, software,
management • Web-hosting services
services to support • Routers
company websites, • Cabling or wireless equipment
intranets

Internet hardware
• I B M, Dell, Oracle, H P
server market

Web development • Microsoft (Visual Studio and .NET),

tools/suites Oracle-Sun (Java), Adobe

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Consulting and System Integration
Services
• Even large firms do not have resources for full range of
support for new, complex infrastructure
• Leading consulting firms: Accenture, I B M Global
Services, H P, Infosys, Wipro Technologies
• Software integration: ensuring new infrastructure works
with legacy systems
• Legacy systems: older T P S created for mainframes that
would be too costly to replace or redesign

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What Are the Current Trends in
Computer Hardware Platforms? (1 of 5)

The mobile digital platform Consumerization of I T and B Y

• Smartphones O D (bring your own device)
• Netbooks • Forces businesses and I T departments
• Tablet computers to rethink how I T equipment and
• Digital e-book readers and apps services are acquired and managed
(Kindle)
• Wearable devices

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Interactive Session: Technology: Is
Business Ready for Wearable
Computers?
• Class discussion
– Wearables have the potential to change the way
organizations and workers conduct business. Discuss the
implications of this statement.
– What management, organization, and technology issues
would have to be addressed if a company was thinking of
equipping its workers with a wearable computing device?
– What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from
wearable computers? Select a business and describe how a
wearable computing device could help that business
improve operations or decision making.
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What Are the Current Trends in
Computer Hardware Platforms? (2 of 5)

Quantum computing Virtualization

• Uses quantum physics to represent and • Allows single physical resource to act as
operate on data multiple resources (i.e., run multiple
• Dramatic increases in computing speed instances of O S)
• Reduces hardware and power expenditures
• Facilitates hardware centralization
• Software-defined storage (S D S)

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What Are the Current Trends in
Computer Hardware Platforms? (3 of 5)
• Cloud computing
– On-demand computing services obtained over network
▪ Infrastructure as a service (I a a S)
▪ Software as a service (S a a S)
▪ Platform as a service (P a a S)
▪ Cloud Computing Services Models - IaaS PaaS SaaS Explaine
d - YouTube
– Cloud can be public or private
– Allows companies to minimize I T investments
– Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability
– Hybrid cloud computing model
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What Are the Current Trends in
Computer Hardware Platforms? (4 of 5)
• Edge computing
– Servers at the edge of the Internet
– Reducing latency, and network traffic

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Figure 5.9 Cloud Computing Platform

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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M988_fsOSWo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36zducUX16w

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Figure 5.10 Amazon Web Services

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Interactive Session: Organizations:
Look to the Cloud
• Class discussion
– What business benefits do cloud computing services
provide? What problems do they solve?
– What are the disadvantages of cloud computing?
– What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit
from using cloud computing? Why?

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What Are the Current Trends in
Computer Hardware Platforms? (4 of 4)
Green computing (Green I T )
• Practices and technologies for manufacturing,
using, disposing of computing and networking
hardware
• Reducing power consumption a high priority
• Data centers

High performance, power-saving

processors
• Multicore processors
• Power-efficient microprocessors

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What Are the Current Computer
Software Platforms and Trends?
(1 of 3)

Linux and open-source software

• Produced by community of programmers
• Examples: Apache web server, Mozilla Firefox
browser, OpenOffice
• Linux

Software for the web: Java, H T M L,

and H T M L 5
• Java Virtual Machine
• Web browsers
• H T M L and H T M L 5
• Ruby and Python

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What Are the Current Computer
Software Platforms and Trends?
(2 of 3)

Web services and service-

oriented architecture
• Web services
• X M L : Extensible Markup Language
• S O A : service-oriented architecture
• Set of self-contained services that
communicate with one another to create
a working software application
• Software developers reuse these
services in other combinations to
assemble other applications as needed

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Figure 5.11 How Dollar Rent A Car
Uses Web Services

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What Are the Current Computer
Software Platforms and Trends?
(3 of 3)

• Software outsourcing and cloud services

– Software packages and enterprise software
– Software outsourcing
– Cloud-based software services and tools
▪ Service Level Agreements (S L A s): formal
agreement with service providers
• Mashups and apps

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Figure 5.12 Changing Sources of
Firm Software

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Dealing with Platform and
Infrastructure Change
• As firms shrink or grow, I T needs to be flexible and
scalable
• Scalability
– Ability to expand to serve larger number of users
• For mobile computing and cloud computing
– New policies and procedures for managing these new
platforms
– Contractual agreements with firms running clouds and
distributing software required

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Management and Governance
• Governance
• Who controls I T infrastructure?
• How should I T department be organized?
– Centralized
▪ Central I T department makes decisions
– Decentralized
▪ Business unit I T departments make own decisions
• How are costs allocated between divisions, departments?

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Making Wise Infrastructure
Investments
• Under-investment and over-investment can hamper firm
performance
• Rent-versus-buy
• Cloud computing
– Security requirements
– Impact on business processes and workflow
• Outsourcing

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Total Cost of Ownership (T C O)
Model
• Analyzes direct and indirect costs
• Hardware, software account for only about 20% of T C O
• Other costs: Installation, training, support, maintenance,
infrastructure, downtime, space, and energy
• T C O can be reduced
– Use of cloud services, greater centralization and
standardization of hardware and software resources

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Competitive Forces Model for I T
Infrastructure Investment

Competitor
Marketfirmdemand
I T infrastructure
for firm’s services
investments
Competitor
Firm’s business
firm services
strategy
Firm’s
Information
I T strategy,
technology
infrastructure,
assessment
and cost

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Figure 5.13 Competitive Forces Model
for I T Infrastructure

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