Information technology (IT)
infrastructure is defined as the shared technology resources that provide the
platform for the firm’s specific information system applications. It includes the hardware, software applications,
and services that are shared across the organization. It provides the framework for serving
customers, working with vendors, and overseeing internal business processes.
For over 50 years the IT
infrastructure has evolved into what it is today. The five eras of this evolution include the
general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era; the personal computer era; the
client/server era; the enterprise computing era; and the cloud and mobile
computing era. Characteristics of one
era may also be used in another era for other purposes.
The reasons for such change
in the IT infrastructure is due to developments in technologies such as
computer processing, memory chips, storage devices, telecommunications and
networking hardware and software, and software design. These developments have rapidly increased
computing power while also reducing costs.
One technology driver of this change is Moore’s Law. This is the assertion that the number of
components of a chip doubles each year.
Another driver is the Law of Mass Digital Storage. It provides that the cost of storing digital
information is falling at an exponential rate.
Metcalf’s Law is a driver, which shows that a network’s value to
participants, grows rapidly as the number of network members increases. One other technology driver is the rapid
decline in the costs of communication and the rapid growth in the size of the
Internet. Technology standards specify
the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network.
Seven major components make
up the IT infrastructure, which must be coordinated to provide the firm with a
coherent infrastructure. These
components include computer hardware platforms, operating system platforms,
enterprise software applications, data management and storage,
networking/telecommunications platforms, Internet platforms, and consulting and
system integration services.
Several hardware trends have
changed how businesses organize their computing power. One trend is an emerging mobile digital
platform. Mobile devices such as cell
phones and smartphones have taken on many functions of handheld computers. Soon these mobile devises will be the primary
means of communication and accessing the Internet for businesses. Another hardware trend is grid
computing. This involves connecting
geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual
supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the
grid. The advantages of this trend are
the cost savings, speed of computation, and agility. A third hardware trend is virtualization. This is the process of presenting a set of
computing resources so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not
restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. It helps organizations increase equipment
utilization rates by conserving data center space and energy usage and
facilitates centralization and consolidation of hardware administration. Cloud computing is another trend in which
firms and individuals obtain computer processing, storage, software, and other
services as a group of virtualized resources over a network, mainly the
Internet. It can be private or public
and the cost to utilize is minimal.
Green computing is the practices and technologies for designing,
manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated
devices (monitors, printers, storage devices, networking and communications
systems) to minimize the impact of the environment. Autonomic computing is developing systems
that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal themselves
when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and
self-destruction. Another hardware trend
is the use of more efficient and power-saving processors.
Software trends have also
changed how businesses organize their computing power. One trend is open source software. This is software produced by a community of
thousands of programmers around the world and can modified by other users and
redistributed. Linux is probably the
most well known open software and is embedded in cell phones, smartphones,
netbooks, and consumer electronics.
Another trend is the software for the web. Java and Ajax are the two most common. Java is an operating system-independent,
processor-independent, object-oriented programming language. It can deliver only the software
functionality needed for a particular task and can run on ay computer and
operating system. Ajax is a Web
development technique for creating interactive Web applications that makes
conversation with the server more seamless for the user. A third trend is the use of web services and
service-oriented architecture. Web
services are a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange
information with each other using universal Web communication standards and
languages. They are able to exchange
information between two different systems regardless of the languages and they
can be used to build open standard Web-based applications that link systems of
two different organizations. A service-oriented
architecture is a collection of Web services that are used to build a firm’s
software system. A fourth software trend
is the external sources for software.
Three such sources include software packages from a commercial software
vendor, outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor, and
cloud-based software services and tools.
Mashups and apps are also a software trend that is used by individuals
and businesses. Mashups combine the
capabilities of two or more online applications to create a kind of hybrid that
provides more customer value than the original source along. Apps are small pieces of software that run on
the Internet, on the computer, or on a cell phone and are generally delivered
over the Internet.
Dealing with platform and
infrastructure change, management and governance of the infrastructure, and
making wise infrastructure investments are some of the challenged faces for
creating and managing a coherent IT infrastructure. A competitive forces model can be used as a
guideline as to how much should be invested in the infrastructure and where to
make strategic infrastructure investments.
No comments:
Post a Comment