MODUL SITEM INFORMASI MANAGEMEN

(MAN 611)

MODUL PERTEMUAN 06
IT Infrastructure

DISUSUN OLEH
Dr. Fransiskus Adikara, S.Kom, MMSI

UNIVERSITAS ESA UNGGUL

2019

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 IT INFRASTRUCTURES

1. Kemampuan Akhir Yang Diharapkan

After reading this session, you will be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is IT infrastructure and what are its components?

2. What are the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolu- tion?

2. Uraian dan Contoh

1. IT INFRASTRUCTURE

An IT infrastructure includes investment in hardware, software, and services—such as

consulting, education, and training—that are shared across the entire firm or across
entire business units in the firm. A firm’s IT infrastructure provides the foundation for
serving customers, working with vendors, and managing internal firm business
processes (see Figure 5.1).

Supplying firms worldwide with IT infrastructure (hardware and software) in 2012 is

estimated to be a $3.6 trillion industry when telecommunications, networking
equipment, and telecommunications services (Internet, telephone, and data
transmission) are included. This does not include IT and related business process
consulting services, which add another $400 billion. Investments in infrastructure
account for between 25 and 50 percent of information technology expenditures in large
firms, led by financial services firms where IT investment is well over half of all capital
investment.

DEFINING IT INFRASTRUCTURE

An IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applica- tions

that are required to operate the entire enterprise. But an IT infrastructure is also a set
of firmwide services budgeted by management and comprising both human and
technical capabilities. These services include the following:

• Computing platforms used to provide computing services that connect

employees, customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital environment,
including large mainframes, midrange computers, desktop and laptop
computers, and mobile handheld and remote cloud computing services.
• Telecommunications services that 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, including online software services, that provide
enterprise-wide capabilities such as enterprise resource planning, customer
relationship management, supply chain management, and knowledge
management systems that are shared by all business units
• Physical facilities management services that develop and manage the physical
installations required for computing, telecommunications, and data
management services

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 • IT management services that plan and develop the infrastructure, coordi- nate
with the business units for IT services, manage accounting for the IT
expenditure, and provide project management services
• IT standards services that provide the firm and its business units with policies
that determine which information technology will be used, when, and how
• IT education services that provide training in system use to employees and offer
managers training in how to plan for and manage IT investments
• IT research and development services that provide the firm with research on
potential future IT projects and investments that could help the firm differentiate
itself in the marketplace

This “service platform” perspective makes it easier to understand the business value
provided by infrastructure investments. For instance, the real business value of a fully
loaded personal computer operating at 3 giga- hertz that costs about $1,000 and a
high-speed Internet connection is hard to understand without knowing who will use it
and how it will be used. When we look at the services provided by these tools, however,
their value becomes more apparent: The new PC makes it possible for a high-cost
employee making $100,000 a year to connect to all the company’s major systems and
the public Internet. The high-speed Internet service saves this employee about one
hour per day in reduced wait time for Internet information. Without this PC and Internet
connection, the value of this one employee to the firm might be cut in half.

EVOLUTION OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE

The IT infrastructure in organizations today is an outgrowth of over 50 years of

evolution in computing platforms. There have been five stages in this evolution, each
representing a different configuration of computing power and infrastructure elements
(see Figure 5.2). The five eras are general-pur- pose mainframe and minicomputer

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computing, personal computers, client/ server networks, enterprise computing, and
cloud and mobile computing.

Technologies that characterize one era may also be used in another time period for
other purposes. For example, some companies still run traditional mainframe systems
or use mainframe computers as massive servers supporting large Web sites and
corporate enterprise applications.

General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era: (1959 to Present)

The introduction of the IBM 1401 and 7090 transistorized machines in 1959 marked
the beginning of widespread commercial use of mainframe computers. In 1965, the
mainframe computer truly came into its own with the introduction of the IBM 360 series.
The 360 was the first commercial computer with a power- ful operating system that
could provide time sharing, multitasking, and virtual memory in more advanced
models. IBM has dominated mainframe computing from this point on. Mainframe
computers became powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals
connected to the centralized mainframe using proprietary communication protocols
and proprietary data lines.

The mainframe era was a period of highly centralized computing under the control of
professional programmers and systems operators (usually in a cor- porate data
center), with most elements of infrastructure provided by a single vendor, the
manufacturer of the hardware and the software.

This pattern began to change with the introduction of minicomputers pro- duced by
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1965. DEC minicomputers (PDP-11 and later
the VAX machines) offered powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM
mainframes, making possible decentralized computing, custom- ized to the specific
needs of individual departments or business units rather than time sharing on a single
huge mainframe. In recent years, the minicomputer has evolved into a midrange
computer or midrange server and is part of a network.

Personal Computer Era: (1981 to Present)

Although the first truly personal computers (PCs) appeared in the 1970s (the Xerox
Alto, the MITS Altair 8800, and the Apple I and II, to name a few), these machines had
only limited distribution to computer enthusiasts. The appearance of the IBM PC in
1981 is usually considered the beginning of the PC era because this machine was the
first to be widely adopted by American businesses. At first using the DOS operating
system, a text-based command language, and later the Microsoft Windows operating
system, the Wintel PC computer (Windows oper- ating system software on a computer
with an Intel microprocessor) became the standard desktop personal computer. In
2012, there are an estimated 1.2 billion PCs in the world, and 300 million new PCs are
sold each year. 90% are thought to run a version of Windows, and 10% run a
Macintosh OS. The Wintel domi- nance as a computing platform is receding as iPhone
and Android device sales increase. Nearly one billion people worldwide own
smartphones, and most of these users access the Internet with their mobile devices.

Proliferation of PCs in the 1980s and early 1990s launched a spate of personal desktop
productivity software tools—word processors, spreadsheets, electronic presentation
software, and small data management programs—that were very valuable to both

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home and corporate users. These PCs were stand-alone systems until PC operating
system software in the 1990s made it possible to link them into networks.

Client/Server Era (1983 to Present)

In client/server computing, desktop or laptop computers called clients are

networked to powerful server computers that provide the client computers with a
variety of services and capabilities. Computer processing work is split between these
two types of machines. The client is the user point of entry, whereas the server typically
processes and stores shared data, serves up Web pages, or manages network
activities. The term “server” refers to both the soft- ware application and the physical

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computer on which the network software runs. The server could be a mainframe, but
today, server computers typically are more powerful versions of personal computers,
based on inexpensive chips and often using multiple processors in a single computer
box., or in server racks.

The simplest client/server network consists of a client computer networked to a server

computer, with processing split between the two types of machines. This is called a
two-tiered client/server architecture. Whereas simple client/server networks can be
found in small businesses, most cor- porations have more complex, multitiered (often
called N-tier) client/ server architectures in which the work of the entire network is
balanced over several different levels of servers, depending on the kind of service
being requested (see Figure 5.3).

For instance, at the first level, a Web server will serve a Web page to a client in
response to a request for service. Web server software is responsible for locating and
managing stored Web pages. If the client requests access to a corporate system (a
product list or price information, for instance), the request is passed along to an
application server. Application server software han- dles all application operations
between a user and an organization’s back-end business systems. The application
server may reside on the same computer as the Web server or on its own dedicated
computer. Chapters 6 and 7 provide more detail on other pieces of software that are
used in multitiered client/ server architectures for e-commerce and e-business.

Client/server computing enables businesses to distribute computing work across a

series of smaller, inexpensive machines that cost much less than cen- tralized
mainframe systems. The result is an explosion in computing power and applications
throughout the firm.

Novell NetWare was the leading technology for client/server networking at the
beginning of the client/server era. Today, Microsoft is the market leader with its
Windows operating systems (Windows Server, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows
Vista).

Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present)

In the early 1990s, firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could
integrate disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-
wide infrastructure. As the Internet developed into a trusted com- munications
environment after 1995, business firms began seriously using the Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking standard to tie their disparate
networks together. We discuss TCP/IP in detail in Chapter 7.

The resulting IT infrastructure links different pieces of computer hardware and smaller
networks into an enterprise-wide network so that informa- tion can flow freely across
the organization and between the firm and other organizations. It can link different
types of computer hardware, including mainframes, servers, PCs, and mobile devices,
and it includes public infrastruc- tures such as the telephone system, the Internet, and
public network services. The enterprise infrastructure also requires software to link
disparate applica- tions and enable data to flow freely among different parts of the
business, such as enterprise applications (see Chapters 2 and 9) and Web services
(discussed in Section 5.4).

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Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)

The growing bandwidth power of the Internet has pushed the client/server model one
step further, towards what is called the “Cloud Computing Model.” Cloud computing
refers to a model of computing that provides access to a shared pool of computing
resources (computers, storage, applications, and services) over a network, often the
Internet. These “clouds” of computing resources can be accessed on an as-needed
basis from any connected device and location. Currently, cloud computing is the fastest
growing form of com- puting, with companies spending about $109 billion on public
cloud services in 2012, and an estimated $207 billion by the end of 2016 (Gartner,
2012).

Thousands or even hundreds of thousands computers are located in cloud data

centers, where they can be accessed by desktop computers, laptop computers,
tablets, entertainment centers, smartphones, and other client machines linked to the
Internet, with both personal and corporate computing increasingly moving to mobile
platforms. IBM, HP, Dell, and Amazon operate huge, scalable cloud computing centers
that provide computing power, data storage, and high-speed Internet connections to
firms that want to maintain their IT infrastructures remotely. Software firms such as
Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce. com sell software applications as
services delivered over the Internet.

We discuss cloud and mobile computing in more detail in Section 5.3. The Learning
Tracks include a table titled Comparing Stages in IT Infrastructure Evolution, which
compares each era on the infrastructure dimensions introduced.

TECHNOLOGY DRIVERS OF INFRASTRUCTURE

EVOLUTION

The changes in IT infrastructure we have just described have resulted from

developments in computer processing, memory chips, storage devices,
telecommunications and networking hardware and software, and software design that
have exponentially increased computing power while exponentially reducing costs.
Let’s look at the most important developments.

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Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power

In 1965, Gordon Moore, the director of Fairchild Semiconductor’s Research and

Development Laboratories, an early manufacturer of integrated circuits, wrote in
Electronics magazine that since the first microprocessor chip was introduced in 1959,
the number of components on a chip with the smallest manufacturing costs per
component (generally transistors) had doubled each year. This asser- tion became the
foundation of Moore’s Law. Moore later reduced the rate of growth to a doubling every
two years.

This law would later be interpreted in multiple ways. There are at least three variations
of Moore’s Law, none of which Moore ever stated: (1) the power of microprocessors
doubles every 18 months; (2) computing power doubles every 18 months; and (3) the
price of computing falls by half every 18 months.

Figure 5.4 illustrates the relationship between number of transistors on a

microprocessor and millions of instructions per second (MIPS), a common measure of
processor power. Figure 5.5 shows the exponential decline in the cost of transistors
and rise in computing power. For instance, in 2012, you can buy an Intel i7 quad-core
processor on Amazon for about $355, and you will be purchasing a chip with 2.5 billion
transistors, which works out to about one ten- millionth of a dollar per transistor.

Exponential growth in the number of transistors and the power of processors coupled
with an exponential decline in computing costs is likely to continue. Chip manufacturers
continue to miniaturize components. Today’s transistors should no longer be compared
to the size of a human hair but rather to the size of a virus.

By using nanotechnology, chip manufacturers can even shrink the size of transistors
down to the width of several atoms. Nanotechnology uses individ- ual atoms and
molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times
smaller than current technologies permit. Chip manufactur- ers are trying to develop a
manufacturing process that could produce nanotube processors economically (Figure

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5.6). IBM has just started making microproces- sors in a production setting using this
technology.

The Law of Mass Digital Storage

A second technology driver of IT infrastructure change is the Law of Mass Digital

Storage. The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year (Gantz and
Reinsel, 2011; Lyman and Varian, 2003). Fortunately, the cost of storing digital
information is falling at an exponential rate of 100 percent a year. Figure 5.7 shows
that the number of megabytes that can be stored on mag- netic media for $1 from 1950
to the present roughly doubled every 15 months. In 2012, a 500 gigabyte hard disk
drive sells at retail for about $60.

Metcalfe’s Law and Network Economics

Moore’s Law and the Law of Mass Storage help us understand why computing
resources are now so readily available. But why do people want more com- puting and
storage power? The economics of networks and the growth of the Internet provide
some answers.

Robert Metcalfe—inventor of Ethernet local area network technology— claimed in

1970 that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the
number of network members. Metcalfe and others point to the increasing returns to
scale that network members receive as more and more people join the network. As the
number of members in a network grows linearly, the value of the entire system grows
exponentially and continues to grow forever as members increase. Demand for
information technology has been driven by the social and business value of digital
networks, which rapidly multiply the number of actual and potential links among
network members.

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Declining Communications Costs and the Internet

A fourth technology driver transforming IT infrastructure is the rapid decline in the costs
of communication and the exponential growth in the size of the Internet. An estimated
2.3 billion people worldwide now have Internet access (Internet World Stats, 2012).
Figure 5.8 illustrates the exponentially declining cost of communication both over the
Internet and over telephone networks (which increasingly are based on the Internet).
As communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach 0, utilization of
communication and computing facilities explode.

To take advantage of the business value associated with the Internet, firms must
greatly expand their Internet connections, including wireless connectiv- ity, and greatly
expand the power of their client/server networks, desktop cli- ents, and mobile
computing devices. There is every reason to believe these trends will continue.

Standards and Network Effects

Today’s enterprise infrastructure and Internet computing would be impossi- ble—both

now and in the future—without agreements among manufacturers and widespread
consumer acceptance of technology standards. Technology standards are
specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to
communicate in a network (Stango, 2004).

Technology standards unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price

declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard. Without
these economies of scale, computing of any sort would be far more expensive than is
currently the case. Table 5.1 describes important standards that have shaped IT
infrastructure.

Beginning in the 1990s, corporations started moving toward standard comput- ing and
communications platforms. The Wintel PC with the Windows operating system and
Microsoft Office desktop productivity applications became the standard desktop and

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mobile client computing platform. (It now shares the spotlight with other standards,
such as Apple's iOS and Macintosh operating systems and the Android operating
system.) Widespread adoption of Unix-Linux as the enterprise server operating system
of choice made possible the replacement of proprietary and expensive mainframe
infrastructures. In telecommunications, the Ethernet standard enabled PCs to connect
together in small local area networks (LANs; see Chapter 7), and the TCP/IP standard
enabled these LANs to be connected into firmwide networks, and ultimately, to the
Internet.

3. Latihan dan Jawaban

1) What is IT infrastructure and what are its components?

IT infrastructure is the shared technology resources that provide the platform for
the firm’s specific information system applications. IT infrastructure includes
hardware, software, and services that are shared across the entire firm. Major
IT infrastructure components include computer hardware platforms, operating
system platforms, enterprise software platforms, networking and telecommuni-
cations platforms, database management software, Internet platforms, and
consulting services and systems integrators.

2) What are the stages and technology drivers of IT infrastructure evolution?

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 The five stages of IT infrastructure evolution are: the mainframe era, the
personal computer era, the client/server era, the enterprise computing era, and
the cloud and mobile computing era. Moore’s Law deals with the exponential
increase in processing power and decline in the cost of computer technology,
stating that every 18 months the power of microprocessors doubles and the
price of computing falls in half. The Law of Mass Digital Storage deals with the
exponential decrease in the cost of storing data, stating that the number of
kilobytes of data that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 roughly doubles
every 15 months. Metcalfe’s Law states that a network’s value to participants
grows exponentially as the network takes on more members. The rapid decline
in costs of communi- cation and growing agreement in the technology industry
to use computing and communications standards is also driving an explosion of
computer use.

4. Daftar Pustaka

1. Management Information Systems, Managing Digital Firm, 11th Ed, Kenneth C.

Laudon, Jane. P. Laudon. (L&L)
2. Management Information Systems With Misource 2007, 8th Ed James A.
O'brien, And George Marakas
3. Managing Information Technology 5th Edition Martin, Brown, Dehayes

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