IT Infrastructure and

Emerging Technologies
 Learning Objectives

01
Define IT infrastructure and
describe its components.

Identify and describe the

stages and technology drivers
of IT infrastructure evolution.
02
Assess contemporary
03 computer hardware platform
trends.

04
Assess contemporary software
platform trends.

Evaluate the challenges of

05 managing IT infrastructure and
management solutions.
Management Challenge
Problem:
Costly and unwieldy IT infrastructure;
diminishing resources

Demonstrates IT’s role in

improving performance and
decreasing costs

Solutions:
• Streamline data centers
• Implement enterprise-wide computing
• Employ new technologies:
virtualization, mobile systems
 IT infrastructure
• Set of physical devices and software
required to operate enterprise
• Set of firmwide services including:
• Computing platforms providing computing
services
• Telecommunications services
• Data management services
• Application software services
• Physical facilities management services
• IT management, education, and other
services
• “Service platform” perspective
• More accurate view of value of investments

Connection between the Firm , IT Infrastructure, and

Business Capabilities
 Evolution of IT Infrastructure

General-purpose mainframe Client/server era: 1983 to

and minicomputer era: 1959 present
to present • Desktop clients networked
to servers, with processing
• 1958: IBM first mainframes work split between clients
introduced and servers
• 1965: less expensive DEC • Network may be two-tiered
minicomputers introduced or multitiered (N-tiered)
• Various types of servers
(network, application, Web)

Personal computer era:

1981 to present
• 1981: Introduction of IBM PC
• Proliferation in 80s, 90s
resulted in growth of
personal software

A Multitiered Client/Server Network (N-tier)

Evolution of IT Infrastructure (cont’d)

Enterprise computing era: Cloud and mobile computing:

1992 to present 2000 to present
Move toward integrating • Cloud computing: computing power and
disparate networks, applications software applications supplied over the
using Internet standards and Internet or other network
enterprise applications • Fastest growing form of computing
Technology • Moore’s law and microprocessing power
• Computing power doubles every 18 months
drivers of • Nanotechnology:
• Shrinks size of transistors to size comparable to size of a
infrastructure virus

evolution

Examples of Nanotubes
Moore’s Law and Microprocessor Performance Falling Cost of Chips
Packing more than 2 billion transistors into a tiny Nanotubes are tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than a
microprocessor has exponentially increased Packing more transistors into less space human hair. They consist of rolled up sheets of carbon
has driven down transistor cost
processing power. Processing power has increased hexagons and have the potential uses as minuscule wires or
to more than 500,000 MIPS (millions of dramatically as well as the cost of the in ultrasmall electronic devices and are very powerful
instructions per second). products in which they are used. conductors of electrical current.
 Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont’d)
• 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
• As network members increase, more people want to
use it (demand for network access increases)
• Declining communication costs and the Internet
• An estimated 2.3 billion people worldwide have
internet access
• As communication costs fall toward a very small The Cost of Storing Data Declines Exponentially 1950 – 2012
number and approach 0, utilization of communication
and computing facilities explodes
• 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 as manufacturers focus on the products built to
a single standard Exponential Declines in Internet Communication Costs
 Infrastructure Components
IT Infrastructure has
seven main
components

1. Computer hardware
platforms
2. Operating system
platforms
3. Enterprise software
applications
4. Data management
and storage
5. Networking/telecom
munications
platforms
6. Internet platforms
7. Consulting system
integration services

There are seven major components that must be coordinated to provide

the firm with a coherent IT infrastructure. Listed here are major
technologies and suppliers for each component.
 Computer Hardware Platforms
(Infrastucture Components)
Client machines
Desktop PCs, mobile devices— PDAs,
laptops
Servers
Blade servers: ultrathin computers stored
in racks
.
Mainframes
IBM mainframe equivalent to thousands
of blade servers
Top chip producers
AMD, Intel, IBM

Top firms
IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems
Operating System Platforms, Enterprise Software
Applications & Data Management and Storage
(Infrastructure Components cont’d)
Operating system platforms Data management and storage

Operating systems Database software

• IBM (DB2), Oracle, Microsoft (SQL Server), Sybase
• Server level: 65% run Unix or Linux; 35% run W indows (Adaptive Server Enterprise), MySQL
• Client level:
• 90% run Microsoft W indows (XP, 2000, CE, etc.)
• Mobile/multitouch (Android, iOS) Physical data storage
• Cloud computing (Google’s Chrome OS) • EMC Corp (large-scale systems), Seagate, Maxtor,
Western Digital

Enterprise software applications Storage area networks (SANs):

• Enterprise application providers: SAP and Oracle
• Middleware providers: BEA • Connect multiple storage devices on dedicated network
Networking/telecommunications Platforms &
Internet Platforms (Infrastructure Components
cont’d)
Networking/telecommunications Internet platforms
platforms
• Hardware, software, management services
Telecommunication services to support company Web sites, (including
• Telecommunications, cable, telephone company
charges for voice lines and Internet access Web-hosting services) intranets, extranets
• AT&T, Verizon • Internet hardware server market: IBM, Dell,
Network operating systems Sun (Oracle), HP
• W indows Server, Linux, Unix • Web development tools/suites: Microsoft
(Expression Studio, .NET) Oracle-Sun
Network hardware providers (Java), Adobe, Real Networks
• Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Juniper Networks
Consulting and system integration services
(Infrastructure Components cont’d)
Even large firms do not have
01 resources for full range of support
for new, complex infrastructure

Software integration: ensuring new

02 infrastructure works with legacy
systems

Legacy systems: older TPS created

03 for mainframes that would be too
costly to replace or redesign

04 Accenture, IBM Global Services,

EDS, Infosys, Wipro
Contemporary Hardware Platforms Trends
The mobile digital platform
• Cell phones, smartphones (iPhone, Android, and Blackberry)
• Data transmission, Web surfing, e-mail, and IM duties
• Netbooks:
• Small lightweight notebooks optimized for wireless
communication and core tasks
• Tablets (iPad)
BYOD (Bring your own device) • Networked e-readers (Kindle and Nook)

• Allowing employees to use personal mobile

devices in workplace.

Consumerization of IT
• New information technology emerges in consumer
markets first and spreads to business organizations
Grid computing • Forces businesses and IT departments to rethink how IT
equipment and services are acquired and managed
• Connects geographically remote computers
into a single network to combine processing
power and create virtual supercomputer
• Provides cost savings, speed, agility Virtualization
• Allows single physical resource to act as multiple
resources (i.e., run multiple instances of OS)
• Reduces hardware and power expenditures
• Facilitates hardware centralization
 • On-demand (utility) computing
services obtained over network
• Infrastructure as a service
• Platform as a service
• Software as a service
• Cloud can be public or private
• Allows companies to minimize IT
investments
• Drawbacks: Concerns of security,
reliability
• Hybrid cloud computing model

Cloud Computing Platform

C l o u d
Computing
Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends

High performance, power-saving processors

Multi-core processors

Green computing Autonomic computing

Practices and technologies for • Industry-wide effort to develop systems that can
manufacturing, using, disposing configure, heal themselves when broken, and protect
of computing and networking themselves from outside intruders
hardware • Similar to self-updating antivirus software; Apple and
Microsoft both use automatic updates
Contemporary Software Platform Trends
Open-source software Linux
• Produced by community of programmers • Open-source OS
• Free and modifiable by user • Used in mobile devices, local area
• Examples: Apache web server, Mozilla networks, Web servers, high-performance
Firefox browser, OpenOffice computing

Web Services
• Software components that exchange
Software for the Web information using Web standards and
languages
• Java: • XML: Extensible Markup Language
• Object-oriented programming language • More powerful and flexible than HTML
• Operating system, processor-independent • Tagging allows computers to process
• HTML/HTML5 data automatically
• Web page description language
• Specifies how text, graphics are placed on Web page
• HTML5 is latest evolution
• Includes animation and video processing functionality previously provided by third party add-ons such
as Flash
Contemporary Software
Platform Trends (cont’d)
SOA: Service-oriented architecture
• Set of self-contained services that
communicate with each other to create
a working software application
• Software developers reuse these
services in other combinations to
assemble other applications as needed
• Example: an “invoice service” to
serve whole firm for calculating
and sending printed invoices
• Dollar Rent A Car
• Uses Web services to link online
booking system with Southwest
Airlines’ Web site
BIG DATA
HOW DOLLAR RENT A CAR USES WEB SERVICES
 Contemporary Software
Software outsourcing and
cloud services Platform Trends
• Three external sources for software:
• Software packages and enterprise software
• Software outsourcing
• Contracting outside firms to develop
software
• Cloud-based software services
• Software as a service (SaaS)
• Accessed with Web browser over Internet
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): formal
agreement with service providers
• Mashups
• Combinations of two or more online applications,
such as combining mapping software (Google
Maps) with local content
• Apps
• Small pieces of software that run on the Internet,
on your computer, or on your cell phone
• IPhone, Android
• Generally delivered over the Internet CHANGING SOURCES OF FIRM SOFTWARE
 Dealing with platform and Management and Making wise infrastructure
infrastructure change governance investments
• As firms shrink or grow, IT needs to • Who controls IT infrastructure? • Amount to spend on IT is complex
be flexible and scalable • How should IT department be question
• Scalability: organized? • Rent vs. buy, cloud computing
• Ability to expand to serve • Centralized • Outsourcing
larger number of users • Central IT department • Total cost of ownership (TCO)
• For mobile computing and cloud makes decisions model
computing • Decentralized • Analyzes direct and indirect
• New policies and procedures • Business unit IT costs
for managing these new departments make own • Hardware, software account
platforms decisions for only about 20% of TCO
• Contractual agreements with • How are costs allocated between • Other costs: Installation,
firms running clouds and divisions, departments? training, support, maintenance,
distributing software required infrastructure, downtime,
space, and energy
• TCO can be reduced

Management • Use of cloud services, greater

centralization and
standardization of hardware

Issue
and software resources
Competitive forces model for IT
infrastructure investment
Market demand for firm’s
01 services

02 Firm’s business strategy

Firm’s IT strategy,
03 infrastructure, and cost

04 Information technology
assessment

05 Competitor firm services

06 Competitor firm IT
infrastructure investments
THANK YOU