IT Infrastructure and
Emerging Technologies
Cost-effective, Efficient, Energy-saving
Computing
• Singapore’s regulatory system for Construction
• Building IT infrastructure to streamline construction
permits processes
– CORENET
• COnstruction and Real Estate NETwork
– Construction process
• Design, tender documentation and selection,
construction, and handover and maintenance
– Building plan submission and obtaining approvals
and permits
• 16 government authorities across eight ministries
– Traditional process
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Voluminous paper documents
Manual processing
Storage space needed
Disorganized exchange of project information
– CORENET
• e-submission system
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One-stop 24/7 counter for submission
Online enquiry of submission status
Quicker processing and turnaround
Elimination of printing hardcopies
» No need to travel to multiple sites for multiple
submissions
– Benefits
• Cost savings
– Printing
– Traveling
• Better quality
– Streamlined process
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5.1 IT Infrastructure
5.2 Infrastructure Components
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trends
5.5 Management Issues
5.1 IT Infrastructure
• The shared technology resources
– Provide the platform for the firm’s specific
information system applications
• Microsoft Operating Systems – Infrastructure
• Services or products built on MS operation systems
– Word, Powerpoints, Excel, ….
– Internet Explorer
– .Net
• IT infrastructure
– A set of
• Physical devices
• Software applications
– Required to operate the entire enterprise
• IT infrastructure
– Set of firmwide services including:
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Computing platforms providing computing services
Telecommunications services
Data management services
Application software services
Physical facilities management services
IT management, standards, education, research and development
services
• IT infrastructure
– “Service platform” perspective is more accurate
view of the value of IT investments
• Evolution of IT infrastructure
– Five stages
– Different configuration of computing power and
infrastructure elements.
1. General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer
ERA: (1959 – Present)
• IBM 360
– Online remote terminals
– Centralized mainframe
– Proprietary communication protocol
• Minicomputer
– Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1965
» PDP 11, VAX machine
» Powerful machines at far low prices
» Decentralized computing
2. Personal Computer Era: (1981 to present)
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Xerox Alto, Apple I and II (1970s)
Wintel PC
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Windows operating software
Intel microprocessor
Productivity software tools
» Word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software
3. Client/Server Era (1983 to Present)
• Clients: Laptop and desktop
• Server: Powerful server computers
– Stores shared data
– Serves Web pages
– Managing network activities
• Network may be two-tiered or multitiered (N-tiered)
• Various types of servers (network, application, Web)
4. Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to present)
– TCP/IP (1995)
• Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
– Integrate disparate network and applications
• Link different types of computer hardware
5. Cloud and Mobile Computing Era
(2000 to present)
• Growing bandwidth power of the Internet
• Client/server model
– Cloud Computing
• Access to a shared pool of computing resources
– Computers, storage, applications, services
• Accessed on an as-needed basis
• IBM, HP, Dell, Amazon
– Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• Software as a Service
– Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com
• Technology driver of infrastructure evolution
– Moore’s law and Microprocessing power
1. The power of microprocessors doubles every 18
months
2. Computing power doubles every 18 months
3. The price of computing falls by half every 18 months
• The Law of Mass Digital Storage
– The amount of digital information is roughly
doubling every year
• Metcalfe’s law and network Economics
– The value or power of a network
Grows exponentially as a function of the number of
networked members
– cp. 邊際效益遞減
• Declining Communications costs and the
Internet
– Utilization of communication and computing
facilities explodes
• Standards and Network Effects
– Proprietary and expensive infrastructure
– Technology standards
• Ethernet
– enabled PCs to connect together in small LAN
• TCP/IP
– enabled LAN to be connected to Internet
– Economies of scale
• Decline of computing cost
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5.1 IT Infrastructure
5.2 Infrastructure Components
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend
5.5 Management Issue
5.2 Infrastructure Components
• IT Infrastructure has 7 main components
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Computer hardware platforms
Operating system platforms
Enterprise software applications
Data management and storage
Networking/telecommunications platforms
Internet platforms
Consulting system integration services
1. Computer Hardware Platform
– Client machines
• Intel, AMD microprocessors
– Server market
• Intel, AMD blade server in rack
• Sun SPARC
• IBM POWER chips
– Top hardware manufacturer
• IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems
– Top chip producers
• Intel, AMD, IBM
– Mainframe
• IBM
• Giant server for massive enterprise network and
corporate Web sites
• Equivalent to thousands of small blade servers
2. Operating System Platform
– Server operating systems
• Microsoft: 75%
• Unix/Linux: 25%
– Client operating systems
• Microsoft Windows operating systems
• Google Chrome OS: lightweight operating system for
cloud comp
• Android
• IOS
3. Enterprise Software Applications
– SAP
– Oracle
– Middleware: BEA
• Linking existing systems to Enterprise Applications
– Microsoft
4. Data Management and Storage
– Leading database software
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IBM DB2
Oracle
Microsoft SQL Server
Sybase
MySQL
– Physical data storage
• EMC
• Storage area networks (SAN)
– Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed
network
5. Networking/Telecommunications Platform
– Local area network operating systems
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Windows
Linux and Unix
Unix: large wide area networks
TCP/IP: wide area network
– Leading hardware
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Cisco
Alcatel-Lucent
Nortel
Juniper Network
華為
6. Internet Platform
– Internet hardware server
• IBM, Dell, HP/Compaq
– Web software applications development tools
• Microsoft
– MS Expression Web, SharePoint Designer, .NET
• Oracle-Sun
– Java
• Adobe
7. Consulting and System Integration Service
• Even a large firm
– Does not have the staff, the skills, the budget, and the
necessary experience
– To deploy and maintain its entire IT infrastructure
– Leading consulting firm
• Accenture, IBM Global Service, HP Enterprise Service,
Infosys, Wipro Technology
– Software Integration
• Ensuring legacy systems works with new Infrastructure
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5.1 IT Infrastructure
5.2 Infrastructure Components
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend
5.5 Management Issue
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Trend
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Mobile digital platform
Consumerization of IT & BYOD
Grid computing
Virtualization
Cloud computing
Green computing
High performance/power-saving processors
Autonomic computing
1. The Mobile digital platform
– Smartphones
• Have assumed data transmission, Web surfing,
e-mail and IM duties
– Netbooks:
• Small, low-cost lightweight notebooks
optimized for wireless communication and core
computing tasks
– Tablets (iPad)
– Networked e-readers (Kindle)
2. Consumerization of IT & BYOD
– first emerges in the consumer market
– spread into business organization
(bring your own device)
– IT department lose control of hardware &
software
• Network security
• Right to access
3. Grid computing
– Connects geographically remote computers into a
single network to combine processing power and
create virtual supercomputer
– Provides cost savings, speed, agility
4. 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
5. Cloud computing
– 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
6. Green computing
– Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using,
disposing of computing and networking hardware
– Reducing computer power consumption
7. Autonomic computing
– Industry-wide effort to develop systems
• that can configure, heal themselves
• when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders
– self-updating antivirus software;
• Apple and Microsoft both use automatic updates
8. High performance, power-saving processors
– Multi-core processors
• Simultaneous processing of multiple tasks
• Reduced power consumption
– Highly power-efficient microprocessor
• ARM (Advanced RISC Machine)
• Apple’s A4
• Intel’s Atom
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5.1 IT Infrastructure
5.2 Infrastructure Components
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend
5.5 Management Issue
5.4 Contemporary Software Trend
• Linux and open-source software
– Open-source software: Produced by community of
programmers, free and modifiable by user
– Linux: Open-source software OS
• Software for the Web
– Java:
• Object-oriented programming language
• Operating system, processor-independent
– Ajax
• Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
• Allows client and server to exchange small pieces of
data without requiring the page to be reloaded
• HTML & HTML5
– Hypertext Markup Language
• Specify how text, graphics, … are placed
• Create dynamic links
– Require third party plug-in for rich media
• Apple drop support for Flash
– HTML5
• Embed rich media directly into the webpages
• Web services & Service-oriented architecture
– Web Services
• Software components that exchange information using Web
standards and languages
• XML: Extensible Markup Language
– More powerful and flexible than HTML
– Tagging allows computers to process data automatically
– 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
• Software outsourcing and cloud services
– Three external sources for software:
1. Software packages and enterprise software
2. Software outsourcing (domestic or offshore)
– Domestic:
» Primarily for middleware, integration services, software
support
– Offshore:
» Primarily for lower level maintenance, data entry, call
centers, although outsourcing for new-program
development is increasing
• Three external sources for software (cont.)
3. Cloud-based software services
• Software as a service (SaaS)
• Accessed with Web browser over Internet
• Ranges from free or low-cost services for individuals to
business and enterprise software
• Users pay on subscription or per-transaction
• E.g. Salesforce.com
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): formal agreement
with service providers
• Software outsourcing and cloud services
(cont.)
– 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, BlackBerry, Android
• Generally delivered over the Internet
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5.1 IT Infrastructure
5.2 Infrastructure Components
5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend
5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend
5.5 Management Issue
• Dealing with platform and infrastructure
change
• As firms shrink or grow, IT needs to be flexible and scalable
– Scalability:
• Ability to expand to serve larger numbers of users
– Flexibility
• Mobile computing and cloud computing
– New policies and procedures for managing these new
platforms
– Contractual agreements with firms running clouds and
distributing software required
• Management and governance
– Who controls IT infrastructure?
– How should IT department be organized?
• Centralized
– Central IT department makes decisions
• Decentralized
– Business unit IT departments make own decisions
– How are costs allocated between divisions,
departments?
• Making wise infrastructure investments
– Amount to spend on IT is complex question
• Rent vs. buy, outsourcing
– Total cost of ownership (TCO) model
• Analyzes direct and indirect costs
• Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO
• Other costs:
– Installation, training, support, maintenance, infrastructure,
downtime, space and energy
• TCO can be reduced
– through use of cloud services, greater centralization and
standardization of hardware and software resources
• Competitive forces model for IT infrastructure
investment
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Market demand for firm’s services
Firm’s business strategy
Firm’s IT strategy, infrastructure, and cost
Information technology assessment
Competitor firm services
Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments