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Management of Information Technology
Chapter 6
IT Infrastructure and Platforms
Asst. Prof. Wichai Bunchua
E-mail : wichai@buu.ac.th
http://www.informatics.buu.ac.th/~wichai
IT Infrastructure and business capabilities
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IT Infrastructure and business capabilities
The services a firm is capable of providing to its customers,
suppliers, and employees are a direct function of its
infrastructure
This infrastructure should support the firm’s information
systems strategy
New information technologies have a powerful impact on
business and IT strategies, as well as the services that can
be provided to customers
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IT Infrastructure?
What is IT Infrastructure?
 IT Infrastructure is the shared technology resources that
provided the platform for the firm’s specification information
system applications
 IT Infrastructure includes hardware, software, and services
that are shared across the entire firm
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IT Infrastructure?
IT Infrastructure is a set of firmwide services budgeted by
management and comprising both human and technical
capabilities
These services include
 Computing platforms
 Telecommunication services
 Data management services
 (cont.)
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IT Infrastructure? (cont.)
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Data management services
Application software services
Physical facilities management services
IT management services
IT standard services
IT education services
IT research and development services
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Levels of IT Infrastructure
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Firm infrastructure is organized at 3 major levels
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Public
Enterprise
Business
There may be other low levels
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Departments
Individual employees
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Levels of IT Infrastructure
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950The IT infrastructure in organizations today is an outgrowth of
over 50 years of evolution in computing platforms
We identified five stages in this evolution, each representing a
different configuration of computing power and infrastructure
elements
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950The five eras are
 Automated special-purpose machines
 General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing
 Personal computers
 Client/server networks
 Enterprise and Internet computing
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Electronic Accounting Machine Era: 1930-1950
 Sort computer cards into bins, accumulate totals, and print
reports.
 Large and cumbersome
 Programs were hardwired into circuit boards
 No programmers
 Human machine operators are operating system, controlling
all system resources.
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer Era: 1959 to
present
 UNIVAC - first commercial all-electronic vacuum tube
computer in 1950s
 IBM 1401 and 7090 transistorized machines named
mainframe in 1959
 IBM 360 series - first commercial computer with powerful
operating system providing time sharing, multitasking, and
virtual memory in 1965
 (cont.)
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer Era: 1959 to
present (cont.)
 Today IBM mainframe can work with a wide variety of
different manufacturers’ computers and multiple OS on
client/server networks and Internet technology standard
 DEC introduced minicomputer PDP-11 in 1965 and later VAX
machines - powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM
mainframes
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Fig 6-3 a
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Personal Computer Era: 1981 to present
 First truly personal computer MIT’s Altair, and Apple I and II
appeared in 1970s
 IBM PC in 1981 credited as beginning of PC era because it
was widely adopted in American businesses
 First using DOS operating system, later Microsoft Windows
 Wintel PC computer became the standard desktop personal
computer
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Personal Computer Era: 1981 to present (cont.)
 Today, 95% of world’s estimated 1 billion computers used
Wintel standard
 Since 1981, PC software productivity as word processors,
spreadsheet, presentation and small data management were
valuable to both home and corporate users
 These PCs were standalone until PC operating system made
it possible to link into networks
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Client/server Era: 1983 to present
 In client/server computing, desktop or laptop called clients
are networked to server that provided the client with a
variety of services and capabilities
 A client is the user point of entry, server provides
communication among the clients, processes and stores
shared data, serves up Web pages, or manages network
activities
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950-
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Client/server Era: 1983 to present (cont.)
 The term server refers to both the software application
and the physical computer on which the network
software runs
 The server could be a mainframe or PC often using
multiple processors
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Client/server Era: 1983 to present (cont.)
 Simple client/server architecture - two tiered
 Multitiered or N-tier
 Novell Netware was the leading technology at the
beginning
 Today Microsoft Windows Server controls 78% of
LAN market
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Fig 6-4
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Enterprise Internet Era: 1992 to present
 In early 1990s, firms turned to networking standards and
software tools and could integrate disparate networks into an
enterprise infrastructure
 In 1995 Internet was developed using TCP/IP
 IT infrastructure links different types and brands of hardware
and small networks into enterprise-wide network
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Fig 6-3 c
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Enterprise Internet Era: 1992 to present (cont.)
 IT infrastructure links different types and brands of hardware
and small networks into enterprise-wide network
 Enterprise networks link mainframes, servers, PCs, mobile
phones, and other handheld devices, and connect to public
infrastructures such as the telephone system, the Internet
and public network services.
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Table 6-1a
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Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950Table 6-1b
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
The changes in IT infrastructure have resulted from
developments in
 Computer processing and memory chips
 Storage devices
 Telecommunications and networking hardware and software
 Software design
 Having exponentially increased computing power while
reducing costs
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power
 Gordon Moore, the director of Fairchild Semiconductor’s
Research and Development Laboratory
 In 1965, Moore wrote in Electronic magazine that “since the
first microprocessor chip was introduced in 1959, the number
of components on a chip had doubled each year” (later
reduced to two years)
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power
 Later this became the foundation of Moore’s Law
 This law would be interpreted in 3 variations
1. The power of microprocessor doubles every 18 months
2. Computing power doubles every 18 months
3. The price of computing falls by half every 18 months
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power
 Fig 6-5
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Moore’s Law and Microprocessing Power
 Fig 6-5
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Falling Cost of Chips
Law of Mass Digital Storage
 Fig 6-8
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Law of Mass Digital Storage
 The world produces as much as 5 exabytes (a billion GB) of
unique information per year. The amount of information is
roughly doubling every year
 Almost all of this information growth involves magnetic
storage of digital data, and printed document account for
only 0.003% of the annual growth
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Law of Mass Digital Storage
 Fortunately, the cost of storing digital information is falling at
an exponential rate
 Beginning Seagate506 in 1980 had 5 MB memory has
grown at compound annual rate of 25% in early year to over
60% a year since 1990
 Fig 6-9 shows number of KB can store on magnetic disk for
one dollar from 1950 to 2004 roughly doubled every 15
months
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
Law of Mass Digital Storage
 Fig 6-9
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Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
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Infrastructure Components
IT infrastructure today is composed of 7 major components
 Computer Hardware Platforms
 Operating System Platforms
 Enterprise Software Applications
 Data Management and Storage
 Network/Telecommunications Platforms
 Internet Platforms
 Consultants and System Integrators
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Infrastructure Components
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IT Infrastructure and Platforms
End of Part a
(Cont.)
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Questions?
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ส วั ส ดี
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