MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
❧
GROUP MEMBER:
Lusiana Aprilianti (C1L012002)
Fina Nugraheni (C1L012012)
Yuniar Denti I.W. (C1L012018)
❧
BART SPEEDS UP WITH A NEW IT INFRASTRUCTURE�
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a heavy-rail public transit system that connects San Francisco to Oakland, California, and other neighboring cities to the east and south. BART has provided fast, reliable transportation for more than 35 years and now carries more than 346,000 passengers each day over 104 miles of track and 43 stations. BART’s information systems were no longer state-of-the art, and they were starting to affect its ability to provide good service. BART upgraded both its hardware and software. It replaced old legacy mainframe applications with Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise applications running on HP Integrity blade servers and the Oracle Enterprise Linux operating system. In most data centers, a distinct server is deployed for each application, and each server typically uses only a fraction of its capacity. BART’s management felt the best solution was to invest in new hardware and software technologies that were more cost-effective, efficient, and energy-saving.
❧
DEFINING IT INFRASTRUCTURE�
IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise. But IT infrastructure is also a set of firmwide services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical capabilities. The services a firm is capable of providing to its customers, suppliers, and employees are a direct function of its IT infrastructure. Ideally, this infrastructure should support the firm’s business and 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.
❧
EVOLUTION OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE�
The IT infrastructure in organizations today is an outgrowth of over 50 years of evolution in computing platforms. The five eras are general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing, personal computers, client/server networks, enterprise computing, and cloud and mobile computing.
❧
General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era:�(1959 to Present)�
❧
Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present)�
Firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide infrastructure. The resulting IT infrastructure links different pieces of computer hardware and smaller networks into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely across the organization and between the firm and other organizations.
❧
Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)�
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 computing, with global revenue expected to reach close to $89 billion in 2011 and nearly $149 billion by 2014 according to Gartner Inc. technology consultants (Cheng and Borzo, 2010; Veverka, 2010). Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution
❧
Moore’s L aw and Microprocessing Power
In 1965, Gordon Moore, the directory 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.
❧
INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENT�
1. Computer Hardware Platforms
This component includes client machines (desktop PCs, mobile computing devices such as netbooks and laptops but not including iPhones or BlackBerrys) and server machines. The client machines use primarily Intel or AMD microprocessors. The marketplace for computer hardware has increasingly become concentrated in top firms such as IBM, HP, Dell, and Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle), and three chip producers: Intel, AMD, and IBM
❧
2. Operating System Platform
Microsoft Windows Server is capable of providing enterprise-wide operating system and network services, and appeals to organizations seeking Windows-based IT infrastructures (IDC, 2010). PCs use some form of Microsoft Windows operating system (such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP) to manage the resources and activities of the computer.
❧
3. Enterprise Software Application
The largest providers of enterprise application software are SAP and Oracle (which acquired PeopleSoft). Also included in this category is middleware software supplied by vendors such as BEA for achieving firmwide integration by linking the firm’s existing application systems.
❧
4. Data Management And Storage
Enterprise database management software is responsible for organizing and managing the firm’s data so that they can be efficiently accessed and used.
❧
5. Networking/Telecommunications Platforms
Windows Server is predominantly used as a local area network operating system, followed by Linux and Unix. Large enterprise wide area networks primarily use some variant of Unix. The leading networking hardware providers are Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, and Juniper Networks. Telecommunications platforms are typically provided by telecommunications/telephone services companies that offer voice and data connectivity, wide area networking, wireless services, and Internet access.
❧
Thank You
❧