Summary Management Information Systems
Global Edition
Managing the Digital Firm
Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon
Chapter 5 until 12
Some example questions included
Management Information
Systems
Chapter 5 - IT infrastructure and emerging technologies
5.1 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
▪ Most accurate view of value of investments
Connection between the firm, 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 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
General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era (1959 to present)
▪ 1958: IBM first mainframes introduced
▪ 1965: less expensive DEC minicomputers introduced
Personal computer era (1981 to present)
▪ 1981: Introduction of IBM PC
▪ Proliferation in 80s, 90s resulted in growth of personal software
Client/server era (1983 to present)
▪ Desktop clients networked to servers, with processing work split
between clients and servers
▪ Network may be two-tiered or multitiered (N-tiered)
▪ Various types of servers (network, application, Web)
Enterprise computing era (1992 to present)
▪ Move toward integrating disparate networks, applications using
Internet standards and enterprise applications
Cloud and mobile computing (2000 to present)
▪ Cloud computing: computering power and software applications
supplied over the Internet or other network → fastest growing form
of computing
Stages in IT infrastructure evolution
Illustrated here are the
typical computing
configurations characterizing
each of the five eras of IT
infrastructure evolution
, A multitier client/server network
(N-tier)
In a multitiered client/server network, client requests for service are handled by
different levels of servers.
Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution
Moore's law and microprocessing power
▪ Computing power doubles every 18 months
▪ Nanotechnology:
Shrinks size of transistors to size comparable to size of a virus
Law of Mass Digital Storage
▪ The amount of data being stored each year doubles
Moore's law and microprocessing performance
, Packing mare than 2 billion transistors into a tiny microprocessor has
exponentially increased processing power. Processing power has increased to
more than 500,000 MIPS (millions of instructions per second)
Packing more transistors into less space has driven down transistor cost
dramatically as well as the cost of the products in which they are used.
Examples of Nanotubes
Nanotubes are tiny tubes about
10,000 times thinner than a
human hair. They consist of
rolled ub sheets of carbon
hexagons and have the
potential uses as minuscule
wires or in ultrasmall electronic
devices and are very powerful
conductors of electrical current.
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