Chapter 5 – IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

Summary:

In this chapter, we take a look at IT Infrastructure, which is the actual physical set of devices that is required to operate and maintain any information technology systems. This includes both Hardware (servers, computers, high speed data cables) and Software (programs, computer code, and internet browsers). Our text begins by describing the evolution of IT Infrastructure from the late 1950’s to the Cloud-computing revolution of the present day. Today, the infrastructure industry is a $1 Trillion enterprise, which can be easily illustrated by the software supremacy of companies like Microsoft, and hardware companies like IBM.

One of the most important gauge of how fast technology and processing power progresses is Moore’s Law, which states that the power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months, and vice versa, the cost of computing falls by half in the same time frame. Correlating to this law is the rapid decline in costs of communication. Unchecked, all of this astronomical growth on a global scale would be unattainable without established technology standards. Standardization of computing and communication maintains a compatibility of products throughout the global network.

Currently, the vast majority of computing is taking place on mobile platforms such as IPhones, laptops, tablet pc’s, etc. This hardware utilizes Operating System Platforms, usually through the use of Blade Servers(page 206), like Linux or Windows. There are several platforms that were developed primarily for the use of mobile devices. These include the Android OS, Google’s Chrome OS, and Apple’s Lion OS. Data management and storage is usually maintained on Storage Area Networks (SANs), which are connected to multiple storage devices that are on a separate network dedicated solely for rapid access to stored data.

This chapter attempts to cover and explain the most prevalent hardware processing platforms in use today. These include Green computing technology and the highly popular Cloud computing. Open source software allows for the sharing of vast amounts of information, often for free. Companies and organizations usually purchase their software applications from outside sources. This market is dominated by the “big players” Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe.

Managing the massive infrastructure of Information technology has its own issues. One of the ongoing issues is managing the constant change of infrastructure. Managers cope with this issue by monitoring the Scalability of their system. This refers to the ability of a system to expand to serve a larger network without breaking down. Most companies use a competitive forces model to analyze cost decision making in regards to IT infrastructure and establish the Total Cost Ownership of IT assets. This model, taken from our textbooks (page 227), is illustrated below.