Resume Chapter 4
IT INFRASTRUCTURE HARDWARE AND SOFT WARE
4.1 IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Business require a wide variety of computing equipment, software, and communication capabilities simply to operate and solve basic business problems. Obviously, we need computers, and, as it turns out, a wide variety of computers are available, including desktop, laptops, and handhelds.
INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS
a. Computer hardware
Computer hardware consists of technology for computer processing, data storage, input, and output. This component includes large mainframes, servers, desktop and laptop computers, and mobile devices for accessing corporate data and the internet.
b. Computer software
Computer software includes both system software and application software. System software manages the resources and activities of the computer. Application software applies the computer to a specific task for an end user, such as processing an order or generating a mailing list.
c. Data management technology
Data management organizes, manages, and processes business data concerned with inventory, customers, and vendors.
d. Networking and telecommunication technology
Networking and telecommunication technology provides data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers.
e. Technology services
Business need people to run and manage the other infrastructure components we have just described and to train employees how to use these technologies for their work. When business need to make major system changes or implement an entirely new IT infrastructure, they typically turn to external consultants to help them with system integration.

TYPES OF COMPUTERS

If we are working alone or with a few other people in a small business, we will use probably be using a desktop or laptop personanal computer(PC). If our business have a number of computers networked together or maintain a Web site, it will need a server. If we are doing advanced design or engineering work requiring powerful graphics or computational capabilities, we might use a workstation, wich fits on a desktop but has more powerful mathematical and graphics-processing capabilities than a PC. A mainframe is a large-capacity, high-performance computer that can process large amounts of data rapidly. A supercomputer is a specially designed and more sophisticated computer that is used for tasks requiring extremely rapid and complex calculations with thousands of equations. Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a “virtual supercomputer” by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid.

Computer Networks and Client/Server Computing
The use of multiple computer linked by a communications network for processing is called distributed processing. Centralized processing, in wich all processing is accomplished by one large central computer, is much less common.
One widely used form of distributed processing is client/server computing. Client/server computing splits processing between “clients” and serves”. The client is the user point of entry for the required function and is normally a desktop or laptop computer. The user generally interacts directly only with the client portion of the application. The server provides the client with services.
For istance, at the first level a Web server will serve a Web page to a client in response to a request for service. Web server software is responsible for locating and managing stored Web pages. If the client requests access to a corporate system( a product list or price information, for instance), the request is passed along to an application server.

STORAGE, INPUT, AND OUTPUT TECHNOLOGY

In addition to hardware for processing data, we will need technologies for data storage, and input and output. Storage and input and output devices are called peripheral devices beucause they are outside the main computer system unit.

Secondary Storage Technology
The principal storage technologies are:
Magnetic Disks: the most widely used storage medium today is the magnetic disk.
Optical Discs: these discs use laser technology to store large quantities of data, including sounds and images, in a highly compact form. They are available for both PCs and large computers.
Magnetic Tape: some companies still use magnetic tape, an older storage technology that is used for secondary storage of large quantities of data that are needed rapidly but not instantly. It store data sequentially and is relatively slow compared to the speed of other secondary storage media.
Storage Networking: large firm are turning to network-based storage technologies to deal with the complexity and cost of mushrooming storage requirement.

Input and Output Devices
Human beings interact with computer system largely through input and output devices. Input devices gather data and convert them into electronic form for use by the computer, whereas output devices display data after they have been processed.

CONTEMPORARY HARDWARE TRENDS

The exploding power of computer hardware and networking technology has dramatically changed how business organize their computing power, putting more of this power on networks. We look at this trends:
1. The emerging mobile digital platform
Mobile digital computing platform have emerged as alternatives to PCs and larger computers. Communication devices such as cell phones,and smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, have taken on many functions of handheld computers, including transmission of data, surfing the Web, transmitting e-mail and instant messages, displaying digital content, and exchanging data with internal corporate system.
2. Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies permit.
3. Cloud computing
Cloud computing refers to a model of computing in which firms and individuals obtain computing resources and software applications over the internet (also referred to as “the cloud”).
Cloud computing consists of three different types of services:
a. Cloud infrastructure as a services: customers use processing, storage, networking, and other computing resources from cloud service providers to run their information system.
b. Cloud platform as a service: customers use infrastructure and programming tools hosted by the service provider to develop their own applications.
c. Cloud software as a service: customers use software hosted by the vendor.
4. Autonomic computing
Autonomic computing is an industry-wide effort to develop system that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction. Imagine, for instance, a desktop PC that could know it was invaded by a computer virus.

5. Virtualization and multicore processors
Virtualization presents a set of computing resources(such as computing power or data storage) so that they can all be accessed in ways that are restricted by physical configuration or geographic location.

4.2 IT Infrastructure: Computer Soft Ware

OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE

The system software that manages and controls the computer’s activities is called the operating system. Other system software consists of computer language translation programs that convert programming languages into machine language that can be understood by the computer and utility programs that perform common processing tasks, such as copying, sorting, or computing a square root.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE AND DESKTOP PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

Today, business have access to an array of tools for developing their application software. This include traditional programming languages, fourth-generation languages, application software packages, and desktop productivity tools; software for developing Internet application; and software for enterprise integration. It is important to know wich software tools and programming languages are appropriate for the work your business wants to accomplish.

SOFTWARE FOR THE WEB: JAVA, AJAX, AND HTML
There are a number of software tools that business use to build Web sites and applications that run on the Web. Java and ajax are used for building applications that run on the Web, and HTML is used for creating Web pages.

WEB SERVICES
Web services refer to a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange information with each other using universal Web communication standards and languages.

SOFTWARE TRENDS
Today are many more sources for obtaining software and many more capabilities for users to create their own customized software applications. Expanding use of open source software and cloud –based software tools and services exemplify this trend.


4.3 Managing Hardware And Software Technology

Selection and use of computer hardware and software technology has a profound impact on business performance. The most important issues will be face when in managing hardware and software technology: capacity planning and scalability; determining the total cost of technology assets; determing whether to own and maintain your own hardware, software, and other infrastructure components or lease them from an external technology servie provider; and managing mobile platforms and software localization.

4.4 Hands-On Mis Project

The project in this section give you hands-on experience in developing solutions for managing IT infrastructures and IT outsourcing, using spreadsheet software to evaluate alternative desktop systems, and using Web research to budget for a sales conferece.

Strengthen Customer And Supplier Intimacy
Customers
A profitable company depend in a large measure on its ability to attract and retain customers (while denying them to competitors), and charge high prices. The Power of customers grows if they can easily switch to a competitor’s product and service, or if they can force a business and its competitors to compete on price alone in a transparent market place where there is little product differentiation, and all price are known instantly(such as on the internet).
Supplier
The market power of suppliers can have a significant impact on firm profits, especially when the firm can’t raise price as fast as can supplier. The more different suppliers a firm has, the greater control it can exercise over supplier in terms of price, quality, and delivery schedules.
Customer intimacy is the largest source of the growth, sustainable competitive advantage, and profit. Everyone in organization should practice it. Customer-intimate companies bring an entirely fresh perspective. They discover unsuspected problems, detect unrealized potential, and create a dynamic synergy with customers. They often merge their operations with those of their customers. In the integration of their operations, suppliers become more than merely useful: they become indispensable.
Business have traditionally relied on technology and product innovation for competitive advantage. However, as products became commodities due to global competition and relentless technological advances, the battleground for differentiation and customer value creation shifted to customer intimacy and service. This service-focused competitive strategy has worked well for numerous companies across various industry sectors.
Benefit to everyone in the organization
Customer intimacy
 gives senior managers a new vision of the future, a strategy that makes sense, and the tactics to make it work.
 helps sales and account managers build deeper and more productive relationships with selected customers, arming them with a real-world model of success in their battle to unite factory and field.
 helps information-technology professionals leverage emerging innovation: keeping information flowing back and forth to customers, and coaching them on how to get the best results with that information.
 helps human-resource professionals to deal with a most sensitive challenge of the commitment to deliver results – to integrate the supplier's personnel into a customer's operation.



Case in poiny 25 Lessons from Jack Welch
Jack Welch’s goal was to make GE “the wold’s most competitive enterprise”. Welch believed in trying to know every employee and every customers, just like a village grocer. Welch even nicknamed GE “the grocery store”: what is important at the grocery store is just as important in engines or medical systems. If the customer isn’t statisfied, if the stuff is getting stale, if the shelf isn’t right, or if the offerings aren’t right, it’s the same thing. He knew that it would take nothing less than a "revolution" to transform that dream into a reality. "The model of business in corporate America in 1980 had not changed in decades. Workers worked, managers managed, and everyone new their place. Forms and approvals and bureaucracy ruled the day."2 Welch's self-proclaimed revolution meant waging war on GE's old ways of doing things and reinventing the company from top to bottom.
Today, GE with its unique learning culture and boundaryless organization is one the most admired company in the world.