Chapter 5

IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Learning Objectives

• Define IT infrastructure and describe its

components.
• Identify and describe the stages and technology
drivers of IT infrastructure evolution.
• Assess contemporary computer hardware platform
trends.
• Assess contemporary software platform trends.
• Evaluate the challenges of managing IT
infrastructure and management solutions.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• IT infrastructure:
– Set of physical devices and software required to
operate enterprise
– Shared technology resources that provide the
platform for the firm’s specific information system
– Set of firmwide services including:
• Computing platforms providing computing services that connect
employees, customers, and suppliers into a coherent digital
environment.
• Telecommunications services provide data, voice, and video
connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers.
• Data management services that store and manage corporate data
and provide capabilities for analyzing the data

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• Application software services, online software services, that

provide enterprise-wide capabilities such as enterprise resource
planning,
• Physical facilities management services, develop and manage the
physical installations required for computing, telecommunications,
and data management services
• IT management services plan and develop the infrastructure, IT
expenditures, standards, education,
• research and development services, provide the firm with
research on potential future IT projects and investments that could
help the firm differentiate itself in the marketplace
• “Service platform” perspective makes it easier to understand
the business value provided by infrastructure investments.
analyzing the actual services enabled by new technology
tools

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

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.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure
• Evolution of IT infrastructure
– General-purpose mainframe & minicomputer era: 1959 to present
• 1958 IBM first mainframes introduced, with OS provide time sharing and
multitasking
• powerful enough to support thousands of online remote terminals
connected to the centralized mainframe. High computing capacity,
extremely powerful servers
• 1965 Less expensive decentralized DEC minicomputers introduced
– Personal computer era: 1981 to present
• 1981 Introduction of IBM PC, widely adopted by American businesses.
• Proliferation in 80s, 90s resulted in growth of personal software.
• Wintel Pc became the standard desktop personal computer
– Client/server era: 1983 to present
• Desktop clients networked to servers, with processing work split
between clients and servers
• Servers processes and stores shared data, serves up Webpages, or
manages network activities.
• Network may be two-tiered or multi-tiered (N-tiered)
• Various types of servers (network, application, Web)

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

STAGES IN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE
EVOLUTION

Illustrated here are the

typical computing
configurations
characterizing each of the
five eras of IT
infrastructure evolution.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• Evolution of IT infrastructure (cont.)

– Enterprise computing era: 1992 to present
• Move toward integrating disparate networks, applications
using Internet standards and enterprise applications
• so that information can flow freely across the organization
and between the firm and other organizations.
– Cloud Computing: 2000 to present
• Refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals
obtain computing power and software applications over the
Internet or other network.
• Accessed as-needed basis
• Fastest growing form of computing.
• 207$ billion estimated spending by end of 2016.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

STAGES IN IT
INFRASTRUCTU
RE EVOLUTION
(cont.)

Illustrated here are the

typical computing
configurations
characterizing each of
the five eras of IT
infrastructure
evolution.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

A MULTITIERED CLIENT/SERVER NETWORK (N-TIER)

In a multi-tiered client/server network, client requests for service are handled by different levels of servers.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution

– Moore’s law and micro-processing power
• Computing power doubles every 18 months
• the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18
months
• the price of computing falls by half 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.
• The cost of storing digital information is falling at an
exponential rate of 100% a year.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution

(cont.)
– Metcalfe’s Law and network economics
• Value or power of a network grows exponentially as a
function of the number of network members.

• Metcalfe points to the increasing return to scale that

network members receive as more and more people
join the network

• As network members increase, more people want to

use it (demand for network access increases) and the
value to the entire system grows.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution

(cont.)
– Declining communication costs and the Internet
• An estimated 3 billion people worldwide have
Internet access
• As communication costs fall toward a very small
number and approach 0, utilization of
communication and computing facilities
explodes

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh
 IT Infrastructure

• Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.)

– Standards and network effects
• Technology standards:
– Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the
ability to communicate in a network
– Unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines
as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard.
• Wintel Pc became the standard desktop and mobile client computing
platform.
• In telecommunications, the Ethernet standard enabled PCs to connect
together in small local area networks
• and the TCP/IP standard enabled these LANs to be connected into
firmwide networks, and ultimately, to the Internet. Communication
protocol.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• IT Infrastructure has 7 main components

1. Computer hardware platforms
2. Operating system platforms
3. Enterprise software applications
4. Data management and storage
5. Networking/telecommunications platforms
6. Internet platforms
7. Consulting system integration services

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

THE IT
INFRASTRUCTURE
ECOSYSTEM
There are seven major
components that must be
coordinated to provide the firm
with a coherent IT infrastructure.
Listed here are major
technologies and suppliers for
each component.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components
• Computer hardware platforms
– Client machines
• Desktop PCs, mobile devices – PDAs, laptops
– Servers
• Blade servers: ultrathin computers stored in racks
– Mainframes:
• IBM mainframe equivalent to thousands of blade servers.
• reliably and securely handle huge volumes of transactions, for
analyzing very large quantities of data, and for handling large
workloads in cloud computing centers.
– Top chip producers: AMD, Intel, IBM
– Top firms: IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems
– The industry has collectively settled on Intel as the standard
processor for business computing

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• Operating system platforms

– Operating systems
• Server level: 35% run Windows; 65% run Unix or Linux
• Client level:
– 90% run Microsoft Windows (7.0, 8.0, etc.)
– Handheld device OS’s (Android, iPhone OS) (touch technology)
– Cloud computing OS’s (Google’s Chrome OS)
• Enterprise software applications
– Enterprise application providers: SAP and Oracle
– Middleware “bridge” : middleware software supplied by
vendors such as IBM and Oracle for achieving firmwide
integration by linking the firm’s existing application systems.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• Data management and storage

– Database software: for organizing and managing the firm’s data so
that they can be efficiently accessed and used.
• IBM (DB2), Oracle, Microsoft (SQL Server), Sybase (Adaptive
Server Enterprise), MySQL
– Physical data storage:
• EMC Corp (large-scale systems), Seagate, Maxtor, Western
Digital
– Storage area networks (SANs):
• Connect multiple storage devices on dedicated network.
• The SAN creates a large central pool of storage that can be
rapidly accessed and shared by multiple servers.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• Networking/telecommunications platforms
– Telecommunication services
• typically provided by telecommunications/telephone
services companies that offer voice and data
connectivity, wide area networking, wireless services,
and Internet access.
• AT&T, Verizon
– Network operating systems:
• Windows Server, Linux, Unix
– Network hardware providers:
• Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Juniper Networks

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• Internet platforms: overlap with and must relate to the

firm’s networking infrastructure.
– Hardware, software, management services to support
company Web sites, (including Web hosting services,
routers, and cabling or wireless equipment).
– Internet hardware server market: Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM,
Sun (oracle)
– Web development tools/suites: Microsoft .NET IBM
(WebSphere), Sun (Java), independent software
developers: Adobe, RealMedia

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Infrastructure Components

• Consulting and system integration services

– Even large firms do not have resources for a full range of
support for new, complex infrastructure
– Software integration: ensuring new infrastructure works
with legacy systems
– Legacy systems: older TPS created for mainframes that
would be too costly to replace or redesign
– Accenture, IBM Global Services, EDS, Infosys, Wipro
– Business systems consultant today involves developing
business processes and supporting systems

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

The current trends in computer Hardware Platform

1. The emerging mobile digital platform

– Cell phones, smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone)
• Have taken on many functions of PCs, including data
transmission, Web surfing, e-mail and IM duties
• managers are increasingly using these to coordinate
work and communicate with employees
– Netbooks:
• Small, low-cost lightweight notebooks optimized for
wireless communication and core computing tasks
• Tablets (iPad)
• Networked e-readers (Kindle)
– Wearable computing devices

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends

2. CONSUMERIZATION OF IT AND BYOD

– BYOD “Bring Your Own Device” is one aspect of the
consumerization of IT, in which new information technology
that first emerges in the consumer market spreads into
business organizations.
– Allowing employees to use their personal mobile devices in
the workplace.
– Consumerization of IT is forcing businesses, especially large
enterprises, to rethink the way they obtain and manage
information technology equipment and services.
– Software services that originated in the consumer
marketplace (Facebook, google, etc)
– BYOD security policy
Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh
 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends

3. Virtualization
– Allows single physical resource to act as multiple resources
(i.e., run multiple instances of OS)
– helps organizations increase equipment utilization rates,
conserving data center space and energy usage.
• Fewer computers required to process the same amount of work
• Reduces hardware and power expenditures
• Reduced data center space to house machines
– Facilitates hardware centralization and consolidation of
hardware administration
– VMware is a leading Virtualization software vendor.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends

4. Cloud computing
– On-demand (utility) computing services obtained over
network
– Cloud can be public or private.
– Hybrid cloud
– Infrastructure services, Platform services (Customers use
infrastructure and programming tools supported by the
cloud service provider to develop their own applications),
and Software as a services.
– Allows companies to minimize IT investments
– Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends
• Cloud computing as having the following essential characteristics:

– On-demand self-service: Consumers can obtain computing

capabilities such as server time or network storage as needed
automatically on their own.

– Ubiquitous network access: Cloud resources can be accessed using

standard network and Internet devices, including mobile platforms.

– Location-independent resource pooling: Computing resources are

pooled to serve multiple users, with different virtual resources
dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally
does not know where the computing resources are located.

– Rapid elasticity: Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned,

increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand.

– Measured service: Charges for cloud resources are based on amount

of resources actually used. “pay-as-you-grow subscription method”
Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh
 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends
5. Green computing
– Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of
computing and networking hardware to minimize impact on the
environment.
– Reducing computer power consumption has been a very high “green”
priority.
– Virtualization on of the technologies promoting green computing.
6. High performance, power-saving processors
– Multi-core processors: integrated circuit to which two or more
processor cores have been attached for enhanced performance,
reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous
processing of multiple tasks.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Contemporary Software Platform Trends

• Software outsourcing and cloud services

– Three external sources for software:
1. Software packages and enterprise software
2. Software outsourcing (domestic or offshore)
– enables a firm to contract custom software development or
maintenance of existing legacy programs to outside firms,
3. Cloud-based software services
– Software as a service (SaaS)
– Users pay on subscription or per-transaction
– Mashups and Apps (the new browsers).
• Mashup: The idea is to take different sources and produce a
new work that is “greater than” the sum of its parts.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

• Dealing with platform and infrastructure change

– As firms shrink or grow, IT needs to be flexible and scalable
– Scalability:
• Ability to expand to serve larger numbers of users
– For mobile computing and cloud computing
• New policies and procedures for managing these new
platforms
• They will need to inventory all of their mobile devices in
business use and develop policies and tools for tracking,
updating, and securing them and for controlling the data
and applications that run on them.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

• Firms using cloud computing and SaaS will need to

fashion new contractual arrangements (service level
agreement SLA) with remote vendors
• to make sure that the hardware and software for critical
applications are always available when needed
• and that they meet corporate standards for information
security and disaster recovery.
• Criteria for performance measurement.
• Conditions for terminating the agreement

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

• Management and governance

– Should departments and divisions have the responsibility of
making their own information technology decisions or should IT
infrastructure be centrally controlled and managed? Centralized
IT department or decentralized
– How will infrastructure costs be allocated among business units?
Each organization will need to arrive at answers based on its
own needs.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

• Making wise infrastructure investments

– Amount to spend on IT is complex question
• Rent vs. buy, The decision either to purchase your own IT assets or
rent them from external providers
– Total cost of ownership (TCO) model
• Analyzes direct and indirect costs
• Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO
• Other costs: Installation, training, support, maintenance,
infrastructure, downtime, space and energy
• TCO can be reduced through use of cloud services, greater
centralization and standardization of hardware and software
resources
• managers must pay close attention to administration costs to
understand the full cost of the firm’s hardware and software.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

Management Issues

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

• Competitive forces model for IT infrastructure

investment. how much your firm should spend on IT
infrastructure.
1. Market demand for firm’s services: find out if the services you
currently offer are meeting the needs of each group.
2. Firm’s business strategy, Analyze your firm’s five-year business
strategy and try to assess what new services and capabilities will be
required to achieve strategic goals.
3. Firm’s IT strategy, infrastructure, and cost,
• Examine your firm’s information technology plans for the
next five years and assess its alignment with the firm’s
business plans.
• Determine the total IT infrastructure costs. You will want to
perform a TCO analysis.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

4. Information technology assessment.

– It is usually not desirable to spend resources on advanced technologies
that are still experimental, often expensive, and sometimes unreliable.
– spend on technologies for which standards have been established and IT
vendors are competing on cost, and multiple suppliers
5. Competitor firm service
– Try to assess what technology services competitors offer to customers,
suppliers, and employees. / Qualitative and quantitative measures
6. Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments
– Benchmark your expenditures for IT infrastructure against your
competitors.
– Your firm does not necessarily need to spend as much as, or more than,
your competitors. Perhaps it has discovered much less-expensive ways of
providing services, and this can lead to a cost advantage.

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh

 Management Issues

COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL FOR IT INFRASTRUCTURE

There are six factors you can use to answer the question, “How much should our firm spend on IT infrastructure?”

Eng. Rasha Al Ababseh