IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Defining IT Infrastructure
• IT infrastructure - includes the hardware, software, and
telecommunications equipment that, when combined,
provide the underlying foundation to support the
organization’s goals
•
•A set of physical devices and software applications that are
required to operate the entire enterprise
•
•Your firm is largely dependent on its infrastructure for delivering
services to customers, employees, and suppliers.
•
•You can think of infrastructure as digital plumbing, but its much
more than that!
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950–2005

•Electronic accounting machine era: (1930–1950)

•
•General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer
era: (1959 to present)
•
•Personal computer era: (1981 to present)
•
•Client/server era: (1983 to present)
•
•Enterprise internet computing era: (1992 to
present)
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Eras in IT Infrastructure Evolution

Figure 6-3
 Evolution of Information Technology Infrastructure
Web Services
Ability to fill information needs

Distributed
d
b d d d
b b b
Client/Server d d
d
b b
b
d
b
PC/LAN

Mainframe

1960
1980
1990
2000 S1
INTRODUCTION
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE
OVERVIEW

• The three primary components of any IT

infrastructure include:
1.Client/server networks
2.Internet
3.N-tier infrastructures
 Client/Server Network

• Client/server network - a network in which one

or more computers are servers and provide
services to the other computers, which are
called clients
– Thin client - a workstation with a small amount
of processing power and costs less than a full
powered workstation
Client/Server Network
 The Internet

• There are numerous ways that the Internet

enables an organization’s success
• Organizations must watch for inappropriate use
of the Internet by its employees
• Organizations must decide how employees will
access the Internet
 n-Tier Infrastructures

• Basic client/server computing is a 2-tier

infrastructure
– 2-tier infrastructure – there are only two tiers –
the client and the server
– 3-tier infrastructure – contains clients,
application servers, and data servers
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

A Multitiered Client/Server Network (N-tier)

Figure 6-4
 Additional IT Infrastructure
Elements

• Client/server networks, the Internet, and n-tier

infrastructures are central to an organization’s
IT infrastructure
• Three general categories of additional IT
infrastructure elements include:
– Information views
– Business logic
– Data storage and manipulation
Additional IT Infrastructure
Elements
 INFORMATION VIEWS

• Responsible for the presentation of information

and receiving user events and includes:
– Intranets
– Extranets
– Portals
– Digital dashboards

 INFORMATION VIEWS

• Intranet - an internal organizational Internet

that is guarded against outside access by a
special security feature called a firewall
(which can be software, hardware, or a
combination of the two)
• Extranet – is an intranet that is restricted to an
organization and certain outsiders, such as
customers and suppliers
 INFORMATION VIEWS

• Enterprise information portals (EIPs) - allow

knowledge workers to access company
information via a Web interface
– Collaborative processing enterprise information
portal - provides knowledge workers with access
to workgroup information
– Decision processing enterprise information portal
- provides knowledge workers with corporate
information for making key decisions
 INFORMATION VIEWS

• Digital dashboard – displays key information

gathered from several sources on a computer
screen in a format tailored to the needs and
wants of an individual knowledge worker
INFORMATION VIEWS
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Responsible for maintaining the business rules

(e.g. application software) and protecting
corporate information from unauthorized
direct access by the clients and includes:
– Integrations
– Web services
– Workflow systems
– Applications service providers
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Integrations solve the problem with separate

applications
• Integration - allows separate applications to
communicate directly with each other by
automatically exporting data files from one
application and importing them into another
•
BUSINESS LOGIC
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Web Services promise to be the next major

frontier in computing
– Web services – encompass all the technologies
that are used to transmit and process
information on and across a network
– Interoperability – the concept that different
computer systems and applications can talk to
each other

 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Microsoft .NET - .Net is Microsoft’s version of

Web services
• Microsoft’s vision is to make applications
available any time, any place, on any device
 .NET Components

The three primary components of .NET:



– .NET platform – tools, technologies, and

services that support .NET
– .NET framework – supports Web services
– Visual Studio .NET – development tools that
create .NET applications
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Many companies support Web Services besides

Microsoft
• Primary competitor is Sun Microsystems J2EE
• Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) – Sun
Microsystems development tool for building
Web Services applications
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Workflow systems help to automate the process

of presenting and passing information around
an organization
• Workflow - defines all of the steps or business
rules, from beginning to end, required for a
process to run correctly
• Workflow systems - automate business
processes
 BUSINESS LOGIC

Two primary types of workflow systems include:



– Messaging-based workflow systems - send work

assignments through an e-mail system
– Database-based workflow systems - store the
document in a central location and
automatically asks the knowledge workers to
access the document
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• An organization can outsource business logic

through an application service provider
• Application service provider (ASP) – supplies
software applications over the Internet that would
otherwise reside on its customers’ in-house
computers

ASP Configuration
 BUSINESS LOGIC

• Customers typically sign an agreement with the

ASP for service
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - define the
specific responsibilities of the service provider
and set the customer expectations
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION

• Responsible for data storage and manipulation

and includes:
– Network area storage
– Storage area networks
– Server farms
– Collocation
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION
• Network area storage (NAS) – is a special
purpose server aimed at providing file storage
to users who access the device over a network
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION

• Storage area network (SAN) – is an

infrastructure for building special, dedicated
networks that allow rapid and reliable access
to storage devises by multiple servers
SAN Configuration
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION

• NAS and SAN architectures share several

objectives including:
– Large amounts of storage capacity
– Serve multiple users
– 24 X 7 support
• Primary difference is the location of the
network that connects users, file servers, and
disk drives
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION

• Server farm - the name of a location that stores

a group of servers in a single place
• Web farm – is either a Web site that has
multiple servers or an ISP that provides Web
site outsourcing services using multiple
servers
 DATA STORAGE AND
MANIPULATION

• Collocation - a company rents space and

telecommunications equipment from another
company, or a collocation vendor
• Collocation facilities typically contain server
farms and Web farms
•
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• An organization can support its IT

infrastructure components with:
– Backup/recovery
– Disaster recovery
– Infrastructure ‘ilities
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Backup- the process of making a copy of the

information stored on a computer
• Recovery - the process of reinstalling the
backup information in the event the
information was lost
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Disaster recovery plan- a detailed process for

recovering information or an IT system in the
event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire
or flood
• A disaster recovery plan typically includes hot
and cold sites

 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Disaster recovery cost curve – charts

1.The cost to your organization of the
unavailability of information and technology
2.The cost to your organization of recovering from
a disaster over time
•
Disaster Recovery Cost Curve
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Factors to consider when developing an IT

infrastructure (These factors are commonly
referred to as the ‘ilities)
– Availability
– Accessibility
– Reliability
– Scalability
– Flexibility
– Performance
– Capacity planning
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Availability - determining when your IT system

will be available for knowledge workers to
access
• Accessibility - determining who has the right to
access different types of IT systems and
information
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Reliability - ensures your IT systems are

functioning correctly and providing accurate
information
– Data cleansing - the process of ensuring that all
information is accurate
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Scalability – how well your system can adapt to

increased demands
• Flexibility - the system’s ability to change
quickly
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Performance -measures how quickly an IT

system performs a certain process
– Benchmark – baseline values a system seeks to
attain
– Benchmarking – a process of continuously
measuring system results
 SUPPORTING AN IT
INFRASTRUCTURE

• Capacity planning - determines the future IT

infrastructure requirements for new
equipment and additional network capacity
 IT INFRASTRUCTURES AND
THE REAL WORLD

• When approving designs for an IT infrastructure

be sure to ask the following:
– How big is your department going to grow?
– Will the system handle additional users?
– How are your customers going to grow?
– How easy is it to change the system?
– How flexible is the system?

 IT INFRASTRUCTURES AND
THE REAL WORLD


– How much additional information do you expect to

store each year?
– How long will you maintain information in the
systems?
– How much history do you want to keep on each
customer?
– What are the hours you need the system to be
available?
– How often do you need the information backed up?
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

The Connection between the Firm, IT Infrastructure, and

Business Capabilities

Figure 6-1
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Levels of IT Infrastructure

Three major levels of infrastructure:

•
•Public
•
•Enterprise
•
•Business unit
•
 IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Levels of IT Infrastructure

Figure 6-2
 INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

Seven Key Infrastructure Components

•Computer Hardware Platforms

•
•Operating System Platforms
•
•Enterprise Software Applications
•
•Data Management and Storage
•
•
 INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

Seven Key Infrastructure Components (Continued)

•Networking/Telecommunications Platforms
•
•Internet Platforms
•
•Consulting and System Integration Services
 INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

The IT Infrastructure Ecosystem

Competitive Forces Model for IT Infrastructure
Enabling a Dynamic IT Infrastructure
The Situation: Look Familiar?
 IT Architecture Challenges
ERP CRM EMAIL Application infrastructure
silos lead to:
Middleware Middleware Middleware

• Poor server and storage utilization

• Higher maintenance costs
• Difficulty adapting to changing
needs
• A struggle meeting SLAs
• Inability to scale as data grows
 Trends Address Challenges

Service Oriented
Architecture
Flexibility

Infrastructure
Services Consolidation

Enterprise
Grid Computing
Range
of solutions

Virtualization
 The Dynamic IT Infrastructure
ERP CRM EMAIL

Middleware Middleware
Middleware
Middleware
•Consolidate and pool
hardware resources
Database
•Leverage virtualization
technologies
Servers
•Use SOA to integrate
and automate business
processes
Storage

Increased flexibility & higher availability at reduced costs

Improve Scalability and Utilization
with Virtualization

Middleware • Abstraction of resources

• Decouple the physical
Database hardware from the operating
VIRTUAL LAYER
system
Servers • Deliver greater resource
utilization and flexibility
VIRTUAL LAYER

Storage
 What is SOA?

• Evolution of distributed computing

• Application functions are modularized and
presented as services
• Services are loosely coupled
– Service interface is independent of the
implementation
 SOA: A Paradigm Shift

Traditional Architecture SOA

Functionality Driven  Process Oriented

Designed to last  Designed for change
Long development
 Iterative development
cycles
Tightly Coupled  Loosely Coupled
Application Specific  Heterogeneous
Object Oriented  Message Oriented
 Grid + Virtualization + SOA =

Dynamic IT Infrastructure

 "The virtualization and automation of applications

presents organizations with a tremendous opportunity
to consolidate workloads, reduce operational costs,
and adapt more quickly to changing customer
requirements and industry demands … the
organizations that move to a robust, scalable adaptive
computing platform first can gain a competitive
advantage."


Jean S. Bozman, Vice President

IDC's Global Enterprise Solutions Group
 The Dynamic IT Infrastructure
ERP CRM EMAIL ERP CRM EMAIL

Middleware Middleware Middleware

Middleware

Database

TO

Servers

Storage

Increased flexibility and agility at reduced costs

 Storage
ERP CRM EMAIL

•Easy Provisioning
Middleware
•Dynamic Scaling
•High Availability
•Simplified Data Management
Database
•Improved Productivity

Servers

Storage

Storage is the foundation of a dynamic IT infrastructure

 Servers
ERP CRM EMAIL

•Optimize Resource Utilization Middleware

•Increase Quality of Service
•Reduce TCO
Database

Servers

Storage

Optimized use of cost effective blade server technology

 Database and Middleware
ERP CRM EMAIL

•Interoperability Middleware
•Comprehensive lifecycle support
•Performance and scalability
•Standards-based Database

Servers

Storage

Develop SOA using comprehensive software

 Grid + Virtualization + SOA =
Dynamic IT Infrastructure

ü Real and available today

ü Dramatically improves resource utilization
ü Significantly improves availability
ü Scales with your data growth
ü Enhances business agility
ü Improves staff productivity
ü Reduces costs
•
 The Dynamic IT Infrastructure

 “Enterprises with higher profitability over the

long term have greater IT infrastructure
capability than less successful competitors.”