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INTRODUCTION
Organizations can choose from thousands of components to build their IT infrastructures IT infrastructure - includes the hardware,
software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provide the underlying foundation to support the organization’s goals
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IT INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW
• The three primary components of any IT infrastructure include:
1. Client/server networks2. Internet3. N-tier infrastructures
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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
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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
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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
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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
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INFORMATION VIEWS
• Responsible for the presentation of information and receiving user events and includes:– Intranets– Extranets– Portals– Digital dashboards
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION
• Responsible for data storage and manipulation and includes:– Network area storage– Storage area networks– Server farms– Collocation
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE
• An organization can support its IT infrastructure components with:– Backup/recovery– Disaster recovery– Infrastructure ‘ ilities
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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
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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
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Hot and Cold Sites
• Hot site - a separate and fully equipped facility where the company can move immediately after the disaster and resume business
• Cold site - a separate facility that does not have any computer equipment, but is a place where the knowledge workers can move after the disaster
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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE
• Disaster recovery cost curve – charts1. The cost to your organization of the
unavailability of information and technology2. The cost to your organization of recovering from
a disaster over time
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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
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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
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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
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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE
• Scalability – how well your system can adapt to increased demands
• Flexibility - the system’s ability to change quickly
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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
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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE
• Capacity planning - determines the future IT infrastructure requirements for new equipment and additional network capacity
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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?