IT Infrastructure, Evolution, Latest Trends

and IT Strategy

Fundamental of
Computers
IT Infrastructure
 It consists of a set of physical devices and
software applications that are required to
operate the entire enterprise. But IT
Infrastructure is also a set of firmwide
services budgeted by management and
comprising both human and technical
capabilities.
Examples:
 Computing platforms like desktop, laptop computers, PDA etc.
 Telecommunication services that provide data, voice, and video connectivity.
 Database Management service that store and manage corporate data and
provide capabilities for analyzing the data.
 Application Software service that provide enterprise wide capabilities such as
ERP, CRM etc.
 IT management service that plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate
with the business units for IT services , manage accounting for the IT
expenditure, and provide project management services.
 IT education services that provide training in system use to employees and
offer managers training in how to plan for and manage IT investments.
 IT R&D Services that provide the firm with research on potential future IT
projects and investments that could help the firm in differentiating itself in the
marketplace.
Evolution of IT Infrastructure: 1950-2007
 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.
Moore’s Law
 “Since the first microprocessor chip was introduced in
1959, the number of components on a chip with the
smallest manufacturing costs per component (generally
transistors) had doubled each year.”
Interpretation:
 1. The power of microprocessors doubles every 18
months;
 2. Computing power doubles every 18 months;
 3.The price of computing falls by half every 18 months.
Nanotechnology
 It uses individual atoms and molecules to
create computer chips and other devices
that are thousands of times smaller than
current technologies permit.
Standards and Network Effects
 Technology standards are specifications that establish
the compatibility of products and the ability to
communicate in a network.
 They unleash powerful economies of scale and result in
price declines as manufacturers focus on the products
build to a single standard.
 Examples:TCP/ IP, Ethernet, WWW etc.
Hardware Platform Trends and Emerging
Technologies
 Integration of Computing and
Telecommunications Platforms.
 GRID Computing.
 On- demand computing (Utility
Computing)
 Autonomic Computing and EDGE
Computing.
Integration of computing and
Telecommunications Platforms
 Convergence of telecommunications and
computing platforms to the point where,
increasingly, computing takes place over
the network.
 Cell phones are taking on functions of
handheld computers whereas PDAs are
taking on cell phone functions.
GRID Computing
 It 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.
 It takes advantage of the fact that most computers use their CPU on
average only 25 % of the time for work processing tasks.
 It requires software programs to control and allocate resources on
the grid, such as open- source software or private software.
 Client software communicates with a server software application. The
server software breaks data and application code into chunks that
are then parceled out to the grid’s machines.
 The client machine can perform their traditional tasks while running
grid applications in the background.
On demand computing (Utility Computing)
 It refers to firms off-loading peak demand for
computing power to remote large scale data
processing centers. In this manner, firms can
reduce their investment in IT infrastructure by
investing just enough to handle average
processing loads and paying for only as much
additional computer as the market demands.
Autonomic Computing and EDGE Computing
 Autonomic Computing is an Industry Wide Effort to develop systems
that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal
themselves when broken,and protect themselves from outside
intruders and self- destruction
 EDGE Computing is a multitier, load-balancing scheme for web based
applications in which significant part of the website content, logic, and
processing are performed by smaller , less expensive servers located
nearby the user in order to increase response time and resilience
while lowering technology costs.
 In this sense, edge computing is another technique like grid computing
and on-demand computing for using the Internet to share the workload
experience by a firm across many computers located at the firm’s
main data center.
 Example: Akamai
Management Issues
 Dealing with Infrastructure Change.
 Management and Governance.
 Making Wise Infrastructure Investments.
Competitive forces Model for IT
Infrastructure Investment.
 Market demand for your firm’s services.
 Your firms business strategy.
 Your firm’s IT Strategy, Infrastructure and cost.
 Information Technology Assessment.
 Competitor firm services.
 Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments.
Total Cost of Ownership.
Thank You