IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Cost-effective, Efficient, Energy-saving Computing

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Public transit system San Francisco, Oakland, California

Goal: Fast, reliable transportation 346,000 passengers each day 台北捷運 -- 1,601,655 per day 高雄捷運 -- 150,000 per day Recently, ambitious modernization effort Overhaul stations New rail cars New information technology infrastructure

Old New Legacy mainframe applications Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise application HP Integrity blade servers Oracle Enterprise Linux operating system Grid Computing

Results Rapid information to support timely decisions More reliable to support 24/7 operations Fewer servers Virtualization Less energy used

5.1 IT Infrastructure 5.2 Infrastructure Components 5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend 5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend 5.5 Management Issue

5.1 IT Infrastructure The shared technology resources Provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications Microsoft Operating Systems – Infrastructure Services or products built on MS operation systems Word, Powerpoints, Excel, …. Internet Explorer .Net

One-Stop shopping Low cost Highest quality Operational excellence New products & services Customer & supplier intimacy Better decision making survival Software Hardware

IT infrastructure A set of Required to operate the entire enterprise Physical devices Software applications Required to operate the entire enterprise

IT infrastructure Set of firmwide services including: Computing platforms providing computing services Telecommunications services Data management services Application software services Physical facilities management services IT management, standards, education, research and development services

IT infrastructure “Service platform” perspective is more accurate view of the value of IT investments

Evolution of IT infrastructure Five stages Different configuration of computing power and infrastructure elements.

General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer ERA: (1959 – Present) IBM 360 Online remote terminals Centralized mainframe Proprietary communication protocol

Minicomputer Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1965 PDP 11, VAX machine Powerful machines at far low prices Decentralized computing

Personal Computer Era: (1981 to present) Xerox Alto, Apple I and II (1970s) Wintel PC Windows operating software Intel microprocessor Productivity software tools Word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software

3. Client/Server Era (1983 to Present) Clients: Laptop and desktop Server: Powerful server computers Stores shared data Serves Web pages Managing network activities

Network may be two-tiered or multitiered (N-tiered) Various types of servers (network, application, Web)

4. Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to present) TCP/IP (1995) Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol Integrate disparate network and applications Link different types of computer hardware

5. Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to present) Growing bandwidth power of the Internet Client/server model Cloud Computing Access to a shared pool of computing resources Computers, storage, applications, services Accessed on an as-needed basis IBM, HP, Dell, Amazon Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Software as a Service Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com

Technology driver of infrastructure evolution Moore’s law and Microprocessing power The power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months Computing power doubles every 18 months The price of computing falls by half every 18 months

The Law of Mass Digital Storage The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year

Metcalfe’s law and network Economics The value or power of a network Grows exponentially as a function of the number of networked members cp. 邊際效益遞減

Declining Communications costs and the Internet Utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes

Standards and Network Effects Proprietary and expensive infrastructure Technology standards Ethernet enabled PCs to connect together in small LAN TCP/IP enabled LAN to be connected to Internet Economies of scale Decline of computing cost

5.1 IT Infrastructure 5.2 Infrastructure Components 5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend 5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend 5.5 Management Issue

5.2 Infrastructure Components IT Infrastructure has 7 main components Computer hardware platforms Operating system platforms Enterprise software applications Data management and storage Networking/telecommunications platforms Internet platforms Consulting system integration services

1. Computer Hardware Platform Client machines Intel, AMD microprocessors Server market Intel, AMD blade server in rack Sun SPARC IBM POWER chips

Top hardware manufacturer Top chip producers Mainframe IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems Top chip producers Intel, AMD, IBM Mainframe IBM Giant server for massive enterprise network and corporate Web sites Equivalent to thousands of small blade servers

2. Operating System Platform Server operating systems Microsoft: 75% Unix/Linux: 25% Client operating systems Microsoft Windows operating systems Google Chrome OS: lightweight operating system for cloud comp Windows Azure Android IOS

3. Enterprise Software Applications SAP Oracle Middleware: BEA Linking existing systems to Enterprise Applications Microsoft

4. Data Management and Storage Leading database software IBM DB2 Oracle Microsoft SQL Server Sybase MySQL Physical data storage EMC Storage area networks (SAN) Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network

5. Networking/Telecommunications Platform Local area network operating systems Windows Linux and Unix Unix: large wide area networks TCP/IP: wide area network Leading hardware Cisco Alcatel-Lucent Nortel Juniper Network 華為

6. Internet Platform Internet hardware server IBM, Dell, HP/Compaq Web software applications development tools Microsoft MS Expression Web, SharePoint Designer, .NET Oracle-Sun Java Adobe

7. Consulting and System Integration Service Even a large firm Does not have the staff, the skills, the budget, and the necessary experience To deploy and maintain its entire IT infrastructure Leading consulting firm Accenture, IBM Global Service, HP Enterprise Service, Infosys, Wipro Technology Software Integration Ensuring legacy systems works with new Infrastructure

5.1 IT Infrastructure 5.2 Infrastructure Components 5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend 5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend 5.5 Management Issue

5.3 Contemporary Hardware Trend Emerging mobile digital platform Grid computing Virtualization Cloud computing Green computing High performance/power-saving processors Autonomic computing

1. The emerging mobile digital platform Cell phones, smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone) Have assumed data transmission, Web surfing, e-mail and IM duties Netbooks: Small, low-cost lightweight notebooks optimized for wireless communication and core computing tasks Tablets (iPad) Networked e-readers (Kindle)

2. Grid computing 3. Virtualization Connects geographically remote computers into a single network to combine processing power and create virtual supercomputer Provides cost savings, speed, agility 3. Virtualization Allows single physical resource to act as multiple resources (i.e., run multiple instances of OS) Reduces hardware and power expenditures Facilitates hardware centralization

4. Cloud computing On-demand (utility) computing services obtained over network Infrastructure as a service Platform as a service Software as a service Cloud can be public or private Allows companies to minimize IT investments Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability

5. Green computing 6. Autonomic computing Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of computing and networking hardware Reducing computer power consumption 6. Autonomic computing Industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure, heal themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders self-updating antivirus software; Apple and Microsoft both use automatic updates

7. High performance, power-saving processors Multi-core processors Simultaneous processing of multiple tasks Reduced power consumption Highly power-efficient microprocessor ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) Apple’s A4 Intel’s Atom

5.1 IT Infrastructure 5.2 Infrastructure Components 5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend 5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend 5.5 Management Issue

5.4 Contemporary Software Trend Linux and open-source software Open-source software: Produced by community of programmers, free and modifiable by user Linux: Open-source software OS Software for the Web Java: Object-oriented programming language Operating system, processor-independent Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript and XML Allows client and server to exchange small pieces of data without requiring the page to be reloaded

Web services & Service-oriented architecture Software components that exchange information using Web standards and languages XML: Extensible Markup Language More powerful and flexible than HTML Tagging allows computers to process data automatically SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol Rules for structuring messages enabling applications to pass data and instructions WSDL: Web Services Description Language Framework for describing Web service and capabilities UDDI: Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration Directory for locating Web services

SOA: Service-oriented architecture Set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working software application Software developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble other applications as needed Example: an “invoice service” to serve whole firm for calculating and sending printed invoices Dollar Rent A Car Uses Web services to link online booking system with Southwest Airlines’ Web site

Software outsourcing and cloud services Three external sources for software: Software packages and enterprise software Software outsourcing (domestic or offshore) Domestic: Primarily for middleware, integration services, software support Offshore: Primarily for lower level maintenance, data entry, call centers, although outsourcing for new-program development is increasing

Three external sources for software (cont.) Cloud-based software services Software as a service (SaaS) Accessed with Web browser over Internet Ranges from free or low-cost services for individuals to business and enterprise software Users pay on subscription or per-transaction E.g. Salesforce.com Service Level Agreements (SLAs): formal agreement with service providers

Software outsourcing and cloud services (cont.) Mashups Combinations of two or more online applications, such as combining mapping software (Google Maps) with local content Apps Small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your cell phone iPhone, BlackBerry, Android Generally delivered over the Internet

5.1 IT Infrastructure 5.2 Infrastructure Components 5.3 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trend 5.4 Contemporary Software Platform Trend 5.5 Management Issue

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 Flexibility Mobile computing and cloud computing New policies and procedures for managing these new platforms Contractual agreements with firms running clouds and distributing software required

Management and governance Who controls IT infrastructure? How should IT department be organized? Centralized Central IT department makes decisions Decentralized Business unit IT departments make own decisions How are costs allocated between divisions, departments?

Making wise infrastructure investments Amount to spend on IT is complex question Rent vs. buy, outsourcing 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

Competitive forces model for IT infrastructure investment Market demand for firm’s services Firm’s business strategy Firm’s IT strategy, infrastructure, and cost Information technology assessment Competitor firm services Competitor firm IT infrastructure investments