Chapter 4 Hardware and Software

This Could Happen to You: “We Called It Strangle and Cram” Cut off support to an older version of a product (strangle) and tell your customers that to get support they have to upgrade to the new version (cram) Neil suggest going to a thin client/server architecture using open source software FlexTime scenario video Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Study Questions Q1 What do business professionals need to know about computer hardware? Q2 What is the difference between a client and a server? Q3 What do business professionals need to know about software? Q4 Why are thin clients preferred to thick clients? Q5 Is open source software a viable alternative? How does the knowledge in this chapter help Kelly and you? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q1: What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About Computer Hardware? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Other Components Scantron Scanner Special Function Card Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Computer Data Binary digits (bits) Used to represent data Bit is either 0 or 1 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Computer Data (cont’d) Sizing Computer Data Bytes 8-bit chunk = 1 byte Important storage capacity terminology Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

How Does a Computer Work? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

How Does a Computer Work? (cont’d) (click here for more info) CPU (Central Processing Unit) Transfers program or data from disk to main memory Moves instruction from main memory via data channel or bus Has small amount of fast memory called cache Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

How Does a Computer Work? (cont’d) Program instructions Operating system instructions Main memory contains Program that controls computer’s resources and blocks of data Provides services to application programs and users Operating system (OS) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Memory Swapping Occurs when RAM is too small to hold all open programs and data CPU loads new program segments into unused memory If none available, operating system swaps out existing instructions, or data, to a disk and copy requested program, or data, to freed space Swapping slows down your computer Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Why Should a Manager Care How a Computer Works? Too little means constant memory swapping Need more memory for processing many programs or large files Main memory size Expressed in hertz (Hz): Electrical voltage that changes from low to high and back again at regular intervals. Need more speed if handling large spreadsheets or database files 32-bit CPU  4 GB RAM 64-bit CPU  almost unlimited RAM CPU speed Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Why Should a Manager Care How a Computer Works? (cont’d) Cache and main memory are “volatile” Contents lost when power is cut off Stores frequently used instructions Large cache makes computer fast, but more expensive Magnetic and optical disks are “nonvolatile” Saved contents survive after power is off Used for secondary storage Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q2: What’s the Difference Between a Client and a Server? Client computers used for word processing, spreadsheets, database access Servers provide services to clients Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Server farm Large collection of coordinated servers Amazon can process 110 order items per second Google Data sites Inside a Google Data Center (video) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q3: What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About Software? Operating systems Run only on particular types of hardware Must conform to instruction set of CPU Windows works only on Intel instruction set CPUs Application programs Written for a particular operating system Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

What a Manager Needs to Know about Software Four major operating systems Windows (95% of business users) Mac OS (graphic arts) Unix (scientific & engineering applications) Linux (open source community) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

What a Manager Needs to Know about Software (cont’d) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

License Own vs. License Site License Flat fee payment for right to install software product on all company computers or computers at specific site Right to use specified number of copies of a program Limits vendor’s liability Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Cloud Computing and Virtualization Guest Operating Systems Windows Linux IBM Facebook Google docs and spreadsheets Oracle Server virtualization makes cloud computing feasible Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

What Types Of Applications Exist and How Do Organizations Obtain Them? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Computer software installed into hardware devices What Is Firmware? Computer software installed into hardware devices Printers, print servers, communication devices Coded like other software Installed into read-only memory Can be changed and upgraded Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Experiencing MIS InClass Exercise 4: Purchasing a Computer Form a team to identify most appropriate computer for three different scenarios. For each scenario, determine hardware and software requirements: size and type of computer, processor speed, size of main memory and disk, operating system, application programs, maintenance and support agreements, and any other factors you deem appropriate. Scenario 1: Political science major asks you to help her purchase a new laptop computer. Wants to use computer for email, Internet access, and for note-taking in class, and spend less than $1,000. Scenario 2: Father: email, Internet access, downloading pictures from digital camera, uploading pictures to a shared photo service, and creating documents for members of his antique auto club. Scenario 3: You and a group of five students have decided to replace campus newspaper with your own newspaper. Should you buy three offered by university? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q4: Why Are Thin Clients Preferred to Thick Clients? Requires nothing more than browser Does not require installation and administration of client software Thick client Has more code to run on it More features and functions More expense and administration Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Thin and Thick Clients Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q5 Is Open Source Software a Viable Alternative? GNU general public license (GPL) agreement Standard for open source software Successful open source projects OpenOffice (a Microsoft Office look-alike) Firefox (a browser) MySQL (a DBMS, see Chapter 5) Apache (a web server, see Chapter 8) Ubuntu (a Windows-like desktop operating system) Android (a mobile-device operating system) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Why Do Programmers Volunteer Their Services Open Source Projects? Programming intense combination of art and logic Freedom to choose projects work on Exercise creativity working on interesting and fulfilling projects Exhibit one’s skill in order to get a job Start a business selling services to support an open source product Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

How Does Open Source Work? Closed-source or proprietary software. Source code is not available to users or public. Only available to trusted employees and carefully vetted contractors. Open-source software available to users in source code form. Machine code: Source code is compiled into instructions executed directly by a computer’s CPU Source code: Human readable computer code Software Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Source Code Sample Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

So, Is Open Source Viable? Depends on requirements and constraints of situation. You will learn more about matching requirements and programs in Chapter 10. “Free” open source software requires support and operational costs that could cost more than a licensing fee. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

How Does the Knowledge in This Chapter Help Kelly and You? FlexTime wants to examine all of its value-generating activities and determine if there isn’t some way to reduce costs without reducing value generated. Knowing process for tracing development from analysis of industry structure through to requirements for information systems is important to ensure all activities in firm facilitate organization’s competitive strategy. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Churn and Burn Mark suggests a conspiracy between hardware and software vendors Hardware vendors create new, faster computers Software vendors create products with more features Time-consuming to learn Features only needed by some users Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Churn and Burn (cont’d) Products have defects Viruses an example Vendors turn these into a sales advantage Should users accept these problems? Should they rise up in protest? What should vendors do? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Guide: Keeping up to Speed If you don’t keep up, you might not gain a competitive advantage Don’t depend solely on experts or consultants Develop a competitive advantage in non-technology areas to compensate Be a “technophile” Not a technophobe Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Guide: Keeping up to Speed (cont’d) What can a manager do? Don’t ignore technology Take seminars Read articles, ads C/NET, CIO.com Wall Street Journal technology articles Attend professional events Get involved as a user representative in technology committees Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Active Review Q1 What do business professionals need to know about computer hardware? Q2 What is the difference between a client and a server? Q3 What do business professionals need to know about software? Q4 Why are thin clients preferred to thick clients? Q5 Is open source software a viable alternative? How does the knowledge in this chapter help Kelly and you? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Case Study 4: Dell Leverages the Internet, Directly, but for How Long? Dell pays close attention to its suppliers and shares information with them on product quality, inventory, and related subjects via a secure website http://valuechain.dell.com Provides basic technical support, deployment services, services to maintain and manage Dell systems Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Dell Case Study (cont’d) 2009, components of PCs seem to be selling, but not PCs themselves. What might this mean? Sept. 2009, Dell bought Perot Systems for $3.9 billion. Perot was a provider of information systems services to health care and governmental customers. Dell views some change in its corporate strategy. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.   Publishing as Prentice Hall