IT Infrastructure for Business IT in Business IT Infrastructure for Business

What is IT infrastructure? IT infrastructure includes hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provide the underlying foundation to support the organizations goals. Eg: Intranets, Web Services, SANs, ASPs.

Overview A good IT infrastructure will support the organizations primary goals, objectives, structures and strategies. Primary components of IT infrastructure include: Client/Server Networks The Internet N-Tier infrastructures

Client/Server Networks A client/server network is a network in which one or more computers are servers and provide services to other computers called clients.

Intranets and Extranets An intranet is an internal organizational Internet that is guarded against outside access by a special security feature called a firewall. An extranet is an intranet that is restricted to an organization and certain outsiders, such as customers and suppliers.

Portals Enterprise information portals allow knowledge workers to access company information via a web interface. It is very similar to other portals such as Yahoo! Or Google.

Digital Dashboard Digital Dashboards display key information gathered from several sources on a computer screen in a format tailored to the needs and wants of an individual knowledge worker.

Business Logic These software are responsible for maintaining business rules and protecting corporate information from unauthorized sources. These include integrations, web services, workflow systems, and ASPs

Integrations An integration allows separate applications to communicate directly with each other by automatically exporting data files from one application and importing them into another.

Web Services Web services encompass all the technologies that are used to transmit and process information on and across a network, most specifically, the Internet.

Workflow Systems A workflow defines all the steps or business rules from the beginning to end, required for a business process. Therefore a workflow system facilitates the automation and management of business processes.

Application Service Provider An application service provider supplies software applications and other services over the Internet that would otherwise need to reside on its customer’s in house computers.