IT Infrastructure

1
IT Infrastructure

• MGMT 661, Dannelly
• Night 2, Part 1
• Chapters 3 and 5

2
What is "IT Infrastructure"

• Computing Platforms
• Data and Voice Telecom Networks
• Application Software
• Physical Facilities
• IT Management
• IT Policies
• IT Education Services

3
IT's Impacts on Productivity

• Easier for managers to oversee larger numbers of
  workers
• IT can substitute for some labor
• Hardware is getting cheaper, while labor costs
  are increasing
• Networks decrease transaction costs
• easier to outsource
• improved supply chain management
• Flatter Organization
• Laudon section 3.2

4
IT Flattens Organizations
Why?
Laudon Figure 3-8
5
IT for Competitive Advantage

• Product Differentiation
• Market Niche
• Customer Intimacy
• Core Competency Enhancement
• via Internal information sharing
• Easier to Create Synergies
• via External information sharing
• Laudon Chapter 3

6
IT Ecosystem
Figure 5-10
7
Standards

• Microsoft Windows v. The World

http//blog.consumerpla.net/2011/05/os-market-shar
e-april-2011.html
8
Evolution of IT

• Mainframes
• Minicomputers
• PCs (microcomputers)
• PCs Networks

Enterprise Computing
Laudon section 5.1
9
Why the Evolution?

1. Moore's Law
2. Declining Communication Costs
3. Costs of Storage
4. Standards

10
Storage Cost
1 GB in 1995 (15,000) and 1GB Today
11
Future Infrastructure Trends

• Cloud Computing
• Software as a Service subscription to a
  cloud-based application
• Server Virtualization
• Autonomic Computing
• self repairing computers
• more Grid Computing
• supercomputers on the cheap

Laudon section 5.3
12
Exercise

• Management Decision Problem 1 on Page 197 Univ
  of Pitt Med Center
• Is there a problem with their infrastructure?
• List factors to consider in deciding if a
  replacement is needed.