INFS1602 Notes

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

13:28

Basics
What

An information system collects, stores and disseminates information

from an organisation's environment and internal operations to
support organisational activities, such as decision making,
coordination, communication, analysis etc. Information systems turn
raw data into useful information using IPO.
From a bullshitting perspective, information systems is the
culmination of management, organisation and technology elements,
providing a solution to one or more problems or challenges facing a
firm.

Why

Survival and achieving strategic business goals is difficult without

extensive use of IT
Businesses use Information Systems to achieve six major objectives:
o
Organisational excellence
o
New products, services and business models
o
Customer/supplier intimacy
o
Improved decision making
o
Competitive advantage
o
Day-to-day survival

How it transforms businesses

Provides faster and more efficient tools, making companies more

competitive
o
Email, online conferencing, mobile communication
o
Online retailing and customer feedback
Foundation of fast-paced supply chains
To obtain meaningful value from information systems, investment in
complementary assets is also important:
o
Technological investments must also be supported by
complementary investments in organisations and management

E.g. new business models and processes

Supportive organisational culture

New IT investments are unlikely to produce high returns

unless business make the appropriate managerial and
organisational changes to support the technology
o
In non-bullshit terms, this simply means that organisations
that don't use or learn to use information systems will not benefit
from it.
o

Academic disciplines used to study information systems

Technical approach, focusing on formal models and capabilities of

systems
o
Computer Science
o
Management science
o
Operations research
Behavioural (e.g. design, implementation, management), focusing
on design, implementation, management and business impact of
systems
o
Psychology
o
Sociology
o
Economics
A sociotechnical view is best for information systems

Relationship to Globalisation

Information Systems significantly reduced the cost of commerce on

a global scale

Models and Strategy

Which features of organisations do managers need to know about
to build and use information systems successfully? What is the
impact of information systems of organisations?

Organisations are affected by:

o
Culture and politics from inside interest groups
o
Their own hierarchy and specialisation
o
Goals, demographic, leadership styles, incentives etc.
Introduction of a new information system will affect all of this
Therefore an information system must serve the needs of important
groups in the organisation
New systems disrupt established patterns of work and power
relationships, so they often cause considerable resistance to them
when they are introduced

Porter's competitive forces model

The model determines the competition with its traditional

competitors, new market entrants, substitute products and services,
suppliers and customer buying power.
Information systems helps companies compete by maintaining low
costs, differentiating products and services, focusing on market niche,
strengthening ties with consumers and suppliers, increasing barriers
to market entries with high levels of operational excellence

Value chain and value web models

Value chain model highlights specific activities in the business

where competitive strategies and information systems will have the
greatest impact
o
Views the firm as a series of primary and support activities
that add value to a firm's products and/or services
o
Primary = directly related to production and distribution
o
Support = make delivery of primary activities possible
Value web consists of information systems that enhance
competitiveness at the industry level by promoting the use of
standards and industry-wide consortia, and by enabling business
more efficiently with their value partners.

Synergising, leveraging competencies and network-based

strategies

Information systems allow firms to tie together their business units

(e.g. divisions, groups focusing in different areas) to enhance their
cooperation and synergy.
Promotes sharing of knowledge
Allows networking with other firms to collaborate

Challenges of strategic information systems

Implementing one requires extensive organisational change

Requires a transition from one sociotechnical level to another.
Such changes are known as strategic transitions and can be difficult
to achieve
Also, not all strategic systems are profitable and can be expensive
to build. Many systems are also easily copied by other firms so that
strategic advantage is not always sustainable.

Freeconomics

Methods of leveraging digital technologies to provide free goods and

services:
o
Free online services (e.g. Google and Yahoo) to consumers,
using advertising to cover the costs.
o
Freemium approach (e.g. Spotify and Dropbox), free to a
certain extent and pay for extra services
o
Having one product subsidise another. An example is Comcast
giving away DVRs to charge for programming
o
Zero marginal costs for additional product offerings (e.g.
constant expansion of content on Netflix)
o
Labour exchanges for services (e.g. Yahoo's answer service)
o
Gift economy, where people freely collaborate to create
something of value for everyone (e.g. open source software
development)

E-Commerce

EC is the online exchange of goods, services and money between

firms to other firms, and firms to customers.
EC was used as early as 1948 during the Berlin Airlift, but the
emergence of the Internet skyrocketed its popularity and
revolutionised how goods and services were sold.

Advantages of EC

No time limitations - can be open 24/7/365

No location constraints - potential to operate globally at little cost

Strategies companies adopt to compete in cyber-space

Brick-and-mortar
o
Compete solely in the traditional, physical market space
Click-only (virtual)
o
Compete solely online, focusing purely on EC
Click-and-mortar
o
Straddle between physical and online

A revenue model strategy must also be defined which can be based on

advertising, subscription, transaction fee, sales revenues, or a
combination of all of them.

Intranet and Extranet

Extranet
o
Enables 2 or more firms to use the internet to engage in B2B
(business-to-business) EC.
o
Provides timely and accurate information, technology
integration and high value at low cost
Intranet
o
Using the internet to support internal business processes and
activities
o
Also known as B2E (business-to-employee)

Applications to consumers

B2C (business-to-consumer) focuses on transactions between a

company and consumer end users. Allows:
o
Customers to view information about goods and services the
business sells
o
Customers to place orders and make payments
Rules of B2C:
o
Offer valuable goods and services at fair prices (no shit)
o
Have a sound business model and plan for generating revenue
o
Offer something unique
o
Be aesthetically pleasing
o
Be easy to use
o
Motivate people to visit, stay and return
o
Advertise its presence on the web

C2C (customer-to-customer) EC

Internet has developed a variety of ways people can trade goods,

services and voice their opinions
E-auctions allow people to sell things to large markets
o
Forward auction - the typical form of auction where buyers bid
higher prices
o
Reverse auction - a form of auction where sellers bid lower
prices (this is used in bulk selling/corporate business deals)
Higher chance of fraud
Online marketing methods
o
Search marketing
o
Display ads
o
Email marketing
o
Social media

Mobile marketing

Trends in EC

M-commerce
o
Location based services
Issues
o
Securing payments
o
Protecting IP
o
Taxation of EC transaction

E-Government

Government's use of IS to provide services to citizens, business and

other governments/government agencies
Can be target at citizens, business, other agencies

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers to dynamic web applications that allow people to
collaborate and share information online. Main concept behind Web
2 is shift from user's role from passive consumer of content to creator

Advantages

Spawned social software that people widely use for communicating

and socialising.
Connect with customers and internal or stakeholders in order to
become more innovative or productive
Harness crowd information
Attract and retain employees/customers

Enhancing communications

Blogs
Commenting on virtually any topic that interests the author
Social presence (microblogging)
o
Send short status updates to followers (e.g. Twitter)
o

IM
Synchronous communications
Virtual worlds
o
Mainly for online gaming, but starting to be used for
showcasing products and hold rich interactive communication in
the business world
o

Enhancing cooperation

Because of increased globalisation, virtual teams and meetings are

becoming more important.
Use of web-based collaboration tools such as Google Apps and
Microsoft SharePoint and CMS' are becoming more important and vital
to business operations
User are central to the new web environment, no longer passive
information consumers
Individuals can now generate content, using:
o
Wikis
o
Crowdsourcing
o
Open source collaboration

Enhancing connections

W2 allows for meeting of new friends, connecting with family

members, meeting new colleagues and networking with business
partners
Organisations use social networks for internal connection and
connection with customers
Allows for marketing of products and services through viral
marketing
Social searching incorporates blog posts, status updates and other
social information from people within and outside the person's social
network to supplement generic search results
Syndication helps to connect people with most current blog posts,
podcasts and new stories
W2 enable a rich user experiences through web services, widgets
and mashups.
Many people see W2 as a transitional period and regard the sematic
web, and W2 trends such as World Wide Database, open
technologies, integration of legacy devices, intelligent applications
and more as the future of the web

Managing W2 strategies and dealing with potential pitfalls of W2

Issues include:
o
Culture
o
Organisational context
o
Hierarchies in organisations
o
Lack of critical mass
o
Generation gap
o
Technological inertia
Security
Organisation's opponents can use the same tools used to spread
information quickly to also spread damaging content to people all
over the world in a very short time
Organisations should therefore:
o
Set up crisis teams when needed
o
Identifying crisis scenarios
o
Monitoring the social media environment
o
Acting fast when a crisis surfaces.

Enterprise Information Systems

Business functions and business processes enable the creation of supply
chains. Supply chains are involved in the transformation of raw materials
into products sold to the end consumer/

Distinct business functions:

Marketing and sales

Chain management
Accounting and finance
Human resources

Core business processes

The four business functions work together to execute the core business
processes:

Order to cash - processes associated with selling a product/service

to a customer
Procure to pay - processes associated with obtaining goods from
external vendors
Make to stock/order - refers to activities associated with producing
goods to hold in inventory or after a customer order

Core and support activities

Core activities include:

Inbound logistics (receiving stuff)

Operations
Manufacturing
Outbound logistics (sending stuff)
Marketing and sales
Customer service

Support activities:

Administrative activities
Infrastructure
HR
Tech development
Tech procurement

These activities form the value chain (the process or activities by which a
company adds value to an article, including production, marketing, and
the provision of after-sales service)

Firms connect their value chains with suppliers and consumers, creating
value systems such that information flows from one entity's value chain to
another.

Enterprise Systems
These are IS' that span the entire organisation and can be used to
integrate:

Business processes
Activities
Information

These are integrated across all functional areas of a firm.

Enterprise systems can either be pre-packaged software or custom-made

applications

Implementation of enterprise systems often involves:

o
Business process management
o
Systematic, structured improvement approach by all or part of
an organisation that critically examines, rethinks and redesigns
processes in order to achieve dramatic improvements in one or
more performance measures, such as quality, cycle time or cost.
Enterprise systems evolved from legacy systems that supported
distinct organisational activities by combining data and applications
into a single comprehensive system.

ERP (Enterprise resource planning)

ERP systems evolved from requirements planning" systems used

during the 90's and are now used to support internal business
processes
Allow information to be shared across the organisation through the
use of a large data warehouse
Streamlines business processes
Improves customer service
Organisations must choose which modules to implement when
choosing an ERP.
Most organisations adopt a subset available ERP components
ERP core components support the major internal activities of the
organisation for producing products and services, while extended
components support the primary external activities of the
organisation for dealing with suppliers and customers.

Successfully implementing enterprise systems

Common problems can be avoided by:

Securing executive sponsorship

Getting necessary help from outside experts
Thoroughly training users
Taking a multidisciplinary approach to implementations
Looking beyond ERP

SCM & CRM

SCM (supply chain management)

SCM systems focuses on improving inter-organisational business

processes with 2 main goals:
o
Accelerate product development
o
Reduce costs associated with getting raw materials
Advances in SCM have enabled concepts such as:
o
JIT strategies
o
VMI
Effectively managing supply chain is important to avoiding:
o
Bullwhip effect
o
Quality problems
o
Sustainability problems (e.g. environmental, social)
SCM systems consists of:
o
SCP (supply chain planning)

Development of resource plans to support efficient and

effective production of goods/services
o
SCE (supply chain execution)

Puts SCP into motion

Processes involved in improving collaboration between

all members of the supply chain:

Suppliers

Producers

Distributors

Customers

SCE involves management of three key elements of

supply chain:

Product flow

Information flow

Financial flow
Tech to improve SCM include RFID and XML

CRM (Customer relationship management)

CRM is a corporate level strategy to create and maintain lasting

relationships with customers by concentrating on downstream
information flows through the introduction of reliable systems,
processes and procedures
Applications focusing on downstream information flow have 3 main
objectives:
o
Attract potential customers
o
Create customer loyalty
o
Portray a positive corporate image
To be successful, implementing CRM must be coupled with
changing:
o
Business policy and processes
o
Customer service
o
Employee training

Data utilisation
CRM consists of 3 primary components:
o
Operational CRM

Activities that focus on activities that deal with

consumers and includes modules such as SFA (sales force
automation), customer service and support and EMM
(enterprise mobility management, set of people, processes
and technology focused on managing mobile devices,
wireless networks, and other mobile computing services in a
business context)
o
Analytical CRM

Focuses on activities that aid managers in analysing

sales, marketing functions and monitoring ongoing
conversations in social media
o
Collaborative CRM

Provides effective communication capabilities within the

organisation and externally with customers
When implementing a CRM strategy, organisations must carefully
consider ethical concerns associated with profiling customers or
treating them in ways they may object to.
o

Decision Support and Business Intelligence

Assisting different management groups in business

TPS (Transaction processing systems)

o
Payroll
o
Order processing
o
Anything that tracks the flow of daily routine transactions
necessary to conduct business
DSS (Decision support systems)
o
Provides advanced analytical models to support decision
making
o
Provides business intelligence to serve multiple levels of
management

ESS (Executive support systems) is a higher level of

business intelligence for senior management

ESS provides data in the form of graphs, charts,

dashboards using many sources of internal and external
information

Types of decisions

There are different levels in an organisation which have different

decision making requirements:
o
Strategic

Management
Operational
Structured decisions are clustered at the operational level
Unstructured decisions are clustered at the strategic level
Decision making can be performed by individual or groups of:
o
Employees
o
Managers:

Operational

Middle

Senior
There are four stages in decision making:
o
Intelligence
o
Design
o
Choice
o
Implementation
DSS' do not always produce better manager and employee decisions
that improve performance because of these problems:
o
Information quality
o
Management filters
o
Organisational culture
o
o

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is needed to quickly respond to:

o
External threats
o
Opportunities arising from unstable market conditions
o
Fierce competition
o
Short product life cycles
o
Government regulation
o
Fickle customers
Business intelligence supports this by providing a closed-loop
approach to planning
Databases are used to provide data to business intelligence
applications
Businesses use online transaction processing to support more
effective business processes.
Data warehouses and data marts support the integration and
analysis of large data sets.
o
Data warehouse - A large store of data accumulated from a
large range of sources within a company and is used to guide
management decisions.
o
Data mart - A subset of a data warehouse that is usually
oriented towards a business team or line

Databases

Used to capture and manage data which can be used as input to

business intelligence applications
Is a collection of related data organised in a way that facilitates data
searches
Is a primary backend component of all interactive websites
Contains:
o
Entities - Things about which we collect data, such as people,
courses, customers, products etc.
o
Attributes - individual pieces of information about an entity,
such as a person's last name, Medicare number etc.
o
Record - collection of related attributes about an entity,
usually displayed as a database row
o
Table - collection of related records about an entity type; each
row in the table is a record and each column is an attribute
DBMS (database management software) is used to create, store,
organise and retrieve data from one or more databases. The data
must be adequately organised so that it is possible to store and
retrieve information effectively.

Components of business intelligence

1 Information and Knowledge Discovery
o
Used to discovery "hidden" relationships in data
o
Ad-hoc query tools allow decision makers to run
queries whenever needed.
o
OLAP (online analytical processing) tools extend this
capability by having the ability to perform complex
multidimensional queries
o
Data mining is used for association discovery,
clustering and classification
o
Unstructured data analysis is used to extract
information from text documents
2 Business Analytics
o
Augments business intelligence by using predictive
analysis to identify trends or predict business outcomes
o
An example of this is an intelligent system, or a neural
network
3 Information Visualisation
o
The display of complex data relationships using a
variety of graphical methods, allowing managers to
quickly grasp the results of the analysis.
o
Key performance indicators and the results are
displayed on digital dashboards

Visual analytics combines human visual systems and

analysis techniques to aid in analysis of complex
relationships and make sense of "noisy" data
GIS (geographical information systems) aid in using
geographical referenced information

Building IS
Formulating and presenting cases for tech investments

It is difficult to quantify the value that a systems provides because

of:
o
Measurement problems
o
Time lags before benefits are realised
o
Industry redistribution
o
Mismanagement
Understanding the org's business strategy is also important
Tech investments must be closely linked to the business strategies
because these investments are becoming one of the major vehicles
by which organisations can achieve their strategy
To be convincing, we must be specific about the benefits, which
includes fic monetary measures
o
If monetary measures are difficult to identify, devise some
proxy measures to demonstrate the benefits of the system
Measure things that are important to the decision makers of the
organisations.
Choosing the wrong measures can yield a negative decision about a
beneficial system

How new systems produce organisational change

Four kinds of tech-enabled change include:

Automation (least risk, least reward)

Rationalisation of procedures
Business process re-design
Paradigm shift (highest risk, highest reward)

Business processes management is also useful for promoting, TQM (total

quality management), six sigma and other initiatives for incremental
process improvement

Core activities in systems development process

Systems analysis
Systems design
Programming
Testing
Conversion
Production
Maintenance

Principal methodologies for modelling and designing systems

Structured methodology
o
Modelling processes and data separately
o
Data flow diagram is the principal tool for structured analysis
o
Structure chart is the principal tool for representing structured
software design
Object Oriented development
o

Models a system as a collection of objects that combine processes

and data

Based on the concepts of class, inheritance, encapsulation

and polymorphism

Methods for building IS

Waterfall (structured approach)

Prototyping
Agile
RAD
End-user
Outsourcing (not really a method)

Managing IS projects
Objectives of project management
Ensure systems are:

Delivered on time
On budget
Providing genuine business benefits

Management activities:

Planning the work

Assessing risk
Estimating and acquiring resources needed
Organising the work
Directing execution
Analysing results

Five major variables of project management:

Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Risk

Electing, evaluating and aligning IS projects with firm's business

goals

IS plan must describe how IT support the attainment of business

goals
Plan must document all their system applications and IT
infrastructure components
Large corporations will have a management structures to ensure the
most important projects receive priority
Criteria for identifying and evaluating alternative IS projects:
o
Portfolio analysis
o
Critical success factors
o
Scoring models

Assessing business value of IS projects

To determine whether an IS project is a good investment, costs and
benefits must be considered:

Benefits:
o
Tangible (quantifiable) and intangible benefits are to be
considered
Benefits that exceed costs should be analysed using capital
budgeting methods to ensure the projects represents a good return
on the firm's invested capital
Real options pricing models (the same techniques used for valuing
financial options to systems investments) can be useful when
considering highly uncertain IT investments.

Principal risk factors in IS projects

Risk is determined by:
1 Project size
2 Project structure
3 Experience with technology
Projects are more likely to fail when:

TH3ere is insufficient or improper user participation in the systems

development process
Lack of management support
Poor management of the implementation process

There is a high failure rate among projects involving:

Business process reengineering

Enterprise applications
Mergers and acquisitions; as they require extensive organisational
change

Strategies for managing risk and system implementation

Implementation refers to the entire process of organisational change

surrounding the introduction of a new IS
Strategies include:
o
User support and involvement
o
Management support
o
Control of the implementation process
o
Having mechanisms for dealing with the level of risk in each
new systems project
o
Having a contingency approach to project management
o
Determining the appropriate mix of:

External integration tools

Internal integration tools

Formal planning tools

Formal control tools

Securing IS
Digital data are vulnerable to:

Destruction

Misuse
Error
Fraud
Hardware or software failure

Because IS' are based on data, this makes IS' vulnerable.

Why?

The internet is designed to be an open system, making internal

corporate systems to be more vulnerable
Even without penetrating internal systems, DoS (Denial of Service)
and DDoS (Distributed DoS) attacks can be used to overwhelm
servers, preventing legitimate users from accessing them
Packet sniffers can intercept unsecured Wi-Fi signals and scrape
data from them
Use of software written with malicious intent, such as viruses,
worms and trojans
Software bugs and vulnerabilities can be exploited

Business value of security and control

Lack of sufficient security and control can cause firms that rely
heavily on computer systems to lose sales and productivity.
Information assets (e.g. trade secrets, plans, confidential records)
lose much of their value when exposed to outsiders. In addition, it
exposes firms to legal liability, causing loss of public reputation and
other assets
There are laws in place that enforce firms to adhere to strict
security, privacy and control standards, as well as maintaining
electronic records.

Creating an organisational framework for security and control

Components needed to create this framework include:

o
Risk assessment, evaluating:

Information assets

Control points

Control weaknesses

The most cost-effective set of controls

o
A developed corporate security policy and plan in the event of
disaster/disruption
o
Comprehensive and systematic MIS auditing

Tools for safeguarding information resources

Firewalls
o
Prevents unauthorised access to a private network
o
Advanced firewalls further have intrusion detection systems,
monitoring

Suspicious network traffic

Attempts to access corporate systems

Authentication
o
Passwords
o
Tokens
o
Smart cards
o
Biometrics
Antivirus
o
Scans computer systems for malware and removes them
Encryption
o
Encoding and scrambling of messages to render messages
unreadable to people without the appropriate key/authorisation
Software metrics
Testing
o
Software bug testing
o
Penetration testing

Social and Ethical Issues in IS

Social, Ethical and Political Issues raised by IS

IT is introducing changes for which laws and rules of acceptable

conduct have not yet been developed, causing uncertainty until such
laws and rules have been established
Due to Moore's Law, the reach of organisations and individuals have
been magnified exponentially.
Social, Ethical and Political Issues raised by IS centre around the five
moral dimensions:
a.
Information rights and obligations
b.
Property rights and obligations
c.
System quality
d.
Quality of life
e.
Accountability and control

Principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions

Golden Rule
o
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

Plain English: If you don't like it if someone does it to you,

don't do it to them
Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative
o
If an action is not right for everyone to take, it's not right for
anyone
Descartes' Rule of Change
o
If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take
at all
o
I.e. An action bringing a small change might be acceptable if
done only once, but brings unacceptable change if done many
times, is immoral
Utilitarian Principle
o
Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value
Risk Aversion Principle
o
Take the action that produces the least harm or the least
potential cost
o

E.g. nuclear power plant has extremely low rate but very high
failure costs. Is this acceptable?
Speeding and car accidents have high failure costs and have
moderate probability. This should definitely be minimised and
avoided

No "free lunch" rule

o
If something someone else has created is useful to you, and it
has value, you should assume the creator wants compensation
for this work unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Challenges to protection of privacy and intellectual property

Privacy:
o
Data storage and analysis technologies enables companies to
easily gather personal data about individuals from many different
sources.
o
This further allows profiling of individuals and their behaviour
o
Cookies and other web monitoring tools track the activities of
website visitors
o
Not all websites have strong privacy protection policies and do
not always allow for informed consent regarding the use of
personal information
Piracy
o
Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against
software piracy, as digital material is very easily copied and
transmitted to many different locations simultaneously

Emergence of BitTorrent technology and websites allowing for

anonymous storage of data has allowed for the further spread of
software piracy

How IS has affected everyday life

Positive
o
Computer systems have significantly increased efficiency
o
Allowed for unprecedented generation of wealth
Negative
o
Can cause serious harm to individuals and organisations
o
Poor data quality has been responsible for disruptions and
losses for businesses
o
Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or tasks
become unnecessary in reengineered business processes
o
The ability to own and use a computer may be exacerbating
socioeconomic disparities among racial groups and social classes
o
Widespread use of computers has increased opportunities for
computer crime and abuse.
o
Use of computers has also created health problems such as
RSI, computer vision syndrome and technostress

Managing IS Infrastructure and Services

Essential Infrastructure Components

Hardware
o
Input

Consists of devices used to enter information into a

computer
o
Processing

Turns inputs into outputs using an algorithm, performed

by the CPU
o
Output

Hardware that delivers information in a usable format to

users
Software
o
A collection of programs that controls the hardware
o
Examples: operating systems, drivers, application software
o
Assists organisations in executing their business process and
competitive strategy
o
Application software allows the user to perform specific tasks,
such as writing letters, doing payroll, playing video games, etc.
Communications and collaboration

The framework in which a computer can communicate with

other computers (i.e. a network)
o
One of the reasons why IS have become so powerful and
important to modern organisations
o
The most widely used network is the Internet, composed of
networks that are developed and maintained by many entities
Data and knowledge
o
Essential for gaining business intelligence and executing
business processes
o
Massive amounts of data is stored in databases for
operational, backup and/or archival purposes.
Human Resources
o
Managing the users of the IS infrastructure
o

Managerial issues with managing IS infrastructure

Hardware and software obsolescence causes the issue of when and

how to upgrade the current infrastructure
The increasing need for computing power and storage has caused
an increasing demand for energy, affecting a company's image and
bottom line
Increased technology often requires additional and more
sophisticated equipment that requires dedicated facilities for
uninterrupted operation.
Dealing with fluctuations in demand for computing power while
being unable to quickly scale the IS infrastructure accordingly.

Addressing IS infrastructure related challenges

Major IT service providers have introduced utility computing as a

business model to address fluctuating computing needs
o
This is done by "renting resources" on an as-needed basis
o
Cloud computing uses the utility computing business model,
where customers draw on a variety of computing resources that
can be access on demand with minimal human interaction
Characteristics of cloud computing:
o
On-demand self-service
o
Rapid elasticity
o
Ubiquitous network access
o
Resource pooling
o
Measured service
Typical cloud computing service models
o
Software as a service

Software typically acquired through a one-off purchase

turned into a subscription

Can be centrally hosted and accessed using a thin

client, such as a web browser

A notable exception to this, however is Adobe Creative

Cloud
o
Platform as a service

Provides a framework in which applications can be run

Allows customers to develop, run and manage

applications without the complexity of building and
maintaining the infrastructure needed to run it
o
Infrastructure as a service

Provides computing, networking, storage and other

computing resources without needing to buy the hardware
outright.

Unlike PaaS, customers also manage middleware,

operating systems, and all data on the infrastructure

Providers still manage the maintenance of the hardware

and server virtualisation.
Grid computing can be used to solve large-scale problems
Edge computing allows for decentralised use of resources
A recent trend known as green computing is the phenomenon of
companies realising potential cost savings and improving company
image by implementing ways to reduce energy consumption and
waste