Information Technology

&
Systems
Management Information Systems
Jane P. Laudon, Kenneth C. Laudon
Prentice-Hall Inc., 5th edition
 What does
mean by
Information
Technology
Evolution of IT Infrastructure

• General-purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era

(1959 – Present)

• Personal Computer Era (1981 –to- Present)

• Client/Server Era (1983 –to- Present)

• Enterprise Computing Era (1992 –to- Present)

• Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present)

 Hardware
IT Components

People Software

IT

Procedure
Data
 IT Infrastructure - Drivers
Moore’s Law
 The power of microprocessors doubles every 18 months
 Computing power doubles every 18 months
 The price of computing falls by half every 18 months

Law of Mass Digital Storage

 The amount of digital
information is roughly
doubling every year
 The cost of storage is
falling at an exponential
rate of 100% per year
Declining of Communication Cost and the Internet

Global Standards and Networks Effect

Metcalf’s Law

 The value of a network grows exponentially as a function of

the number of network members

 Metcalfe’s Law and Network economics: If you build a

network for ten users, you‘ll spend the necessary money for
the basic equipment. If you already have the equipment in
place, you can add one more user at nominal costs. However,
the additional user will bring value to the network far beyond
what it costs to add him/her
Metcalf’s Law
Key Challenges of Managing IT Infrastructure

In an organization, any issues or downtime in the IT

infrastructure can lead to a huge loss in productivity
and in turn affect the revenues. Global companies
can lose precious time and money due to inefficient
management of the IT infrastructure. With growing
worldwide networks and complex environments
there is an increased threat to security breaches.

IT infrastructure is a broad field which contains

different components such as network and security
structure, storage and servers, business
applications, operating systems, as well as
databases. Some of the core components need
careful management, which is often challenging for
the organizations. It is the need of the hour to
develop responsive systems and bridge the gaps
between business and operations.
Current Trends in Software & Hardware