Transcript Importance and Evolution of Information Systems

IS605/606: Information Systems
Instructor: Dr. Boris Jukic
Importance and
Evolution of Information
Systems
Semiconductor Industry evolution: Moore’s
Law
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The observation made
in 1965 by Gordon
Moore, co-founder of
Intel, that the number
of transistors per
square inch on
integrated circuits had
doubled every year
since the integrated
circuit was invented.
In subsequent years,
the pace slowed down
a bit, but data density
has doubled
approximately every 18
months, and this is the
current definition of
Moore's Law
Moore’s Law Continued
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Fitting of more computational power in a unit of space has resulted
in comparable growth in price/performance ratio of computational
devices
Some implications:
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“The average person wears more computing power on their wrist today
than all computing power combined before 1956” (Saffo, 1997)
“The computer technology in today’s cars, minivans, SUVs and trucks is
nearly one thousand times more powerful than that which guided the
Apollo moon mission.” (www.autoalliance.org)
There are some indications that Moore’s Law is reaching its limits
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Technological reasons: (we may be reaching the limit of the underlying
physics)
Economic reasons; the equipment cost of producing super advanced
chips is getting exceedingly high, offsetting the savings from packing
more computational power in smaller space
Moore’s Law: Discussion Question
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Is this growth price/performance ratio of the
heart of every computational device matched
by comparable performance growth in basic
components of IT applications?
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Desktop Computing
Servers
Networking
Software
Evolution IT: Early Days: 1960’s
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Computing and telecommunications separate islands of technology.
Telecommunications primarily refer to voice communications over
telephone networks.
Mainframe – Dumb Terminal is the prevailing architecture:
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The use of computers primarily limited to automation of mundane
computational tasks:
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Stand-alone, centralized computing was the norm, where mainframes and
minicomputers (primarily IBM and DEC) were the major players in the
computing arena.
Proprietary communication standards (e.g., IBM's SNA, DEC's DNA). There is
very limited networking.
Payroll
Early word processing software exists, but used primarily for code writing, not
as an office productivity tool
Batch processing is the norm
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“White Lab Coat” syndrome
Discussion Questions
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Why did computers come without the concept of
networking?
How come we have never faced any networking
problems with a technology like the telephone?
Evolution of IT: Early Days: 1970’s –
1980’s
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Desktop computing staring to appear in early 1980’s with appearance of first PC’s
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The focus of computing was on individual productivity, i.e., how can we use the
computing technology to do my own jobs in more efficient and productive ways?
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The rudimentary office productivity tools staring to appear on the desktop as well (word
processors, spreadsheets) often proprietary and cumbersome to use, no GUI yet until Apple
in late 1980’s“SneakerNet” often the only corporate network
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Rudimentary Internet , limited to academic and research elite
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Early Database Packages: Server side only
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Move from file management to database management
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Procedural Programming Languages are the norm: COBOL, FORTRAN
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Computing and Telecommunications still separate, first data networks staring to
appear
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Bandwidth prohibitively expensive and ridiculously slow by today’s standards
Text exchange only
Evolution of IT: Mid 1980’s – Early
1990’s
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Move to Client/Server Architecture begins
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Mainframe Computers still very much a crucial corporate IT resource
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OOP languages emerge : C, later C++, Java
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GUI based office productivity tools
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Easier to use, standardize
Client side tools
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Focus starting to shift to group and organizational productivity.
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LAN software and hardware becomes cheaper, more standardized and easier to
use (Ethernet, Token Ring)
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Emphasis on connectivity and open standards (TCP/IP)
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First viable browser appear (Mosaic)
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The Web goes mainstream (CERN, Tim Berners Lee)
Evolution of IT: 1990’s - Now
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3 and N-Tier architectures abound
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High Capacity Backbone and emergence of Broadband
residential access
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Standardization of the Internet: IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force) and Web (W3C) fuels E-Commerce and E-Business
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Intranets, Extranets, E-Commerce
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Advances in database servers, application development tools,
computer operating systems (increasingly merged with Network
software)
Evolution of IT: 1990’s - Now
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New architectural paradigms starting to emerge:
distributed computing, web services, peer-to-peer
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Total digital convergence of voice, video and data
applications
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Mobile and Wireless Revolution
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Ubiquitous computing: anywhere, anytime on any device
Web Services
Percentage Aggregation of US workforce (Marc Porat, 1977)
Information worker: primary function is to handle information.
Do Service, Manufacturing and Agriculture jobs have an information component?
IT in organizational environment
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Ongoing debate: Does technology drives
change in organizations or merely supports
it?
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Examples:
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Flattening of hierarchical structures
Outsourcing
External Business Environment
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Information Moves Faster
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Real-time is the norm
Herd instinct amplified by the rapid information transfer
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Would 1929 stock market crash been even worse in the age of
technology? (Good Read: The Great Crash 1929, by John
Kenneth Galbraith)
Internet economy
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Internet enabled organizations: E-Bay, Amazon
Internet as enhancer of exciting organizations, industries: Wal
Mart, Southwest
External Business Environment
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Globalization: enabled by telecom revolution
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Technological and regulatory developments render
communications cost negligible for many large scale
organizations
Wage Differences irresistible: large pool of educated work
force in the developing world
Labor costs in US rising fast: Health care
Good read: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding
Globalization, by Thomas Freidman
Transparency
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Digitized corporate information enables more complete and
more searchable “paper trail”
Greater disclosure expectations of by all stakeholders
Changes in Internal Business
Environment (individual organization)
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Supply-Push to Demand-Pull
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“"GM says that when somebody in a dealership orders a car
with leather seats, the cow should wince,“
(http://www.informationweek.com/798/covisint.htm)
Self Service
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Win-win-lose proposition?
Changing role of the rank-and-file information worker
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From ”paper pusher” to “problem solver”
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Old desired qualities: accuracy, consistency, speed
– New desired qualities: independent thinking, exception handling,
“soft touch”
Changes in Internal Business
Environment (individual organization)
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IT enabled collaboration
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Cost of communications drastically reduced, maing
real-time 24/7 communication a reality
Has it truly arrived
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Most collaboration still based on standard 2-way
communication technologies: phone, fax, e-mail enabled
collaboration
No shortage of proposed solutions, software packages
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No “Killer App” yet
A Simple Model
More Complex Model