Transcript Mgt 20600: IT Management

Mgt 20600:
IT Management & Applications
Hardware
Software
Tuesday
September 13, 2005
Reminders
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Reading
– For today
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Fundamentals text, Chapter Two, Hardware section
– For next week
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Fundamentals text, Chapter Two, Software section
Homework
– Homework Two is now available
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Due this Friday, 9/16 by 5pm
Several questions require you to go and search for information on
Microsoft’s site!
Next week’s class session: Networks
MIS club luncheon tomorrow
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Tomorrow, noon-2pm
Mendoza 3rd floor faculty lounge
Representatives of firms recruiting MIS students will be there
Bring resumes!
Never too early to start thinking about internships and getting to know
recruiters
Information Systems:
The System of Hardware Components
Input Devices
Memory
and
Processor
Storage
and
Output Devices
Processing the Inputs
 Processing
device works hand in
hand with
 Memory (book uses primary storage
as a synonym for this)
– To process
 Data
transferred to the system by the input
devices
 Instructions from the operating system and
software applications
Processing the Inputs:
The Processor
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Processors can vary according to
– Size – how much data they can process at a time
– Speed – how fast they execute instructions
– Coordinated or multi-processing – how many processors
work together
– The materials from which they are made
– How fast they can communicate with memory and with
each other
– Of course this affects the cost!
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The trick is to buy the right processor for the task
at hand!
Examples
– WalMart’s transaction processing system
– Individual executive’s spreadsheet analysis
Processing the Inputs: Memory
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Memory varies according to
– Size – how much capacity it has
– Volatility – whether you lose what’s in it when the
electricity goes off
– Function – ROM (read-only memory) holds permanent
instructions whereas RAM (random access memory)
holds temporary data and instructions
– Speed - How fast it can communicate with the processor
(bus speed)
– How close it is located to the processor (cache memory)
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Again, you must match your memory purchase to
the tasks you intend to perform
Storing the Output
Secondary or long-term storage is used to
permanently store data or output
 Greater capacity and greater economy
than memory
 Many different types of secondary storage
devices that vary by
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Capacity
Cost
Speed of data retrieval
Access method
Storing the Output
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Secondary storage devices
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Hard disk
Magnetic tapes
Magnetic disks
Redundant array of independent/inexpensive disks (RAID)
Compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM)
CD-recordable (CD-R) discs
CD-rewritable (CD-RW) discs
Digital versatile disc (DVD)
Memory cards
Expandable storage
Storage Area Network (SAN)
Guess what! You have to match your storage device to the
tasks you are undertaking!
What a Hard Disk Looks Like
Comparison of Secondary Device
Capacities and Cost
Displaying the Output
There are also countless ways to display
the output of your information processing
 Output device types
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Computer screen
Printer
Mobile device
Telephone
Head phones
Need I say it again! Match the output
device to your needs and budget!
Computer System Types
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Very often all the input, output, processing, memory, and
storage devices will come bundled together in a computer
system you buy as a whole
The major computer systems types are
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Handheld computers
Portable computers
Thin client
Desktop computers
Workstations
Servers
Mainframe computers
Supercomputers
Each type has a very different role in life!
Your job, of course, is to choose which best fits your
organization’s needs and budget
Comparison of Major Computer
System Types
MIPS: Millions of instructions per second
Teraflop: A trillion floating point operations per second
Handheld Device Example
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Smithsonian
– Provide visitors with wireless handheld devices
– Using the devices visitors can
 Track their progress through the exhibits
– Map
– Interactive list of exhibits
– Guided tours to follow
– Instant messaging
– Location tracking for other members of your group
 Enhance exhibits
– Links to hundreds of video clips and pictures
– Scavenger hunts
– Interactive video clips of items people can’t actually see
 Inside of Thomas Jefferson’s desk
– Maps to areas with related displays
 Create scrapbooks
– Centrally stored
– Store information about your visit that can be retreived in subsequent visits
– Technology used
 Wireless Hewlett-Packard iPaq HX4700 handhelds connect to
 Standard back-end servers
 Using the 802.11b (WiFi) standard and
 Content is pulled from existent multimedia exhibits that the Smithsonian has developed
over the years
 Scrapbooking feature is simply website bookmarking in a different context
Thin Client Example
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Oakland County, Michigan
– Background
 Beginning in 90’s purchased 3,600 PCs to support county employees
 By 2002, 900 PCs were past their useful life
 Needed to find most cost effective method for replacing old desktop PCs
– Chose thin client approach
 Lower cost alternative for desktop
 Computing power could be managed at the server level, driving down costs
 Easier to adopt new operating system because maintenance would only
occur on server
 Better disaster recovery – users’ files stored centrally
– Technology
 Used old PCs as thin clients
 Thin client users got new flat-screen monitors and keyboards
 Upgraded county’s local area network to gigabyte strength
– Necessary for adequate software response times
– Savings
 Savings from moving 285 users to thin clients amounted to $744,000
 Additional 540 new thin client users will save $1.4 million
 Savings in hardware costs, support time, and cost-effective software license
management
What a Mainframe Looks Like
Mainframe Example
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AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)
– Members
 35 million members
 76 million baby-boomers preparing for retirement
– Central customer database
 Can be accessed by
– Members
– Trading partners
 Insurance providers
 Retirement communities
– Technology
 Mainframe used for customer database
– Centralized
 Member information can be maintained and secured
independently of the numerous IT applications that use it
– Reliable
– Scalable
 Will support increasing numbers of transactions as membership
grows
– Continuously updated
 Makes it easier to market products and services to its members
– Application-independent
 Common interface to the database for suppliers
 Standard method for integrating applications with the database
What a SuperComputer Looks Like
Terabyte: A thousand billion bytes or a thousand gigabytes
Gigaflop: One billion floating point operations per second
Supercomputer Example
 IBM's
Blue Gene/L at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory
– 131,072 microprocessors
– 135.3 trillion floating-point operations
per second (135.3 teraflops)
– Used for
 Nuclear
weapons simulations
 Biochemical applications
– Perform intricate calculations to simulate protein
folding specified by genetic codes
Overview of Software
 Computer
programs: sequences
of instructions
 Two
Types
– Systems software: coordinates the
activities of hardware and programs
– Application software: helps users
solve particular problems
Supporting Individual, Group,
and Organizational Goals
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Sphere of influence: the scope of problems and
opportunities addressed by a particular software
application
– Personal
– Workgroup
– Enterprise
Software: Operating System
 When
selecting an operating system,
you must consider the current and
future requirements for application
software to meet the needs of the
organization. In addition, your choice
of a particular operating system
must be consistent with your choice
of hardware.
Systems Software:
Operating Systems
 Operating
system (OS): set of
programs that control the hardware
and act as an interface with
applications
 Common hardware functions
– Get input (e.g., keyboard)
– Retrieve data from disks and store data
on disks
– Display information on a monitor or
printer
Operating Systems
Operating Systems
 User
interface
– Allows individuals to access and
command the computer system
– Command-based user interface:
uses text commands
– Graphical user interface (GUI): uses
icons and menus to send commands to
the computer system
Operating Systems
 Hardware
independence
– Application program interface
(API): allows applications to make use
of the operating system
 Memory
management
– Control how memory is accessed and
maximize available memory and storage
Operating Systems
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Processing tasks
– Multitasking: more than one program running
at the same time
– Time-sharing: more than one person using a
computer system at the same time
– Scalability: ability to handle an increasing
number of concurrent users smoothly
Networking capability: features that aid users in
connecting to a computer network
Operating Systems
 Access
to system resources
– Protection against unauthorized access
– Logons and passwords
 File
management
– Ensures that files in secondary storage
are
 Available
when needed
 Protected from access by unauthorized
users
Current Operating Systems
Operating System Example
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Open source operating systems (Linux)
– Increasing comfort level with this alternative
– Dominates as server operating system
– Why?
 Lower
total cost of ownership
 Lower capital investment
 Greater reliability and uptime compared to
commercial alternatives
 Greater flexibility and control
 Faster, cheaper application development
Application Software
Gives users the ability to solve problems
and perform specific tasks
 Interacts with systems software; systems
software then directs the hardware to
perform the tasks
 Software spheres of influence
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Personal
Work group
Enterprise
Value Chain
Personal Productivity
Application Software
 Designed
primarily for individual use
 Support individual productivity
 Major categories
– Word processing
– Spreadsheet
– Database
– Graphics
 Often
purchased as suites of
software
Workgroup Application Software
 Workgroup
application software:
supports teamwork, whether people
are in the same location or dispersed
around the world
 Groupware: software that helps
groups of people work together more
efficiently and effectively
Workgroup Software
 Workgroup
software applications
– Email
– Instant messaging
– Video conferencing
– Application sharing
– Whiteboards
– Task scheduling
– Centralized storage of group files
– File version control
Enterprise Application Software
 Software
that benefits an entire
organization
 Enterprise resource planning
(ERP) software: programs that
manage a company’s vital business
operations for an entire multisite,
global organization
Enterprise Software Applications
In an ERP suite, all of these applications would be software
modules that you could buy separately or in combination
Enterprise Software Example
Software Development
 Proprietary
software: unique
program for a specific application,
usually developed and owned by a
single company
 Off-the-shelf software: purchased
software
– Customized package
 Application
Service Provider (ASP)
Software Development
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Do not develop proprietary application software unless
doing so will meet a compelling business need that can
provide a competitive advantage.
BUILD VS. BUY
The basic arguments in the buy-vs.-build debate remain
unchanged.
WHY BUILD?
Avoid painful vendor licensing terms
Gain competitive advantage
Adapt to new technology, such as grid computing
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WHY BUY?
Leverage vendors’ economies of scale
Gain broader integration capabilities
Ensure that code knowledge won’t be lost
Software Development Example
 Hyundai
Information Service North
America LLC
– IT arm of Hyundai Motor America
– Builds own software offshore
– Why?
 More
customization
 Small, unique applications
 No licensing annoyances
– Example: switch from concurrent users to name
seat licensing would have raised cost by $3,300
per user for a purchased application
Software Development:
Programming Languages
Sets of keywords, symbols, and a system
of rules for constructing statements
 Allow humans to communicate instructions
to be executed by a computer
 Syntax: a set of rules associated with a
programming language
 Different languages have characteristics
that make them appropriate for particular
types of applications
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Programming Language Evolution
Software Development
 Choose
a programming language
whose functional characteristics are
appropriate for the task at hand,
taking into consideration the skills
and experience of the programming
staff.