IT infrastructure Introduction

Tehran universityMahdi Faghihi

2012

In The Name of God

Chapter 7

IT INFRASTRUCTURES

Business-Driven Technologies

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INTRODUCTION

Organizations can choose from thousands of components to build their IT infrastructures IT infrastructure - includes the hardware,

software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provide the underlying foundation to support the organization’s goals

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INTRODUCTION

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IT INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW

• The three primary components of any IT infrastructure include:

1. Client/server networks2. Internet3. N-tier infrastructures

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Client/Server Network

• Client/server network - a network in which one or more computers are servers and provide services to the other computers, which are called clients – Thin client - a workstation with a small amount

of processing power and costs less than a full powered workstation

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Client/Server Network

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The Internet

• There are numerous ways that the Internet enables an organization’s success

• Organizations must watch for inappropriate use of the Internet by its employees

• Organizations must decide how employees will access the Internet

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n-Tier Infrastructures

• Basic client/server computing is a 2-tier infrastructure– 2-tier infrastructure – there are only two tiers –

the client and the server– 3-tier infrastructure – contains clients, application

servers, and data servers

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Additional IT Infrastructure Elements

• Client/server networks, the Internet, and n-tier infrastructures are central to an organization’s IT infrastructure

• Three general categories of additional IT infrastructure elements include:– Information views– Business logic– Data storage and manipulation

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Additional IT Infrastructure Elements

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INFORMATION VIEWS

• Responsible for the presentation of information and receiving user events and includes:– Intranets– Extranets– Portals– Digital dashboards

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INFORMATION VIEWS

• Intranet - an internal organizational Internet that is guarded against outside access by a special security feature called a firewall (which can be software, hardware, or a combination of the two)

• Extranet – is an intranet that is restricted to an organization and certain outsiders, such as customers and suppliers

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INFORMATION VIEWS

• Enterprise information portals (EIPs) - allow knowledge workers to access company information via a Web interface – Collaborative processing enterprise information

portal - provides knowledge workers with access to workgroup information

– Decision processing enterprise information portal - provides knowledge workers with corporate information for making key decisions

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INFORMATION VIEWS

• Digital dashboard – displays key information gathered from several sources on a computer screen in a format tailored to the needs and wants of an individual knowledge worker

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INFORMATION VIEWS

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BUSINESS LOGIC

• Responsible for maintaining the business rules (e.g. application software) and protecting corporate information from unauthorized direct access by the clients and includes:– Integrations– Web services– Workflow systems– Applications service providers

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BUSINESS LOGIC

Integrations solve the problem with separate applications

Integration - allows separate applications to communicate directly with each other by automatically exporting data files from one application and importing them into another

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BUSINESS LOGIC

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BUSINESS LOGIC

• Web Services promise to be the next major frontier in computing– Web services – encompass all the technologies

that are used to transmit and process information on and across a network

– Interoperability – the concept that different computer systems and applications can talk to each other

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BUSINESS LOGIC

• Microsoft .NET - .Net is Microsoft’s version of Web services

• Microsoft’s vision is to make applications available any time, any place, on any device

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.NET Components

The three primary components of .NET:– .NET platform – tools, technologies, and services

that support .NET– .NET framework – supports Web services– Visual Studio .NET – development tools that

create .NET applications

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BUSINESS LOGIC

• Many companies support Web Services besides Microsoft

• Primary competitor is Sun Microsystems J2EE• Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) – Sun

Microsystems development tool for building Web Services applications

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BUSINESS LOGIC

• Workflow systems help to automate the process of presenting and passing information around an organization

• Workflow - defines all of the steps or business rules, from beginning to end, required for a process to run correctly

• Workflow systems - automate business processes

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BUSINESS LOGIC

Two primary types of workflow systems include:– Messaging-based workflow systems - send work

assignments through an e-mail system – Database-based workflow systems - store the

document in a central location and automatically asks the knowledge workers to access the document

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BUSINESS LOGIC

An organization can outsource business logic through an application service provider Application service provider (ASP) – supplies

software applications over the Internet that would otherwise reside on its customers’ in-house computers

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ASP Configuration

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BUSINESS LOGIC

Customers typically sign an agreement with the ASP for service Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - define the

specific responsibilities of the service provider and set the customer expectations

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• Responsible for data storage and manipulation and includes:– Network area storage– Storage area networks– Server farms– Collocation

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• Network area storage (NAS) – is a special purpose server aimed at providing file storage to users who access the device over a network

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• Storage area network (SAN) – is an infrastructure for building special, dedicated networks that allow rapid and reliable access to storage devises by multiple servers

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SAN Configuration

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• NAS and SAN architectures share several objectives including:– Large amounts of storage capacity– Serve multiple users– 24 X 7 support

• Primary difference is the location of the network that connects users, file servers, and disk drives

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• Server farm - the name of a location that stores a group of servers in a single place

• Web farm – is either a Web site that has multiple servers or an ISP that provides Web site outsourcing services using multiple servers

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DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION

• Collocation - a company rents space and telecommunications equipment from another company, or a collocation vendor

• Collocation facilities typically contain server farms and Web farms

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• An organization can support its IT infrastructure components with:– Backup/recovery– Disaster recovery– Infrastructure ‘ ilities

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Backup - the process of making a copy of the information stored on a computer

• Recovery - the process of reinstalling the backup information in the event the information was lost

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Disaster recovery plan - a detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood

• A disaster recovery plan typically includes hot and cold sites

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Hot and Cold Sites

• Hot site - a separate and fully equipped facility where the company can move immediately after the disaster and resume business

• Cold site - a separate facility that does not have any computer equipment, but is a place where the knowledge workers can move after the disaster

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Disaster recovery cost curve – charts1. The cost to your organization of the

unavailability of information and technology2. The cost to your organization of recovering from

a disaster over time

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Disaster Recovery Cost Curve

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Factors to consider when developing an IT infrastructure (These factors are commonly referred to as the ‘ilities)– Availability– Accessibility– Reliability– Scalability– Flexibility– Performance– Capacity planning

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Availability - determining when your IT system will be available for knowledge workers to access

• Accessibility - determining who has the right to access different types of IT systems and information

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Reliability - ensures your IT systems are functioning correctly and providing accurate information – Data cleansing - the process of ensuring that all

information is accurate

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Scalability – how well your system can adapt to increased demands

• Flexibility - the system’s ability to change quickly

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Performance - measures how quickly an IT system performs a certain process – Benchmark – baseline values a system seeks to

attain– Benchmarking – a process of continuously

measuring system results

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SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Capacity planning - determines the future IT infrastructure requirements for new equipment and additional network capacity

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IT INFRASTRUCTURES AND THE REAL WORLD

• When approving designs for an IT infrastructure be sure to ask the following: – How big is your department going to grow? – Will the system handle additional users?– How are your customers going to grow? – How easy is it to change the system? – How flexible is the system?

McGraw-Hill/Irwin ©2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, All rights reserved

CHAPTER 7

End of Chapter 7