Building Business-Driven IT Infrastructures: Key Components and Elements

1. 7 Chapter 7 IT INFRASTRUCTURES Business-Driven Technologies

2. 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

3. INTRODUCTION

4. IT INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW • The three primary components of any IT infrastructure include: • Client/server networks • Internet • N-tier infrastructures2-tier infrastructure – there are only two tiers – the client and the server 3-tier infrastructure – contains clients, application servers, and data servers

5. 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

6. Client/Server Network

7. 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

8. 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

9. Additional IT Infrastructure Elements

10. 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

11. 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

12. BUSINESS LOGIC

13. .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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. DATA STORAGE AND MANIPULATION • Responsible for data storage and manipulation and includes: • Network area storage • Storage area networks • Server farms • Collocation

19. 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

20. 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

21. SAN Configuration

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE • An organization can support its IT infrastructure components with: • Backup/recovery • Disaster recovery • Infrastructure ‘ilities

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE • Scalability – how well your system can adapt to increased demands • Flexibility - the system’s ability to change quickly

33. 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

34. SUPPORTING AN IT INFRASTRUCTURE • Capacity planning - determines the future IT infrastructure requirements for new equipment and additional network capacity

35. 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?

36. IT INFRASTRUCTURES AND THE REAL WORLD • How much additional information do you expect to store each year? • How long will you maintain information in the systems? • How much history do you want to keep on each customer? • What are the hours you need the system to be available? • How often do you need the information backed up?