In
Chapter, we defined information technology (IT) infrastructure as the shared
technology possessions that deliver the platform for the firm’s specific
information system applications. IT infrastructure includes outlay in hardware, software, and
services such as consulting education, and training. IT infrastructure consists
of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to
operate the entire enterprise. But IT infrastructure is also a set of firm wide
services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical
capabilities. There are 5 stages in IT infrastructure evolution which is starting
from the beginning of widespread commercial use of CPU computers, personal computer, computers that provide
the client computers, enterprise-wide computing, and lastly now is the Cloud
and Mobile Computing Era.
There
are seven main modules that must be matched to provide the firm with a coherent
IT infrastructure. There are computer hardware stages, operating system stages,
enterprise software applications, networking telecommunications, consultants
and system integrations, data managements and storage, and internet platforms.
Contemporary
hardware platform trends starting by the grid computing, involves connecting
geographically remote computers into a single network is to create a virtual processer by combining the
computational power of all computers on the grid. Second is virtualization, Virtualization
is the process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as computing
power or data storage) so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not
restricted by physical configuration or geographic location. Then, we
introduced cloud computing, in which firms and individuals obtain computer
processing, storage, software, and other services as a pool of virtualized
resources over a network, primarily the Internet. By curbing hardware
proliferation and power consumption, virtualization has become one of the
principal machineries for promoting green computing. With great are schedules
encompassing many thousands of schmoosed policies, computer systems have changed
so complex today that some experts believe they may not be controllable in the upcoming.
One style to allocating with this tricky is to employ autonomic computing. four
main themes in contemporary software platform progression: Linux and open
source software, Java and Ajax, Web services and service-oriented architecture Software
outsourcing and cloud services.
Creating
and managing a coherent IT infrastructure raises multiple challenges for
example when trade with stand and technology change (including cloud and mobile computing), management and governance, and
making intelligent structure funds.