Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 1) Which type of infrastructure service stores and manages corporate data and provides capabilities for analyzing the data? A) Networking B) Telephone C) VOIP D) Telecommunications E) Data management 2) Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network are called: A) network standards. B) telecommunications standards. C) technology standards. D) Internet standards. E) compatibility standards. 3) Place the following eras of IT infrastructure evolution in order, from earliest to most recent: 1. Cloud Computing Era; 2. Client/Server; 3. Enterprise Era; 4. Personal Computer; and 5. Mainframe and Minicomputer. A) 5, 2, 3, 4, 1 B) 5, 4, 2, 3, 1 C) 4, 5, 2, 3, 1 D) 5, 4, 2, 1, 3 E) 4, 5, 3, 2, 1 4) A client computer networked to a server computer, with processing split between the two types of machines, is called a(n): A) service-oriented architecture. B) on-demand architecture. C) multi-tiered client/server architecture. D) two-tiered client/server architecture. E) divided architecture. 5) Interpretations of Moore's law assert that: A) computing power will eventually level off. B) transistors decrease in size 50% every two years. C) data storage costs decrease by 50% every 18 months. D) PCs decrease in market share by 9% every 5 years. E) computing power doubles every 18 months. 6) Which of the following became the standard PC in the Personal Computer Era? A) Wintel PC B) DOS PC C) MITS PC D) Altair 1 E) Apple II 7) ________ states that the value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members. A) Metcalfe's Law B) Moore's Law C) Law of scalability D) Law of outsourcing E) Law of networks 8) Client/server computing is a primary example of decentralized processing. Answer: TRUE 9) A web server is responsible for locating and managing stored webpages. Answer: TRUE 10) An application server may reside on the same computer as a web server or on its own dedicated computer. Answer: TRUE 11) It is much harder to eliminate a cloud service than to remove functionality from a company's core internal systems. Answer: FALSE 12) Microsoft is no longer the market leader in client/server networking. Answer: FALSE 15) Which of the following is the network standard for connecting desktop computers into local area networks that enabled the widespread adoption of client/server computing and local area networks and further stimulated the adoption of personal computers? A) TCP/IP B) COBOL C) Ethernet D) ASCII E) Linux 16) Which of the following is a leading networking hardware provider? A) Dell B) Intel C) Seagate D) IBM E) Cisco 17) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): A) is one type of cloud computing service where users pay only for the computing capacity they actually use. B) is a cloud-based service which provides software applications to users on demand. C) is a cloud-based service that provides a platform for software development. 2 D) provides users with a service-oriented architecture for their systems. E) provides cloud users with ubiquitous networking environment. 18) Which of the following is not a part of the IT infrastructure ecosystem found in firms? A) Consultant and system integrators B) Internet platforms C) Operating system platforms D) Enterprise software applications E) Virtual reality systems 19) The marketplace for computer hardware: A) has become increasingly concentrated in top firms. B) has expanded to include a wide variety of start-up and mobile-computing firms. C) has moved significantly to Asian firms. D) has been decimated by mobile and cloud computing. E) has begun moving away from blade servers. 20) The operating system is used to manage the software applications used in business activities. Answer: FALSE 23) Which of the following is not an example of a wearable computing device? A) Smartwatch B) Smart glasses C) Smartphones D) Activity trackers E) Smart ID badges 24) All of the following are current hardware platform trends except: A) green computing. B) virtualization. C) cloud computing. D) Unix. E) quantum computing. 25) Which of the following is a recent addition to the mobile digital platform? A) Quantum computing devices B) Wearable computing devices C) Cloud computing devices D) Grid computing devices E) Green computing devices 26) Which of the following enables a single physical resource (such as a server or a storage device) to appear to the user as multiple logical resources? A) Cloud computing B) Autonomic computing C) Virtualization D) Multicore processing E) Ubiquitous computing 3 27) All of the following are cloud computing services except: A) infrastructure as a service. B) platform as a service. C) software as a service. D) on-demand computing. E) virtualization as a service. 28) Which of the following is not one of the characteristics of cloud computing, as defined by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology? A) Ubiquitous network access B) Location-independent resource pooling C) On-demand self service D) Measured service E) Reduced elasticity 29) A(n) ________ is an integrated circuit which contains two or more processors to enhance performance and reduce power consumption. A) multicore processor B) legacy processor C) scalable processor D) aggregate circuit E) green circuit 30) Which of the following involves practices and technologies to minimize the environmental effects of manufacturing and managing computing devices? A) Capacity planning B) Cloud computing C) Green computing D) Utility computing E) On-demand computing 31) Quantum computing is implemented primarily with enterprise or ISP servers. Answer: FALSE 37) ZipRealty, which combines Google Maps with real estate data, is an example of: A) cloud computing. B) SOA. C) a widget. D) a mashup. E) a web service. 38) Which of the following is not one of the current software platform trends? A) Web services and service-oriented architecture B) Open-source software C) HTML5 D) Software outsourcing E) Multicore processors 4 39) Which of the following statements about Linux is not true? A) It plays a major role in the back office running local area networks. B) It is available in free versions downloadable from the Internet. C) It has garnered 20 percent of the server operating system market. D) Linux applications are embedded in cell phones, smartphones, netbooks, and other handheld devices. E) Linux works on all the major hardware platforms. 40) A software program with a graphical user interface for displaying web pages and for accessing the web and other Internet resources is called a web: A) service. B) client. C) browser. D) app. E) beacon. 41) Which of the following is the foundation technology for web services? A) XML B) HTML C) SOAP D) UDDI E) SCSI 42) Prewritten, commercially available sets of software programs that eliminate the need for a firm to write its own software programs for certain functions, are referred to as: A) software packages. B) mashups. C) outsourced software. D) open-source software. E) service level agreements. 43) ________ are created by combining and customizing components from different online software applications. A) Apps B) Web browsers C) SaaS D) Web services E) Web mashups 44) A formal contract between customers and their service providers that outlines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and to the customer is called a(n): A) SOA. B) SLA. C) TCO. D) RFQ. E) SaaS. 5 45) Web services can exchange information between two different systems only if the operating systems and programming languages upon which the systems are based are identical. Answer: FALSE 46) Hypertext markup language specifies how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a webpage. Answer: TRUE 48) Which of the following refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a larger number of users without breaking down? A) Modality B) Scalability C) Expandability D) Disintermediation E) Customizability 49) Which model can be used to analyze the direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the actual cost of specific technology implementations? A) Supply and demand B) Return on investment C) Breakeven point D) Cost-benefit analysis E) Total cost of ownership 13) List and describe four services that comprise IT infrastructure, beyond physical devices and software applications. Answer: • The service components of IT infrastructure include: • Telecommunications services that provide data, voice, and video connectivity. • Data management services to store, manage, and analyze data. • Application software services that provide enterprise-wide capabilities. • Physical facilities management services, to develop and manage physical installations of technology. • IT standards services that establish and monitor the firm's policies. • IT education services that provide training in use of the systems. • IT research and development services that research potential projects, products, and investments. 14) Explain why standards are so important in information technology. What standards have been important for the growth of Internet technologies? Answer: Standards are important because they result in different manufacturers creating products that can be used either with each other or to communicate with each other. For example, without standards, each light-bulb manufacturer would have to also create specific light-bulb sockets for use with their light bulbs. In the same way, computers and computer technology have been enabled through standards. Standards have allowed many different manufacturers to contribute to the same, standardized definitions of a technological application. For example, the ASCII data standards made it possible for computer machines from different manufacturers to exchange data, and standardized 6 software languages have enabled programmers to write programs that can be used on different machines. The standards that have been important for the growth of the Internet include TCP/IP, as a networking standard, and WWW standards for displaying information as web pages, including HTML. 21) Have mainframes disappeared? Answer: Mainframes have not disappeared. They continue to be used to reliably and securely handle huge volumes of transactions, for analyzing very large quantities of data, and for handling large workloads in cloud computing centers. The mainframe is still the digital workhorse for banking and telecommunications networks that are often running software programs that are older and require a specific hardware platform. Currently, mainframes process 30 billion business transactions per day, and 80 percent of the world's corporate data also originates on the mainframe. 22) Briefly explain why corporations are increasingly interested in using Unix or Linux for their operating systems. Answer: Linux is an inexpensive and robust open-source relative of Unix. Unix and Linux constitute the backbone of corporate infrastructure throughout much of the world because they are scalable, reliable, and much less expensive than mainframe operating systems. They can also run on many different types of processors. The major providers of Unix operating systems are IBM, HP, and Sun with slightly different and partially incompatible versions. Although Windows continues to dominate the client marketplace, many corporations have begun to explore Linux as a low-cost desktop operating system provided by commercial vendors such as RedHat Linux and Linux-based desktop productivity suites such as Sun's StarOffice. Linux is also available in free versions downloadable from the Internet as open-source software. The rise of open-source software, particularly Linux and the applications it supports at the client and server level, has profound implications for corporate software platforms: cost, reduction, reliability and resilience, and integration, because Linux works on all the major hardware platforms from mainframes to servers to clients. Linux has the potential to break Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop. Sun's StarOffice has an inexpensive Linux-based version that competes with Microsoft's Office productivity suite. 32) Distinguish between cloud computing, green computing, and quantum computing. Answer: In cloud computing, technology services are provided over a network, primarily the Internet. These may be infrastructure services, such as storage or networking, or platform services, such as IBM's application development and test service, or software services, such as salesforce.com. Green computing refers to practices and technologies for designing computer equipment to minimize impact on the environment. Quantum computing refers to emerging technology that uses the principles of quantum physics to dramatically boost computer processing power. 33) An ad-hoc group of oceanographers needs to set up a system to analyze massive amounts of data on ocean temperatures. The technology and hardware for gathering the data and transmitting the data to a central computer is in place. What additional hardware might they need? What techniques might they use to make their research more efficient and lower costs? Answer: To store their data they may want to use a SAN. To process their data, they will 7 need a supercomputer. To lower costs, they could look at on-demand computing as well as virtualization and implementing multicore processors. 34) What are the drawbacks of cloud computing? Do you think these ever outweigh the benefits, and if so, in what cases? Answer: Students should be able to identify at least two drawbacks. Drawbacks include: 1. placing data storage and control in another firm's hands. 2. security risks in having critical systems and data entrusted to a firm that does business with other firms. 3. loss of business capability if cloud infrastructures malfunction. 4. dependence on cloud computing provider and switching costs. Student answers regarding the relative weight will vary, an example is: The disadvantages of cloud computing outweigh the advantages, except if any data lost is irreplaceable or creates harm to others. For example, a database of financial information should remain the responsibility of the original firm so that they can be held accountable. 35) What are the essential characteristics of cloud computing? Answer: As defined by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, cloud computing is characterized by on-demand self-service, ubiquitous network access, locationindependent resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. On-demand selfservice means that consumers can use server time and network storage as they need it on their own. Ubiquitous network refers to the ability to access cloud resources across all devices and platforms, including mobile. Location independent resource pooling describes the ability to allocate resources to any part of the world without a dip in service quality. Rapid elasticity is the capacity for resources to be increased or decreased as needed to meet demand. Lastly, measured service refers to the payment technique whereby users are charged based on the resources they use, as opposed to monthly or yearly rates. 36) What is virtualization and how and why is it used? Answer: 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. Virtualization enables a single physical resource (such as a server or a storage device) to appear to the user as multiple logical resources. For example, a server or mainframe can be configured to run many instances of an operating system (or different operating systems) so that it acts like many different machines. Each virtual server "looks" like a real physical server to software programs, and multiple virtual servers can run in parallel on a single machine. Server virtualization is a common method of reducing technology costs by providing the ability to host multiple systems on a single physical machine. Most servers run at just 15 to 20 percent of capacity, and virtualization can boost utilization server utilization rates to 70 percent or higher. Higher utilization rates translate into fewer computers required to process the same amount of work, reduced data center space to house machines, and lower energy usage. Virtualization also facilitates centralization and consolidation of hardware administration. Virtualization also enables multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) to appear as a single logical resource, as in software-defined storage (SDS), which separates the software for managing data storage from storage hardware. Using software, firms can pool and arrange multiple storage infrastructure resources and efficiently allocate them to meet specific application needs. SDS enables firms to replace 8 expensive storage hardware with lower-cost commodity hardware and cloud storage hardware. There is less under- or over-utilization of storage resources. 87) Identify and describe five or more of the current trends in contemporary software platforms. Answer: 1. Growing use of Linux and open-source software–Open-source software is produced and maintained by a global community of programmers and is downloadable for free. Linux is a powerful, resilient open-source operating system that can run on multiple hardware platforms and is used widely to run Web servers. 2. HTML5–This is the next evolution of HTML which simplifies embedding multimedia, rich media, and animation in the browser. 3. Cloud-based services–In cloud-based services and software, users rent applications or storage space from online providers rather than running these applications or themselves or using local storage. 4. Web services and service-oriented architecture–Web services are loosely coupled software components based on open web standards that are not product-specific and can work with any application software and operating system. They can be used as components of Web-based applications linking the systems of two different organizations or to link disparate systems of a single company. 5. Software outsourcing–Companies are purchasing their new software applications from outside sources, including application software packages, by outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor (that may be offshore), or by renting software services from an application service provider. 6. Cloud-based services–Companies are leasing infrastructure, hardware, and software from vendors, paying on a subscription or per-transaction basis. 7. Mashups and apps–Mashups are programs created by combining two or more existing Internet applications. Apps are small programs developed for mobiles and handhelds, turning them into more robust computing tools. 47) Define outsourcing and explain some of the computing tasks that are well suited to outsourcing. Answer: Outsourcing is the shift of IT infrastructure and systems development to external vendors. This is a good option for companies without the resources or technical capability to perform certain computing tasks. Tasks well suited to outsourcing include Web site hosting, Web design, development of custom software, and software maintenance. More basic tasks such as data entry and call center operation is often outsourced as well. Outsourcing often requires firms to enter into a service level agreement (SLA) that defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider. 50) What is scalability? Why is it essential to the success of the modern business firm? Answer: Scalability is the ability of the computer, product, or system to expand to survey larger numbers of users without breaking down. It is important because as firms grow, they can quickly outgrow their infrastructure. As firms shrink, they can get stuck with excessive infrastructure purchased in better times. Any modern company must be able to make plans for the future, even though that future may be different than what was expected. Computer equipment is expensive, though dropping in price, and budgets must be planned to allow for new purchases, upgrades, and training. It is generally assumed that a successful company will need more computer capacity for more people as it follows a 9 path to continued success. 98) A small design agency you are consulting for will be creating client websites and wants to purchase a web server so they can host the sites themselves. How will you advise them on this purchase? Answer: They need to understand total cost of ownership: the costs will go beyond the cost of the server, but they will also need to purchase the server software and any application software they will be using. They will also need someone in their IT department to manage and maintain the computers. They will also incur facilities costs for running the computer. They need to have a backup plan should the server fail. The design agency will need to add up all the potential costs and risks. Additionally, they need to prepare for their plan if they need more servers. Will they eventually have to run and maintain their own server farm? What if one of their clients' sites is more popular than anticipated and the server has difficulty handling the load? How quickly can they add servers or processing power? The company should look at colocation, Web hosting services, and ASPs to see if their needs will be better met this way. 51) You are starting a market research company with a single business partner and are planning the hardware and software needs for the two of you. Which factors should play into your decision of how much to spend on these investments? Answer: Using the competitive forces model for IT infrastructure investment, the most relevant factors in this decision are: • The firm's business strategy. What capabilities will we want to have over the next five years? • Alignment of IT strategy. How does our IT strategy match up with the business plan? • IT assessment. What are the current technology levels for the services we are offering and our business type? We would probably not need to be at the bleeding edge, but not behind the times either. • Competitor firm services. What technology-enabled capabilities do our competitors have? We would want to match services with our competitors. • Competitor firm IT investments. How much are competitor firms investing in their technology? Because this is a startup, one other factor may not play such a large role: that of market demand for services. However, finding out the market demand for competitor's services may uncover ways that this new company could have a competitive advantage. 10