Understanding Internetworking Infrastructure

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Announcements

• Business Analysis Proposal due Tuesday next week

• Business Plan explained today

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Business Plan Project

• The objective of this project is to put together a business plan that sets out the strategic direction for a company utilizing information technology.

• The two primary objectives are:– To make realistic projections of opportunities and

risks– To present these in a compelling way that would

attract funding and support from the organization

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Options

• Option 1:– Choose your own

• Option 2– One-number dialing solution

• Option 3– Campus transportation network

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Option 1: Your own startup idea

• Be creative, use this opportunity to explore an idea you have

• Focus on document you would present to venture capitalist

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Option 2: One-number voice communication

• You have developed software to integrate all of the voice connections in someone’s life– home phone– work phone– mobile phone– online voice account– Other?

• Each user can set the system to recognize where you are, and one integrated voicemail system consolidates messages in one location.

• Business plan should include– Product release strategy– Target market segments – Potential revenue and costs – Risks – Alternative potential fee structures, and which you anticipate would be

the most attractive

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Option 3: Campus Transportation Management System

• You have been assigned by the director of operations for TAPS on campus to run a more cost-effective, efficient bus service.

• You have developed a system where the current combination of city buses and campus transport would be enhanced by– Detailed forecasting of demand as well as – Online response to fluctuations. – (For example,

• this could involve a less structured timetable, and more back-up capacity. • by installing cameras at each bus stop to monitor how many people are

waiting, the manager could send extra buses in response to high demand.

• Create a business plan of – how a program like this could be released, – including the technology requirements and costs. – Pay attention to risks to the existing infrastructure including what

partnerships would need to be entered into.

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Business Plan should include • Executive Summary

– Less than a page overview of the idea• Customer Need and Business Opportunity

– An argument for the potential of the product or idea• Business Strategy and Key Milestones

– Plan a timeline over about five years• Marketing Plan

– Who is the intended customer?– How will you convince them to adopt the product?

• Operations Plan– What is needed to pull this off?

• Management and Key Personnel– How many people– How will the organization be structured, and what changes are needed?– Give brief profiles of key individuals

• Financial Projections

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Estimates

• You are not expected to know exact numbers for costs etc. but the estimates should be realistic.

• Use charts and tables wherever appropriate. Venture capitalists and CEO’s do not like to do more work than they have to in evaluating.

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Due date(s)

• Project Due date: May 24

• Optional Early Draft: May 15 (for instructor feedback)

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Today: Understanding Network Infrastructure

• Module 2 of text

• ’75% of all IT dollars to go Infrastructure. Isn’t it time you learned what it is?’ – IBM ad campaign

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Key trends

• More reliance on IT infrastructure

• New services

• Distributed Processing

• New business models

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Challenges

• Poor IT decisions lead to– Products with insufficient support– Relying on outdated protocols/systems

• Technology / management divide– Who makes decisions?

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Fig. 5.1 Moore’s Law

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1980’s

• PC released

• People moved jobs to computers

• No longer needed staff for computing/data processing

• LANs allowed people to share files, printers etc.

• IT services provided over distributed servers

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1990’s

• Internet boom

• TCP/IP provided robust standard for messages between all computers on web

• Network resources available to individuals

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Fig 5.2 Evolution of Corporate IT Infrastructure

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Fig 5.3 Metcalfe’s Law

“The usefulness of a network increases with the square of the number of users connected to the network”

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Fig 5.4 Bandwidth Explosion

Growth faster than computer chips

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Components of Internetworking Infrastructure

• Network– Hardware/software that permit exchange of information

between processing units and organizations

• Processing Systems– Hardware/software providing ability to handle business

transactions

• Facilities– Physical systems that house and protect devices

• Trend: Increasing freedom to manage resources• See table 5.1

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Table 5.1: Fundamental components of internetworking infrastructure

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Networks

• Local Area Networks (LANs)

• Hubs, switches, wireless access points, network adapters

• Wide Area networks (WANs)

• Routers

• Firewalls, Security Systems

• Caching, Content Acceleration

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Fig 5.5 LAN

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Fig 5.6 WAN

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Processing Systems

• Client Devices and Systems

• Server Devices and Systems

• Mainframe Devices and Systems

• Middleware

• Infrastructure Management Systems

• Business Applications

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Fig 5.7 Servers in typical E-commerce configuration

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Facilities

• Buildings, physical space

• Network Conduits, connections

• Power

• Environmental Controls

• Security

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Fig 5.8 Modern Data Center

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Questions, Break, Presentation

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Discussion

• How much does a typical manager understand of computing networks?

• What educational opportunities are there?

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Operational Characteristics if Internetworking

• Internetworking Technologies are Based on Open Standards

• Internetworking Technologies operate asynchronously

• Internetworking communications have inherent latency

• Internetworking technologies are naturally decentralized

• Internetworking technologies are scalable

• See tables 5.2, 5.3

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Table 5.2: Measuring Network Bandwidth

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Table 5.3: Communication Technology, Bandwidths and User Groups

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Business Implications

• Quicker communications leads to efficiency

• More data leads to better-informed decisions

• Progress of processes become transparent

• Processes more efficient

• Make and sell becomes sense and respond

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Threats

• Automation can lead to chain reaction, cascading failures

• Outside attacks

• See table 5.4

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Table 5.4: Denial of Service Attacks

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New service models

• Physical location of computers less important

• Economies of scale for particular services

• New capabilities must be integrated into existing systems– Deal with legacy technology

• Reliability must improve– See next case!

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Discussion: Outsourcing

• What about outsourcing of infrastructure?

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Case Thursday

• iPremier

• Made-up case of IT failure

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Office hours today