Understanding IT Infrastructure

Chapter 5

Key Learning Objectives

–Recognize the core components of modern IT infrastructure and understand the management issues associated with these components–Understand the business opportunities and challenges associated with pervasive internetworked computing power

• 75% of al IT dollars go to infrastructure (2001)

• Half of all capital expenditures in many companies

• What is IT infrastructure?• Past IT infrastructure decisions severely

impact the current business capabilities• Leave it to the techies?

Agenda

• The drivers of changes: better chips, bigger pipes

• The basic components of internetworking infrastructures

• The rise of internetworking: business implications

The drivers of change: better chips, bigger pipes

• 1965, Gordon Moore– The performance of memory chips doubled

every 18 to 24 months– Size and cost roughly constant

Moore‘s Law

The Evolution of Corporate IT Infrastructure

1960s and 1970s

• Centralized computing architecture• In batches

1980s-1990s

• Personal computer (early 1980)• Local area network (LAN)• Client-server– Front and back office

• Internet in businesses (early 1990s)

History of Internet

• 1960s, cold war• U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)– No critical communication lines or nodes could

be targeted by an enemy

• Open standards (e.g. TCP/IP)– Not owned by any person or company

Metcalfe’s Law

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

• n2

Metcalfe’s Law

The Bandwidth Explosion

The result of better chips and bigger pipes?

• Reduction in the cost of computing power• Reduction in the cost of exchanging

information between computers• How to mix old and new?– The function of mainframes?

Basic components of internetworking infrastructures

• Network– Technologies (HW and SW) that permit exchange of

information between organizations

• Processing system– HW and SW proved an organization’s ability to handle

business transactions

• Facilities– The physical systems that house and protect computing

and network devices

• Many more degrees of freedom in how components can be arranged and managed

Network

Core technologies• Fibre optics, cable

systems, DSL, satellite, wireless, internetworking hardware (routers switches, firewalls), content delivery software, identity and policy management, monitoring

Key management issues• How to select technologies

and standard• How to select partners• How to manage partner

relationships• How to assure reliability• How to maintain security

Processing systems

Core technologies• Transaction software

(enterprise systems offered by companies such as SAP and Oracle or more targeted solutions, sometimes home-grown), servers, server appliances, client devices (PCs, handhelds), mobile phones

Key management issues• What to keep internal and

what to outsource• How to deploy, grow, and

modify• Enterprise system or best-

of-breed hybrid• Relationships with legacies• How to manage incidents• How to recover after a

“disaster”

Facilities

Core technologies• Corporate data centres,

collocation data centres, managed services data centres, data closets

Key management issues• Internal or external

management• Choosing a facilities model

suited to one’s company• How to assure reliability• How to maintain security• How to maximize energy

efficiency and reduce environmental impact

Source: http://blog.connectzone.com/clean-up-your-data-closet/

The technology elements of networks

• Local area networks (LANs)– Define the physical features of solution to local

communication problems and the protocols (rules)• Token Ring protocol

– Speak when you have the token– http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Token_Ring/IEEE_802.5

• Ethernet– computer speak out whenever they 1) have something to

say, and 2) hear silence on the network for a moment

• What is a collision?

A Simple LAN

• Hubs, switches– Serve as central junctions into which cable from the

computers on a LAN are connected

• Wireless access points– Connect wireless devices into hubs and switches

• Network adapters– Are physically fitted into the computers on a LAN– Translate the computer’s communications into a

language that can be broadcast over the LAN and understood by listening computers

• Wide area network– Provide a way for computers physically distant from

each other to communicate– Networks of networks– Enable LANs to connect and communicate– Intranet

• A WAN inside the boundaries of a company’s physical premises

– Extranet• A WAN that extends outward from a company’s physical

premises to business partners

An Example of a WAN

• Routers– Routing stations for cars analogy…

• Firewalls and other security systems and devices– Firewalls act as security sentries within and at the

boundaries of an organizations internal network to protect it from intrusion from the outside • HW and SW

– Intrusion detection systems, IDSs• Sensors and probes

– Virtual private networks (VPNs)

• Caching, content acceleration – Accelerate the delivery of information across

the network– Caching/storing information in a location close

to the destination machine

• content acceleration, media servers, and other specialized network devices

The technological elements of processing systems

• Client devices and systems– PCs and handheld devices– Perform front-end processing (interaction with users)

• Server devices and system– Servers are the source of many of the IT services that

clients receive from across the network– Perform back-end processing (heavy computation or

interaction with other back-end computers)– Often physically located in data centres– Special functions: database servers, web servers,

application servers

Servers in a Possible E-commerce Configuration

• Mainframe devices and systems– Do business-critical transaction processing– Develop systems that enable interaction

between legacy mainframes and internetworks

• Middleware– Help clients, servers, mainframes, and their

systems coordinate activities in time and across networks

– Often runs on servers

• Infrastructure management systems– Systems for managing its computing infrastructure– Monitor the performance of processing systems,

devices, and networks– Examples

• Helpdesk, deliver new software to computers throughout an organization, load balancing

• Business applications– Computer users interact with this layer– ERP, off-the-shelf packages (spreadsheet…)

The technological elements of facilities

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilisr2k9zkM• https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=j70OfuL9CPw• Buildings and physical spaces

– Size, physical features– Minimize the environmental impact

• Network conduits and connections– Speed, cost, performance, availability and security

• Power– Uninterruptable power supplies (UPSs)

A Modern Data Center

• Temperature and humidity controls• Security– Protect from malicious attacks, both physical

and network-based• Security guards, cages, locks (control access to

machines)• Network…much more complex

Operational characteristics of internetworks

• Based on open standards– TCP/IP (Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol) standards define how computer send and receive data packets• http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/

v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.commadmn/doc/commadmndita/tcpip_protocols.htm

– Hypertext transport protocol (HTTP)– Prices are lower, and performance better than

proprietary technologies

• Operate asynchronously– Unlike a telephone call, no dedicated link

• Internetwork communications have inherent latency– Not all packages of a single message arrive in

the same moment– New routing technologies provide options• Move high-priority packets to the top of the queues

• Decentralized• Scalable– Routed along multiple paths

The rise of internetworking: business implications

• The emergence of real-time infrastructures– Better data, better decisions– Improve process visibility• View the progress of filling an order

– Improved process efficiency• Hold less buffer stock improves return on

investment (ROI)

– From make-and-sell to sense-and-respond• Response to actual customer demand rather than

forecasted customer demand

• Broader exposure to operational threats– Allow access unless someone intervenes to disallow

it

• New models of service delivery– Physical location of computer less important– Telephone answering machines vs. voice mail

• Machine vs. subscription

• Managing legacies– Legacy systems, processes, organizations and

cultures

Questions to be asked

• What does the public infrastructure of the Internet mean to our business operations?– Are we leveraging this infrastructure to maximum

advantage? – How dependent are we still on proprietary

technologies?

• How close do our company operations come to running in real time?– What value creation opportunities can still be obtained

by moving more in the direction of real-time value capture?

• Has our company taken appropriate advantage of the many degrees of architectural and operational freedom offered by internetworking technologies?– Have we thought through the inherent complexities and risks in

those additional degree of freedom?

• Are we exploring new service delivery models aggressively enough?

• Have we re-examined our management frameworks in light of the new and more adaptive capabilities that internetworking technologies offer? – Most important, do senior business managers play and active and

informed role in infrastructure design and planning decisions?