AB1401

Information Technology

Seminar 3: IT Infrastructure –
Software

5.1 © 2009 by Pearson

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 7 components of IT Infrastructure (recap)
 Major themes in contemporary software
platform evolution
 Linux and Open Source Software
 Java and Ajax
 Software mashups and Web 2.0 applications

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 Components of IT
Infrastructure - Recap
 IT Infrastructure has 7 main components
 Computer hardware platforms
 Operating system platforms
 Enterprise software applications
 Data management and storage
 Networking/telecommunications platforms
 Internet platforms
 Consulting system integration services
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 Components of IT
Infrastructure - Recap
The IT Infrastructure Ecosystem

There are seven major

components that must be
coordinated to provide the
firm with a coherent IT
infrastructure. Listed here
are major technologies
and suppliers for each
component.

Figure 5-10
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 Software is Eating the World!

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 Group Discussion
A popular headline from an influential authority says
“Software is eating the world.” One of the examples
quoted is Amazon. What do you think the headline
means and can you give 2 other examples about
software eating the world?

(Exam Question, November/December 2013)

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 Types of Software
 Application software:
Programs written to
perform functions
specified by end users

 System software:
Generalized programs,
manages computer’s
resources
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 What is an Operating System?

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 Functions of Operating System

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 Programming Languages

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 Machine Languages
 The instructions are in the form of binary code,
so you have to enter binary codes for various
instructions. Implication?
 Programs are highly difficult to read and
modify. For example, to add two numbers, you
might write an instruction in binary like this:
1101101010011010
 Machine Languages are chip specific (machine
dependent). Implication?
 
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 Assembly Languages
 Resembles machine language, substitutes
mnemonics for numeric codes
 For example, to add numbers, you might write
an instruction in assembly code like this:
ADDF3 R1, R2, R3

Assembly Source File

Machine Code File

…
ADDF3 R1, R2, R3
Assembler …
1101101010011010
…
…

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 High Level Languages, cont.
 Popular Languages
 COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language)
 FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation)

 BASIC (Beginner All-purpose Pascal (named for Blaise Pascal)

 C (whose developer designed B first)

 Visual Basic (Basic-like visual language developed by

Microsoft)
 C++ (an object-oriented language, based on C)

 Java (object oriented language)

 C# (object oriented language)

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 Fourth Generation Languages

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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Proprietary software
 Software with restrictions on copying and modifying
placed on it by the creator or distributor
 Restrictions enforced by
 Legal means - Software licensing, copyright protection, and
patent protection
 Technical means - releasing only machine-readable programs to
users and withholding the human-readable source code
 Sometimes both
 Eg. Windows, MS Office, Lotus SmartSuite, Corel
WordPerfect Office, and more …
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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Open source software
 Produced by a community of several hundred
thousand programmers around the world
 Free
 Can be modified by users
 Works derived from the original code must also be free
 Software can be redistributed by the user without additional
licensing
 By definition not restricted to any specific OS or hardware
technology
 However most open source software is currently based on a Linux or
Unix OS
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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Open source software (cont’d)
 OpenSource.org - Leading open source
professional association
 Open source movement has been evolving for
more than 30 years
 Has demonstrated that it can produce commercially
acceptable, high-quality software

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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Open source software (cont’d)
 Open source software is based on the following
premise
 Superior to commercially produced proprietary
software
 Thousands of programmers around the world working
for no pay can read, perfect, distribute, and modify
the source code much faster, and with more reliable
results, than small teams of programmers working for
a single software company (wisdom of the crowds?)

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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Open source software (cont’d)
 Currently thousands of programs available from
hundreds of web sites
 Popular tools
 Linux OS
 Apache HTTP Web server
 Mozilla Firefox Web browser
 OpenOffice desktop productivity suite
 Inexpensive alternatives to MS Office
 Many more …
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 Open Source vs Proprietary
software
 Open source software (cont’d)
 Linux OS
 Most well-known open source OS
 Unix-like
 Downloadable from the Internet, free of charge, or purchased for
a small fee from companies that provide additional tools
 Reliable, powerful, compactly designed
 Capable of running on many different hardware platforms,
including servers, handheld computers, and consumer electronics
 Has become a robust low-cost alternative to UNIX and the
Windows OS
 Free software alternatives to some of the most
popular commercial software (and it’s legal!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fqlI9B6QU

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 Group Discussion

 “Open-source software is like Wikipedia.”

Explain why or why not?

(Exam Question, November/December 2011)

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 Software for the Web
 Java
 Created in 1992 at Sun Microsystems
 Object-oriented programming language
 Can handle text, data, graphics, sound, and video, all within
one program
 Operating system, processor-independent
 Leading interactive programming environment for the
Web
 Applets, E-commerce applications
 Nearly all web browsers come with a Java platform built
in
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 Software for the Web
 Java (cont’d)
 More recently the Java platform has migrated
into:
 Cellular phones
 Smartphones
 Automobiles
 Music players
 Game machines
 Set-top cable television systems

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 The Changing Sources of
Software

U.S. firms currently spend

about $250 billion each
year on software. In
2008, about 40 percent of
that software will
originate outside the
firm, either from
enterprise software
vendors selling firmwide
applications or individual
application service
providers selling
software modules. Figure 5-12
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 The Changing Sources of
Software
Cloud Computing

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 The Changing Sources of
Software
 Cloud Computing
 Cloud Computing explained -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg
 Hardware (infrastructure) and Software (applications)
capabilities are provided as services over the Internet
(the “cloud”) and accessed using clients such as
 Desktops
 Notebooks
 Netbooks
 Mobile devices
 Currently the fastest growing form of computing
 Estimated market size in 2009 of US$8 billion
 Projected size of US$160 billion in 2012
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 The Changing Sources of
Software
 Cloud Computing (cont’d)
 Hardware firms
 IBM, HP, and Dell
 Build huge, scalable cloud computing centers providing
 Computing power
 Data storage
 High speed Internet connections
 Software firms
 Google, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce.com
 Sells software applications as services
 Over 500,000 firms in 2009 will use Google Apps
 More than 43,000 firms will be using Salesforce.com’s software, some
on their iPhones!
 More immediately appealing to small and medium-size businesses
 Lack resources to purchase and own their own hardware and software
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 The Changing Sources of
Software
 SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)
 Software will be increasingly delivered and used over
networks as a service
 Based on Cloud Computing concept
 Free or low-cost tools
 for individuals and small businesses
 provided by Google or Yahoo!
 Enterprise software and other complex business
functions
 Available as services from major commercial software vendors
 Subscription or pay per transaction basis
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 The Changing Sources of
Software
 SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) (cont’d)
 Example: Salesforce.com (page 220)
 Provides on-demand software for CRM including Salesforce automation,
Partner relationship management, Marketing and Customer service
 Companies considering the SaaS model need to carefully assess the
costs and benefits
 People, organizational, and technology issues
 Pros
 Allows companies to focus on business issues rather than technology
 May cut costs
 More?
 Cons
 Companies’ dependency on SaaS providers
 More?

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 Group Discussion
“Adobe’s jump to the cloud and software-as-a-service
is sure to attract other big companies, and I suspect
it won’t be long until we hear about the next
product that’s going from $100 to own to
$10/month to rent. That’ll be cheaper for all of us in
the short run, and companies like Adobe are
desperately hoping we’ll be too stupid to bother
thinking about the long run.” Explain the statement
using the concepts of SaaS and TCO.
(Exam Question, November/December 2013)
5.37 © 2009 by Pearson
 Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO)
 Total Cost of Ownership of Technology Assets
 TCO model: Used to analyze direct and indirect costs of
systems
 Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO
 Other costs include: Installation, training, support,
maintenance, infrastructure, downtime, space and energy
 TCO can be reduced through greater centralization and
standardization of hardware and software resources
 Refer to Table 5-4 page 224 for a breakdown of the
most important TCO components
 When all these cost components are considered, the TCO for a
PC might run up to 3 times the original purchase price!

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