History[edit]

[laudom] and Jane Laudon identify fve eras of Management Information System
evolution corresponding to the fve phases in the development of computing
technology: 1 mainframe and minicomputer computing! " personal computers! #
client$server net%or&s! ' enterprise computing! and ( cloud computing)[#]
*he frst era +mainframe and minicomputer %as ruled ,y I-M and their mainframe
computers. these computers %ould often ta&e up %hole rooms and re/uire teams to
run them 0 I-M supplied the hard%are and the soft%are) 1s technology advanced!
these computers %ere a,le to handle greater capacities and therefore reduce their
cost) Smaller! more a2orda,le minicomputers allo%ed larger ,usinesses to run their
o%n computing centers in0house)
*he second era +personal computer ,egan in 134( as microprocessors started to
compete %ith mainframes and minicomputers and accelerated the process of
decentrali5ing computing po%er from large data centers to smaller o6ces) In the
late 1378s minicomputer technology gave %ay to personal computers and relatively
lo% cost computers %ere ,ecoming mass mar&et commodities! allo%ing ,usinesses
to provide their employees access to computing po%er that ten years ,efore %ould
have cost tens of thousands of dollars) *his proliferation of computers created a
ready mar&et for interconnecting net%or&s and the populari5ation of the Internet)
1s technological comple9ity increased and costs decreased! the need to share
information %ithin an enterprise also gre%:giving rise to the third era
+client$server! in %hich computers on a common net%or& access shared information
on a server) *his lets thousands and even millions of people access data
simultaneously) *he fourth era +enterprise ena,led ,y high speed net%or&s! tied all
aspects of the ,usiness enterprise together o2ering rich information access
encompassing the complete management structure);very computer is utili5ed)
*he ffth era +cloud computing is the latest and employs net%or&ing technology to
deliver applications as %ell as data storage independent of the confguration!
location or nature of the hard%are) *his! along %ith high speed cellphone and %if
net%or&s! led to ne% levels of mo,ility in %hich managers access the MIS remotely
%ith laptop and ta,let computers! plus smartphones)