Managing a Networked

Infrastructure
 Objectives

– The tasks and challenges associated with

managing a networked information
technology infrastructure

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 Moore’s Law
 Computer performance one key to the
structure of business information technology
 Performance expands based on Moore’s Law:
– The number of transistors per square inch
on integrated circuits will double every
18 to 24 months while the cost remains roughly
constant
 Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel
 quoted in 2/17/03 Network World as expecting this to
hold true for at least 10 more years

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 The Evolution of Business
Computing
First Second Third Fourth Fifth
Generation Generation Generation Generation Generation
Trend: Toward Smaller, Faster, More Reliable, and Less Costly

Greater
Greater
LSI,
LSI, VLSI
VLSI
Vacuum Integrated Power,
Solid-State Micro-
Tubes Circuits Smaller
processors
processors Footprint

Trend: Toward Easy to Purchase, and Easy to Maintain

[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 The Evolution of Business
Computing
 Expansion of computing performance has
resulted in evolution of computing
 Stage 1: Mainframe Era (pre-1980)
– Systems centrally managed, tightly
controlled
– Accessed via punch cards, teletype
terminals, video terminals

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 Evolution: the 70’s
 1971 – Intel makes first microprocessor, with
108 kHz speed
 UNIX operating system written in a new
language, C
 Early personal computer, the Altair, came in a
kit—you had to build it yourself
 1976 – Cray-1, the worlds fastest
supercomputer
 1977 – Apple II, first computer to have color
graphics
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Evolution: the 70’s (continued)
 Apple II had 4 KB of RAM and cost $1298
 Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor )
began line of low cost Commodore PCs
 VAX architecture introduced in
1977 at a cost of $200,000
 VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program
created for the Apple II; father of all PC
productivity software
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Evolution: Stage 2
 Stage 2: PC Computing (1980’s)
– Mainframe systems still in place but focus
shifts to distributed computing on personal
computers
 Some movement from mainframes to distributed
mid-range systems (IBM System/34, 36, 38 &
AS/400, HP 3000, VAX)
– Desktop computing becomes ubiquitous
 Loss of central control by business IT
departments
– LANs emerge to connect PC’s
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 Evolution: the 80’s
 1982 – IBM PC introduced
– Used DOS operating system from tiny company
named Microsoft
 Xerox Alto, first graphical user interface
 1982 – Commodore 64: affordable personal
computing for the masses (I bought one!)
 1984 –Apple introduces the McIntosh
 1984 – WordPerfect – the first word processor
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Evolution: the 80’s (continued)
 1985 – Commodore Amiga, first
multimedia computer
 1986 – Intel 80386 Processor, first 32 bit
processor (1988 - I bought a 386 laptop)
 C++ programming language
 Apple McIntosh II – the first color
graphics McIntosh computer
 Birth of 3D graphics
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Evolution: Stage 3
 Stage 3: Client-Server Computing (Early
90’s)
– High-powered PC’s or midrange systems
(servers) provide data storage and
applications to PC’s on desktops (clients)
 Replace many services formerly on mainframes
– Managed networks rule (Novell Netware,
Banyan Vines, IBM Token Ring)
 Cost of server/network infrastructure returns
some control to central IT departments
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 Evolution: the Early 90’s
 Microsoft Windows 3.0 – made PCs as
easy to use as a McIntosh
– Apple sues Microsoft; loses
 AMD 386 – first PC processor not built by
Intel
 1992 – Linux
 1993 – Intel Pentium processor
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Evolution: Stage 4
 Stage 4: Internetworked-Based
Computing (Mid 90’s to today)
– Computing becomes more distributed again
due to Internet technologies
– Internet connectivity and interoperability of
all computer assets becomes an absolute
essential
– Provisioning and maintenance of server and
network infrastructure returns central IT
organizations to key role

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 Evolution: Mid 90’s to Today
 1994 – The World Wide Web
 Windows 95 introduced
– (After 18 months of marketing hype)
 Java
 E-Business and E-Commerce
– The dot-bomb debacles
 Network-Attached Storage / Storage Area
Networks
 Linux emerges as serious business OS
 Mac OS X — Built on BSD UNIX
[Adapted from Truelove, Elena, Intro to Information technology (Chapter 11), 2002]

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 Pieces of the Whole
 Networked infrastructure dominant in business
today
 Information technology has key central
components
– Servers, switches, routers, etc.
 Central components connect out to widely
distributed components
– PCs, PDAs, pagers, cell phones
 All form “pieces of a whole” much larger than
any of the components
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Internetwork Characteristics
 Based on Open Standards
– Reduce reliance on proprietary technology
 Asyncronous Operation
– No dedicated links
 Inherant Latency
– Variable & unpredicatable wait times
 Decentralized
– No requirement for central servers or human
intervention in network management
 Scalable
– Allow for flexible expansion
Sanjeev Singh Adapted from Applegate et al, Corporate Information Strategy and Management, McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2003 16
 Today’s Managerial Tasks
Break down into three types:

Strategic,
Tactical &
Operational

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 Strategic Management
 Define the mission of the business
– why the business exists
 Formulate goals
 Assess resources available to the business
– physical, human, financial
 Survey the world surrounding the business
 Identify and select appropriate strategies
 Implement and maintain selected strategies

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 Strategic IT Management
 Define long-term measures for designing a
firm’s information infrastructure:
– Derive goals of information technology (IT)
– Determine what different parts of the company
demand from IT
– Recognize deficits in the supply of information
– Plan application systems and use of IT resources
– Control information processing: check
effectiveness & efficiency
– Organize information processing
[Adapted from Dirlich, Stefan, Introduction to Information Management Lecture 3, 2000 Technische Universitat Bergakademie Freiberg]

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 Tactical Management
 Short-term basis
– Identify and define a problem
– Identify alternative solutions
– Collect data and information
– Analyze the alternatives and choose one
– Implement the decision
– Monitor and evaluate the results
– Accept the responsibility for the decision
 Project Management
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 Operational IT Management
 Short-term management of Information
Technology
 The daily decisions of IT managers
– Monitoring
– Incident response
 Triage
 Customer support
– Job and task prioritization

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 IT Management Tasks

 Breakdown of typical tasks that IT

Managers are responsible for
 Each task is strategic, tactical,
or operational (some have overlap)
 Evaluate each task for management
type (strategic, tactical, or operational)
– Discussion on each

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 IT Management Tasks:
Support
 Provide Customer Support
– Support selection & purchase of systems
– Install & set-up systems & software
– Manuals & documentation
– End-user training
– Help Desk
– Trouble report system
– Remote access/management software
– Incident response

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 IT Management Tasks:
Connectivity
 Provide Connectivity
– Arrange for ISP connection
 Monitor installation
– Purchase, install & set-up network components
 Pull & terminate cable
 Configure switches and routers
– Manage network configuration
 SNMP
 IP address management & assignment
– Provide network services
 DNS, DHCP, etc.
– Incident Response
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IT Management Tasks: Servers
 Provide Server Services
– Purchase, install, configure & manage
server/midrange/mainframe systems
 Web, mail, application, file, collaboration,
enterprise (ERP, CRM, and HR systems like SAP,
PeopleSoft, Oracle etc.)
– Arrange for and monitor outsourced servers
 Web, ecommerce and more
– House & secure systems appropriately
– Incident response
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 IT Management Tasks:
Printing
 Provide Printing
– Purchase, install & set-up printers
– Manage & support printers
(people just can’t seem to shake this paper
habit we have…)

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 IT Management Tasks:
Reliability
 Provide Reliable Service
– Monitor network & services
– Incident response
– Redundant components used in system
design and configuration
 May provide fully-redundant data centers
– Off-site back-ups
– High-availability facilities
– Disaster contingency plans
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 IT Management Tasks:
Facilities
 Provide High-Availability Facilities
– Uninterruptible power supply
 Redundant connections
 Multiple power grid connections
 Generators
– Physical security
 Tightly controlled access with dedicated security
personnel
 Hardened facility

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 IT Management Tasks:
Facilities
– Climate control & fire suppression
 Air conditioning/heating to maintain optimal
temperature & humidity
 Gas-based fire suppression systems
– Requires CPUs to be housed in an unmanned space
with a separate control room
– Redundant connectivity
 Connections from two providers entering
building at separate points
– Help Desk & incident response

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 IT Management Tasks:
Security
 Provide Secure Services
 Protect against external and internal
attacks, intrusions and exploitation
– Security policies
– Firewalls
– Authentication
– Encryption
– Patching & configuration management
– Intrusion detection & network monitoring
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IT Management Tasks: More…
 Additional tasks that will or may fall to
IT Management:
– Software License management
– IT asset management
– Telecommunications system management
 With IT & TCOM convergence this makes sense
 Good chance to move enterprise to VoIP!
– Your turn: what did I forget?

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 Coming Up
 Some things in the reading were not
addressed as they are covered in more
depth later:
– Managing IT assets
– Managing vendor relationships
– Managing services and outsourcing

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 The End…

 Questions?
 Discussion!

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