Defining IT Infrastructure
Includes hardware, software, and services
A set of physical devices and software applications that are
required to operate the entire enterprise
Your firm is largely dependent on its infrastructure for delivering
services to customers, employees, and suppliers.
You can think of infrastructure as digital plumbing, but its much
more than that
Seven Key Infrastructure Components
Computer Hardware Platforms
Operating System Platforms
Enterprise Software Applications
Data Management and Storage
Networking/Telecommunications Platforms
Internet Platforms
Consulting and System Integration Services
Computer Hardware Platforms
billion annually spent in the United States 110$
Dominance of Intel, AMD, and IBM 32-bit processor chips at the
client level
Server market increasingly dominated by inexpensive generic
processors from the same manufacturers
Strong server market growth for 64 bit generic processors from AMD,
Intel and IBM
Blade servers replace box servers
Mainframes continue as a presence working as very large servers
Operating System Platforms
$100
billion annually spent in the United States
Continued dominance of Microsoft OS in the client (95%) and
handheld market (45%)
Growing dominance of Linux (UNIX) in the corporate server market
(85%
Windows 2002 and 2003 Server remains strong in smaller enterprises
and workgroup networks
Enterprise Software Applications
165$ billion annually spent in the United States for basic
enterprise software infrastructure
SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft (now Oracle), and Siebel dominate this
market.
Middleware firms like BEA and JD Edwards serve smaller firms, and
work also in the Web services space
The enterprise market is consolidating around a few huge firms that
have gained significant market share such as SAP and Oracle.
Microsoft is expanding into smaller firm enterprise systems where
it can build on its Windows server-installed base
Data Management and Storage
70 $ billion annually spent in the United States.
Oracle and IBM continue to dominate the database software market.
Microsoft (SQL Server) and Sybase tend to serve smaller firms.
Open source Linux My SQL now supported by HP and most consulting
firms as an inexpensive, powerful database used mostly in small to mid-size
firms
35 $billion annually spent
in the United States for physical hard disk storage
The hard disk market is consolidating around a few huge firms like
EMC and smaller PC hard disk firms like Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital
Networking/Telecommunications Platforms
billion annually spent on networking and telecommunications
hardware 150$
700
$billion annually spent on telecommunications services, e.g. phone and Internet
connectivity
Local area networking still dominated by
Microsoft Server (about 75%) but strong
of Linux challenges this dominance
Internet Platforms
annually spent on Internet
infrastructure in the United States 32$
Internet hardware server market
concentrated in Dell, HP, and IBM
Prices falling rapidly by up to
50% in a single year for low-power servers
Open-source Apache remains the
dominant Web server software, followed by Microsoft’s IIS server.
Sun’s Java grows as the most
widely used tool for interactive Web applications.
Microsoft and Sun settle a
long-standing law suit and agree to support a common Java.
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