السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

    Enterprise computing era: 1992    To   present

 

The success of the client/server model posed a new set of problems for corporations.

Many large firms found it difficult to integrate all of their local area networks (LANs)

into a single, coherent corporate computing environment. Applications developed by

local departments and divisions in a firm, or in different geographic areas, could not

communicate easily with one another and share data.

In the early 1990s, firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could

integrate disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide

infrastructure. As the Internet developed into a trusted communications environment

after 1995, business firms began using the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet

Protocol (TCP/IP) networking standard to tie their disparate networks together.

The resulting IT infrastructure links different types and brands of computer hardware

and smaller networks into an enterprise-wide network so that information can flow freely

across the organization and between the firm and other organizations. Enterprise networks

link mainframes, servers, PCs, mobile phones, and other handheld devices, and

connect to public infrastructures such as the telephone system, the Internet, and public

network services

 The enterprise infrastructure employs software that can link disparate applications

and enable data to flow freely among different parts of the business. Other solutions for

enterprise integration include enterprise application integration software, Web services,

and outsourcing to external vendors that provide hardware and software for a comprehensive   enterprise infrastructure.

 The enterprise era promises to bring about a truly integrated computing and IT services

 

platform for the management of global enterprises. The hope is to deliver critical

 

business information painlessly and seamlessly to decision makers when and where they

 

need it to create customer value. This could be everything from getting inventory data to

 

the mobile salesperson in the customer’s office, to helping a customer at a call center

 with a problem customer, or providing managers with precise up-to-the-minute information

on company performance.

That is the promise, but the reality is wrenchingly difficult and awesomely expensive.

Most large firms have a huge, tangled web of hardware systems and software applications

inherited from the past. This makes achieving this level of enterprise integration a

difficult, long-term process that can last perhaps as long as a decade and cost large companies

hundreds of millions of dollars. Table 4-1 compares each era on the infrastructure

dimensions discussed above.

 

 

Infrastructure Dimension	Enterprise computing 1992 to present
Signature Firm(s)	SAP Oracle PeopleSoft
Hardware Platform	Multiple: • Mainframe • Server • Client
Operating System	Multiple: • Unix/Linux • OS 390 • Windows Server
Application Enterprise Software	Enterprise-wide enterprise-wide applications linked to desktop and departmental applications • my SAP • Oracle E-Business Suite • PeopleSoft Enterprise One
Networking/ Telecommunications	LAN Enterprise-wide area network (WAN) TCP/IP Internet standards-enabled
System Integration	Software manufacturer Accounting and consulting firms System integration firms Service firms
Data Storage and Database Management	Enterprise database servers
Internet Platforms	None in the early later years • Intranet- and Internet-delivered enterprise services • Large server farms

 

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