What are the current trends in computer hardware platforms?

The exploding power of computer hardware and networking technology has dramatically changed how businesses organize their computing power, putting more of this power on networks and mobile handheld devices and obtaining more of their computing capabilities in the form of services. We look at eight hardware trends: the mobile digital platform, consumerization of IT

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Business Ready for Wearable Computers?

Wearable computing is starting to take off. Smartwatches, smart glasses, smart ID badges, and activity trackers promise to change how we go about each day and the way we do our jobs. According to Gartner Inc., sales of wearables will increase from 275 million units in 2016 to 477 million units by 2020. Although

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Look to the Cloud

If you want to see where computing is taking place, look to the cloud. Cloud computing is now the fastest-growing form of computing. According to Cisco Systems, 94 percent of all computing workloads will run in some form of cloud environment by 2021. This includes both public and private cloud plat­forms. Dedicated servers will

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What are the current computer software platforms and trends?

There are four major themes in contemporary software platform evolution: Linux and open source software Java, HTML, and HTML5 Web services and service-oriented architecture Software outsourcing and cloud services 1. Linux and Open Source Software Open source software is software produced by a community of several hun­dred thousand programmers around the world. According to

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What are the challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions?

Creating and managing a coherent IT infrastructure raises multiple challenges: dealing with platform and technology change (including cloud and mobile computing), management and governance, and making wise infrastructure investments. 1. Dealing with Platform and Infrastructure Change As firms grow, they often quickly outgrow their infrastructure. As firms shrink, they can get stuck with excessive

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What are the problems of managing data resources in a traditional file environment?

An effective information system provides users with accurate, timely, and relevant information. Accurate information is free of errors. Information is timely when it is available to decision makers when it is needed. Information is relevant when it is useful and appropriate for the types of work and decisions that require it. You might be

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Database Management Systems

A database management system (DBMS) is software that enables an orga­nization to centralize data, manage them efficiently, and provide access to the stored data by application programs. The DBMS acts as an interface between application programs and the physical data files. When the application program calls for a data item, such as gross pay,

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Capabilities of Database Management Systems

A DBMS includes capabilities and tools for organizing, managing, and accessing the data in the database. The most important are its data definition language, data dictionary, and data manipulation language. DBMS have a data definition capability to specify the structure of the con­tent of the database. It would be used to create database tables

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Designing Databases

To create a database, you must understand the relationships among the data, the type of data that will be maintained in the database, how the data will be used, and how the organization will need to change to manage data from a companywide perspective. The database requires both a conceptual design and a physical

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Non-relational Databases, Cloud Databases, and Blockchain

For more than 30 years, relational database technology has been the gold standard. Cloud computing, unprecedented data volumes, massive work­loads for web services, and the need to store new types of data require database alternatives to the traditional relational model of organizing data in the form of tables, columns, and rows. Companies are turning

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What are the principal tools and technologies for accessing information from databases to improve business performance and decision making?

Businesses use their databases to keep track of basic transactions, such as pay­ing suppliers, processing orders, keeping track of customers, and paying em­ployees. But they also need databases to provide information that will help the company run the business more efficiently and help managers and employees make better decisions. If a company wants to

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Why are information policy, data administration, and data quality assurance essential for managing the firm’s data resources?

Setting up a database is only a start. In order to make sure that the data for your business remain accurate, reliable, and readily available to those who need them, your business will need special policies and procedures for data management. 1. Establishing an Information Policy Every business, large and small, needs an information

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Networking and Communication Trends

Firms in the past used two fundamentally different types of networks: tele­phone networks and computer networks. Telephone networks historically handled voice communication, and computer networks handled data traffic. Telephone companies built telephone networks throughout the twentieth cen­tury by using voice transmission technologies (hardware and software), and these companies almost always operated as regulated monopolies

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What Is a Computer Network?

If you had to connect the computers for two or more employees in the same office, you would need a computer network. In its simplest form, a network consists of two or more connected computers. Figure 7.1 illustrates the major hardware, software, and transmission components in a simple network: a cli­ent computer and a

Key Digital Networking Technologies

Contemporary digital networks and the Internet are based on three key tech­nologies: client/server computing, the use of packet switching, and the de­velopment of widely used communications standards (the most important of which is Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP) for link­ing disparate networks and computers. 1. Client/Server Computing Client/server computing is a distributed computing

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What are the different types of networks?

Let’s look more closely at alternative networking technologies available to businesses. 1. Signals: Digital Versus Analog There are two ways to communicate a message in a network: an analog signal or a digital signal. An analog signal is represented by a continuous waveform that passes through a communications medium and has been used for

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What Is the Internet?

The Internet is the world’s most extensive public communication system. It’s also the world’s largest implementation of client/server computing and internetworking, linking millions of individual networks all over the world. This global network of networks began in the early 1970s as a U.S. Department of Defense project to link scientists and university professors around

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Internet Addressing and Architecture

The Internet is based on the TCP/IP networking protocol suite described ear­lier in this chapter. Every device connected to the Internet (or another TCP/IP network) is assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address consisting of a string of numbers. When a user sends a message to another user on the Internet or another TCP/IP

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Net Neutrality: The Battle Rages On

What kind of Internet user are you? Do you primar­ily use the Net to do a little email and online bank­ing? Or are you online all day, watching YouTube videos, downloading music files, or playing online games? Do you use your iPhone to stream TV shows and movies on a regular basis? If you’re

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Internet Services and Communication Tools

The Internet is based on client/server technology. Individuals using the Internet control what they do through client applications on their computers, such as web browser software. The data, including email messages and web pages, are stored on servers. A client uses the Internet to request information from a particular web server on a distant

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