Week 6 Chapter 5: Enterprise Architectures

What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other? 

Information Architecture recognises how and where important information is maintained and secured. For example customer records.

Information Infrastructure consists of hardware, software and telecommunications equipment, that when combined, provides the underlying foundation to support the organisation's goals.

These two terms differ because information architecture is a plan, whereas information infrastructure is when the plan is out into action.

Information architecture and information infrastructure relate to each other because they rely on each other and without one you cannot have the other.

Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture.
An organisation can implement solid information architecture by:

-Backup and Recovery
Backup is an exact copy of a systems information and data.
Recovery is the ability for the system to be up and running if the system was to crash or fail, this also includes the ability to restore the information.

-Disaster Recovery
This consists of a disaster recovery plan, business continuity planning and a disaster recovery cost curve.
A disaster recovery plan is a list of tasks which allow for computer systems and data to be recovered  and for access to be regained after a disaster has occurred.
Business continuity planning is a plan that addresses how an organisation is going to recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a specific time frame after a disaster or prolonged disruption.
A disaster recovery cost curve shows the amount it will cost for your company to recover from a disaster, as well as how much it will cost  your organisation for the unavailability of information and technology.

Figure 1: This is a diagram of a disaster recovery cost curve.

-Information Security

Information security enables the protection of all information and data from accidental or intentional misuse or disaster made by a person, object or event inside or outside an organisation. Information security also involves the managing of user access and also the keeping up-to-date of antivirus software and patches.

List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.

Flexibility- This is in relation to how well a system is able to adapt in order to meet the different changes a business may face.

Scalability- This refers to how well a system is able to adjust in relation to increased demands.

Reliability- This makes sure that all systems are function correctly , as well as providing accurate information.

Availability- This refers to when the systems are able to be accessed by the users.

Performance- This measures how quickly and efficiently a systems is able to perform certain processes and/or transactions.

Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture.

A service orientated architecture is the means of meeting different demands by using different systems. A business would value this because a service such as this does repeats the same task over and over and it is able to be applied to many different situations.

What is an event?

Events are the expressions of business technology. They identify threats and opportunities and inform the appropriate people who are able to act upon this information.

What is a service?

Services are software products, which just appeal to a broad audience. They must also be reusable if they intend on having an impact on the productivity. Examples which new services describe include; credit check, customer information and process payment.

What emerging technologies can companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?
The two ways in which a company can increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more affectively are by visualisation and grid computing.
Visualisation is 'a framework for diving the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments.'It allows for physical resources to be increased in order to maximise the investment in hardware. People, processes and technology are able to work together in a more efficient manner thanks to visualisation, which allows for them to meet increased service levels.
Grid Computing on the other hand is the combination of geographically detached computing, storage, and network resources, which are coordinated for benefit of delivering improved performance, higher quality service, better utilisation, and easier access to data. Companies are achieving both business and technological benefits through the implementation of grid computing.

Reference's:

Baltzan, Phillips, Lynch, Blakey, Business Driven Information Systems, 1st Australian/New Zealand Edition, Mc Graw Hill, 2010.