Week Six - Enterprise Architectures

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

Information architecture identifies where and how important information, such as customer records is maintained and secured and is very useful for planning. Information infrastructure is the actual implementation that will provide for effective information systems, including the hardware, software, services and people involved. These differ because one is a plan and the other is the implementation of the plan. They relate to each other because there can not be one without the other.

2. Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture

 For an organisation to have a solid information architecture they need to have:

A backup and recovery system: A backup is an exact copy of a systems information and Recovery is the ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure.

A disaster recovery plan: A detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood.

Information security: Such as managing user accounts and keeping up to date antivirus software and patches.

3. List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.

The five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture are:

Flexibility: The ability to meet all types of business changes

Scalability: How well a system can adapt to increased demands and meet growth requirements.

Reliability: Ensures all systems are functioning correctly and providing accurate information. High accuracy, low accuracy puts organisations at risk.

Availability: Addresses when systems can be accessed by users. This ensures business continuity

Performance: Measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction.

4. Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture

A service oriented architecture is a business driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repeatable tasks or services. By using a service orientated architecture businesses are able to innovate by ensuring that IT systems can adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs.

5. What is an event?

An event is the eyes and ears of the business expressed in technology- they detect threats and opportunities and alert those who can act on the information

6. What is a service?

A service must appeal to a broad audience and need to be reusable if they are going to have an impact on productivity.

7. What emerging technologies can companies use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?

The emerging technologies that companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively are Virtualisation and Grid Computing. Virtualisation is a framework for dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments. It is a way of increasing physical resources to maximise the investment in hardware. Grid Computing is an aggregation of geographically dispersed computing, storage and network resources, coordinated to deliver improved performance, higher quality of service, better utilisation and easier access to data.