Part 2

Information Technology

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Next Three Chapters
• Chapter 4: Discusses hardware, software, open
source alternatives, defines basic terms and
fundamental computing concepts, self-driving
cars, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things (IoT)
• Chapter 5 addresses data component of
information systems by describing database
processing and data modeling
• Chapter 6 continues discussion of computing
devices in Ch 3, and also describes data
communications, Internet technologies, the cloud.
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Purpose of These Three Chapters
• Provide you knowledge to be an effective IT
consumer
• Present basic terms, fundamental concepts, and
useful frameworks
• Provide you knowledge to ask good questions and
make appropriate requests of IS professionals

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Experiencing MIS
Fifth Canadian Edition

Chapter 4
Hardware and Software

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MIS IN ACTION

“3D Printing Our Own Drones Isn’t Going

to Save Us Enough Money.”
• Investigating 3D-printing parts to make drones in-
house.
– Cost-savings, greater flexibility updating current fleet of
drones.

• Not enough drone parts can be replaced.

• Passive recharging platform using 3D-printed
parts a huge success.
• Cutting edge frustrating, costly.

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Study Questions
Q4-1 What do business professionals need to know
about computer hardware?
Q4-2 How can new hardware affect competitive
strategies?
Q4-3 What do business professionals need to know
about software?
Q4-4 Is open source software a viable alternative?

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Q4-1: What Do Business Professionals Need
to Know About Computer Hardware? (1 of 2)
Recall three key IT themes that have emerged
1. Price and performance advances
– Recall Moore’s Law – price of processing power drops
– Data storage and network capacity have increased

2. Smaller is better
– And is more mobile
3. The network is the thing
– Power of IT is in the power of the network accessed

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Q4-1: What Do Business Professionals Need
to Know About Computer Hardware? (2 of 2)
• Computer hardware – the electronic components
and gadgets that input, process, output, and store
data according to software instructions
• Components:
• Central processing unit (CPU) - “the brain”
– Can be dual-processor and quad-processor computers
– Vary in speed, function, cost
– Works in conjunction with main memory (or random access
memory, RAM)
– Reads data and instructions from memory, stores results of
in RAM
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Storage Hardware
• Common storage devices
– Magnetic disks (Hard disks): most common
– Solid-state storage (SSD drive): faster than hard drives,
more expensive
– USB flash drives: Small, portable
– Optical disks (CD/DVD): Small, portable

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Types of Hardware (1 of 2)
• Personal computers: classic computing devices
– Gradually being supplanted by tablets, mobile devises
• Tablets: brought to prominence with iPad in 2010
– Microsoft Surface, Google Nexus, also available.
• Phablet: functionality of a smartphone with the larger
screen of a tablet
– Samsung Galaxy, iPhone Plus
• Smartphones: Cell phones with processing capabilities
– Samsung Galaxy 8, Google Pixel 2, iPhone 8.

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Types of Hardware (2 of 2)
• Server: computer design to support processing
requests from remote computers and users.
– PC on steroids
– Differs from a PC mostly in what it does
– Clients – PCs, tablets, smartphones that access a
server
• Server farm
– Collection of many servers-
– Often in large truck trailers, holding 5,000 or more
servers, with one power cable and one processing
cable coming out.
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Figure 4-2
Server Farm

Source: Andrew Twort/Alamy Stock Photo

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Computer Data (1 of 2)
• Binary bits (bits): how computers represent data
– Either a zero or a one
– Computer can be designed so an open switch
represents zero, closed switch represents one
– Or, magnetism in one direction represents a zero,
magnetism in the next direction represents one

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Computer Data (2 of 2)
– Optical media has pits burned into the surface of the
disk so they reflect light
– Reflecting indicates a one, no reflection indicates a
zero

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Computer Data Sizes
• All computer data are represented by bits:
numbers, currency amounts, photos, recordings
• Grouped into 8-bit chunks: Bytes
• If a picture is 100 000 bytes in size, that means
the length of the bit string that represents the
picture is 100 000 bytes (or 800 000 bits, since
8bits per byte)

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Figure 4-4
Storage Capacity Terminology
Note these are simplifications

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Specifying Hardware with Computer Data
Sizes
• Computer disk capacities are specified by amount
of storage
– 500 GB disk can contain 500 GB of data, programs
• CPU speed in cycles called hertz
– Slow personal computer speed of 3.0 Gigahertz
– Fast PC 4.0+ GHz
• 12 GB+ RAM for large applications

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Volatility of Memory
• Cache and main memory are volatile
– Contents are lost when power is off
• Magnetic, optical disk memory are non-volatile
– Contents survive when power is off
– Saving often often saves!

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Q4-2: How Can New Hardware Affect
Competitive Strategies?
• Smart device
– Processing power, large memory, Internet access, Wi-
Fi connectivity, ability to interconnect with other devices
and applications
• Potential to disrupt existing organizations
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Self-driving vehicles
• 3D Printing

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Internet of Things (IoT)
• Everyday objects embedded with hardware
capable of sensing, processing, transmitting data
• Connect to a network to share data with any other
applications, services, devices
• Objects becoming connected with each other can
communicate, interact with each other

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Impact of the Internet of Things
• Consumer homes is an attractive target for smart
device makers
• GE’s Industrial Internet
– Program focused on creating smart devices, analyzing
data from them, then making changes that increase
efficiencies, reduce waste, improve decision making
– Greatest potential for smart devices in hospitals, power
grids, railroads, and manufacturing plants

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Figure 4-6
Microsoft’s Redmond, WA, Campus
Microsoft reduced energy costs made by wasteful lighting, competing
heating and cooling systems, and rogue fans

Source: Ian Dagnall/Alamy Stock Photo

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Self-Driving Cars
• Pilot project in Ontario started in 2016
• Google cars logged 3 million miles by 2017
• Make life easier, cheaper, safer
• Reduce human error
– Fewer accidents
– Avoid costly traffic tickets, parking tickets, DUI citations
• Eliminate need for multiple cars

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Self-Driving Cars: Disrupt Businesses
• Auto sales
– Fewer cars on road may mean fewer cars sold
• Auto loans, insurance, car repair
• More jobs for engineers, programmers, systems
designers
• More computer hardware, sensors, and cameras
in vehicles

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3D Printing

Figure 4-7
3D Printing
Plastics, metals, ceramics,
foods, biological material
Opportunities in aerospace,
defense, automotive,
entertainment, healthcare
industries
What happens when 3D-print
extra-large objects like cars,
Source: Justin Sullivan/Staff/Getty Images
planes, boats, houses, and
drones happens?

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Existing 3D Printing Examples
• ChefJet, culinary artists and novices can produce
intricate, beautiful, and fully customized deserts
• Living cells (organs, bones, heart valves, skin)
• Houses, buildings

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Q4-3: What Do Business Professionals Need
to Know About Software?
• Native applications
• Thin-client vs thick-client applications
• Web applications

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Figure 4-8
Categories of Computer Software

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What Are the Major Operating Systems? (1 of 3)

Nonmobile clients
• Windows
– Used for personal computer clients
• MacOS
– Macintosh clients
• Unix
– Workstation clients
• Linux
– Just about anything
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What Are the Major Operating Systems? (2 of 3)

Mobile clients
• Symbian
– Nokia, Samsung, and other phones
• BlackBerryOS
– ResearchInMotion Blackberries

• iOS
– iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

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What Are the Major Operating Systems? (3 of 3)

• Android
– Samsung, Google, HTS, and Sony smartphones, tablet
• Windows 10
– Nokia and Microsoft Surface

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Server Operating Systems
• Windows Server
– Used on servers
• Unix
– Used on servers

• Linux
– Used on servers

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Virtualization (1 of 2)

• Process by which one physical computer hosts

different virtual (not literal) computers within it
• Host operating system runs one or more
operating systems within it.
– Controls activity of virtual machine

• Virtual machine: the hosted operating systems

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Virtualization (2 of 2)

• Three types
1. PC virtualization
2. Server virtualization
3. Desktop virtualization

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Figure 4-11
Linux Mint Virtual Machine Running in
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

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Figure 4-12
Windows Server Hosting Two Virtual
Machines

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Figure 4-13
Desktop Virtual Machine

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Owning Versus Licensing
• License
• Right to use specified number of copies
• Limits vendor’s liability
• Site License
– Flat fee to install software on all company computers or
all computers at specific site
• Open Source
• No license fee

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What Types of Applications Exist, and How
Do Organizations Obtain Them?
• Application software performs a service or function.
• Horizontal-market application software provides
capabilities common across all organizations and
industries
– Graphics programs, word processors, spreadsheets,
presentation software
• Vertical applications serves the needs of a specific
industry.
– Dental offices, auto mechanics, warehouses for
inventory

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Figure 4-14
Software Sources and Types

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What Is Firmware?
• Special software on read-only memory (ROM)
– Printers, print servers, communication devices
– As if program’s logic designed into device’s circuitry
– Changeable and upgradable, usually IS professionals

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Q4-4: Is Open Source Software a Viable
Alternative?
• Open Source software: typically free and
modifiable, source code is publicly available
• Source code: Computer code written by humans,
understandable by humans

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Open Source (1 of 2)
• Richard Matthew Stallman considered the father
of the Open Source movement
– Developed GNU, a Unix-like OS, free
– Also developed GNU general public license – standard
now for opens source software
• Linus Torvalds, 1991, created Linux using some of
Stallman’s tools

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Open Source (2 of 2)
Other open source projects
• LibreOffice (the default office suite in Linux \)
• Firefox (a browser)
• MySQL (a DBMS, see Chapter 5)
• Apache (a Web server, see Chapter 6)

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Why Do Programmers Volunteer Their
Services to Open Source Projects?
• Exercise creativity on interesting & fulfilling
projects
• Freedom to choose projects
• Exhibit one’s skill to get a job
• Start a business selling services
• Succeeds because of collaboration

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How Does Open Source Work
• In closed code, source could is highly protected
• Open source code compiled into machine code,
which is processed by a computer
• Open source succeeds because of collaboration

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Figure 4-15
Source Code Example

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So, Is Open Source Viable?
• Depends on requirements and constraints
• “Free” open source software might require support
and operational costs exceed cost of licensing fee
• Future a blend of both proprietary and open
source software

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