Chapter Five - 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. Information infrastructure is the actual implementation that will provide for effective information systems, including hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provides the underlying foundation to support the organisation's goals. Information architecture differs to information infrastructure because one is the plan while the other is the implementation of the plan. Without information architecture, information infrastructure can not occur.

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

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Baltzan, Philips, Lynch & Blakey, Business Driven Information Systems (Australian/New Zealand edition)

An organisation can implement a solid information architecture by having:

1. Backup and recovery system: Backing up of the system that in an event where the system has crashed or failed it can be recovered by these systems.
2. Disaster Recovery plans: A plan that outlines the process for recovering information in an natural catastrophic event.
3. Information Security: Through managing users accounts and keeping up-to-date with antivirus software and patches.

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

The five requirement characteristics of a solid infrastructure architecture are:

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. It ensures that an IT system 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 - Electronic message that 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 the framework for dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments. Grid computing is an aggregation of geographically dispersed computing, storage and network services, better utilisation and easier access to data.