Baruch College, CUNY

• CIS 2200

• Midterm Review 2 Note: Do not depend solely on the review. Please study the slides for better understanding of the concepts Chapter 5: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 5-1 What is IT infrastructure, and what are the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure evolution? IT infrastructure is the shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific information system applications. IT infrastructure includes hardware, software, and services that are shared across the entire firm. The five stages of IT infrastructure evolution are the mainframe era, the personal computer era, the client/server era, the enterprise computing era, and the cloud and mobile computing era. Moore’s Law deals with the exponential increase in processing power and decline in the cost of computer technology, stating that every 18 months the power of microprocessors doubles and the price of computing falls in half. The Law of Mass Digital Storage deals with the exponential decrease in the cost of storing data, stating that the number of kilobytes of data that can be stored on magnetic media for $1 roughly doubles every 15 months. Metcalfe’s Law states that a network’s value to participants grows exponentially as the network takes on more members. The rapid decline in costs of communication and growing agreement in the technology industry to use computing and communications standards are also driving an explosion of computer use.