MIS Chapter 4

Management Information Systems
Chapter 4
Hardware, Software and Mobile Systems
Prof. Tagelsir Mohamed

tagelsir@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2018 Prof. Tagelsir Mohamed,
1
What Do Business Professionals Need
to Know About Computer Hardware?
• Computer hardware consists of electronic
components and related gadgetry that input,
process, output, and store data according to
instructions encoded in computer programs or
software.

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• The hardware components of a computer include
the CPU.
• Computers may have one or more CPU (two
CPUs: a dual-processor, four CPUs: a quad-
processor.
• All CPUs work in conjunction with the random
access memory, or RAM.
• Computers also include storage hardware that is
used to save data and programs. Examples of
storage hardware include magnetic disks, CDs,
and thumb drives.
3
What Do Business Professionals Need to
Know About Computer Hardware?
• Types of Hardware
3-4 Copyright © 2018 Prof. Tagelsir Mohamed,

Types of hardware
• Personal computers (PCs) are classic computing
devices that are used by individuals.
• A server is a computer that is designed to
support processing requests from many remote
computers and users.
• PCs, tablets, and smart phones that access
servers are called clients.
• A server farm is a collection of, typically,
thousands of servers.
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Know About Computer Hardware?
• Computer data
– Computer data sizes

• CPU speed is expressed in cycles called hertz.
• CPUs can be: 32-bit or 64-bit. A 32-bit is less capable
and cheaper than a 64-bit CPU.
• The cache and the main memory are what is called
volatile memory. This means the memory is temporary
and is erased when the computer is turned off.
• Non-volatile memory can be found in the optical and
magnetic disks as well as such things as flash drives.
Here, the memory is non-volatile because data remains
in the memory, even if the computer is turned off.

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• An operating system (OS) is a program that
controls that computer’s resources.
• Operating systems exist for non-mobile clients,
mobile clients, and servers.
• Most of us are familiar with Windows and Mac
OS for non-mobile clients.
• Mobile devices run on Blackberry OS, iOS, or
Android.
• Servers typically run on either Windows Server,
Unix, or Linux operating systems.

8
How can hardware and software affect
competitive strategies
• Organizations are interested in new hardware
because they represent potential
opportunities, or threats, to their ability to
generate revenue.
• Below we will look at three new hardware
developments that have the potential to
disrupt existing organizations.

9
Hardware developments: Internet of
Things
• This is the idea that objects are becoming
connected to the Internet so they can interact
with other devices, applications, or services.
• Everyday objects are being embedded with
hardware capable of sensing, processing, and
transmitting data.
• Objects can then connect to a network and
share data with any other application, service,
or device.
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Internet of Things
• Another class of smart devices that is showing
a lot of potential is augmented reality (AR).
• Augmented reality is the combination of the
real world with virtual images or objects,
whereas virtual reality is a completely
computer-generated virtual world.

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Impact of IoTs
• The impact of IoT will be felt by many
different high-tech industries. Smart devices
need microprocessors, memory, wireless
network connections, a power source, and
new software.
• These devices will also need new protocols,
more bandwidth, and tighter security, and
they will consume more energy.

12
Hardware developments: Self-driving
Cars
• The second disruptive force that could change
the way businesses operate is self-driving cars.
• A self-driving car (also known as a driverless
car) uses a variety of sensors to navigate like
a traditional car but without human
intervention.
• Self-driving cars will make things easier,
cheaper, and safer. They’ll also disrupt well-
established industries.
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Hardware developments: 3-D printing
• 3D printing will not only change the
competitive landscape, but it may change the
nature of businesses themselves.
• 3D printers can print in plastics, metals,
ceramics, foods, and biological material too.

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3 D-printer

15
• Virtualization is the process by which one
computer hosts the appearance of many
computers.
• One operating system, called the host
operating system, runs one or more operating
systems as applications.
• Those hosted operating systems are called
virtual machines (vm).

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• There are three types of virtualization.
• The first is PC virtualization in which a personal
computer hosts several operating systems so the
user can have different systems on the same
hardware.
• Server virtualization involves a server computer
hosting one or more other server computers.
• Desktop virtualization involves a server that
hosts many versions of desktop operating
systems.
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Know About Computer Software?
• Own versus License
• What Types of Applications Exist, and How Do
Organizations Obtain Them?

to Know About Computer Software?
• “Own” vs. “license”: a Microsoft Windows operating
system, we don’t own the software, but rather own a
license to use that software. Linux open source.
• Horizontal application software is used to describe
software that can be used across various industries.
Examples of this are Microsoft Excel and Microsoft
Word.
• Vertical market application software is more specific
to an industry. An example is application software
used for the health industry that is compliant with
regulations in that industry and cannot be used in
other industries.

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to Know About Computer Software?
• Firmware is computer software that is
installed into devices such as printers, print
servers, and various types of communication
devices.
• In an open source system, the source code is
freely available to the public.
• Microsoft Office is an example of a closed
source because the source code is protected
and not publicly available.

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What Are the Differences Between
Native and Thin-Client Applications?
• Applications can be categorized as native
applications, which run on just one operating
system, or as thin-client applications, which
run in browsers on many different operating
systems.

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What Are the Differences Between Native
and Thin-Client Applications?

• The downside of native applications is that they
are, well, native and only run on the operating
system for which they are programmed.
• On the other hand, thin-client applications are
limited by the capabilities of the browser.
• While browsers are becoming increasingly
sophisticated, they cannot offer the full
capabilities of the underlying operating system
and hardware.
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• Thin-client applications are unable to support
specialized and complex applications, though
this becomes less true each year.
• The major advantage of thin-client over
native applications is that they will run on any
operating system and device.

24
What Characterizes Quality Mobile
User Experiences?
• A user interface (UI) is the presentation
format of an application. It consists of
windows, menus, icons, dialog boxes,
toolbars, and so on, as well as user content.
• A user experience (UX) is a newer term that
refers not only to the UI, but also to the way
that the user responds to the application.

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What Characterizes Quality Mobile User
Experiences?

User Experiences?
• Feature content and supporting direct
interaction can be used to describe how
content is displayed.
• A quality mobile user experience also takes
advantage of context-sensitive chrome when
needed. For instance, a pop-up will appear in
an application to support entries.

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User Experiences?
• “Design to scale and share” simply means the
applications should not be overly obtrusive or
interfere with other aspects of the user
experience.
• They should be designed to scale up and
down and be able to share the display
effectively.
• Finally, a quality user experience leverages
use of the Cloud.
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to Know about Data Communications?
• Small offices and home offices can use LANs
to connect multiple computers. These LANs
are referred to as SOHO LANs. Many
businesses use bigger LANs, but how the
computers are connected is consistent.
• Some computers and devices can be
connected using a wired connection. To use a
wired connection, the computers use a
network interface card (NIC).

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• A switch that is used to receive and transmit
traffic on the network.
• The cables used in this type of a connection are
traditionally unshielded twisted paired cable, or
UTP. Other cables used to make these
connections can be fiber optics or coaxial cable.
• Wireless connections use a wireless network
interface card (WNIC). Computers that are
connected wirelessly connect to an access point
that receives the traffic and communicates with
the wired switch.
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• Protocols provide rules by which communication can take
place. Protocols help ensure they’re using the same
language.
• The Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
sponsors committees that create and publish such
protocols. The committee that oversees LAN protocols is
the IEEE 802. The protocol specific to wired connections is
the IEEE 802.3, commonly referred to as the Ethernet.
• The protocol specific to wireless connections is the IEEE
802.11. Bluetooth is also a protocol used for wireless
connections specific to short distances.
• Some input devices, like a mouse or keyboard, can be
connected to a computer using Bluetooth.

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Know about Data Communications?

• The TCP/IP Protocol architecture, is a scheme of five
protocol types arranged in layers.
• HTTP is the protocol used by browsers to request and
send information over the Internet.
• We can use a secured version of HTTP, which is HTTPS
e.g. for online banking.
• SMTP protocol is used for email transmission, and FTP,
used to move files over the Internet.
• A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is an address on the
Internet. Commonly, it consists of a protocol (like
http://or ftp://) followed by a domain name.
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What Processing Occurs on a Typical Web
Server?
• Web storefront
– Server on the Web from which you can buy
products

What Processing Occurs on a Typical
Web Server?
• The three-tiered architecture consists of the
user tier, the server tier, and the database tier.
• The user tier consists of computers, phones
and other devices with browsers that can
request and access Web pages.
• Web pages are presented from the server tier.
A request from the user tier goes to the server
tier, and the response is in the form of a Web
page.

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What Processing Occurs on a Typical
Web Server?
• We define the servers as Web servers. These are
programs that run on the server tier and manage
traffic, sending and receiving Web pages to and
from clients.
• A company may decide to use several Web
servers to ensure acceptable performance. This
concept of multiple Web servers for a single Web
site is referred to as a Web farm.
• The database tier consists of computers that run
a database management system which processes
requests to retrieve and store data.
36
Why Is the Cloud the Future for
Most Organizations?
• The Cloud can be defined as the elastic leasing of pooled
computer resources over the Internet.
• “Elastic” means the amount of resources used can be
increased or decreased dynamically, programmatically, and
in a short period of time. This allows organizations to use
and pay for just the resources they need.
• “Pooled” describes when many different organizations use
the same physical hardware. That hardware is shared
through virtualization.
• The resources are accessed via Internet protocols and
standards, which are additions to TCP/IP that enable Cloud-
hosting vendors to provide processing capabilities in
flexible yet standardized ways.

37
Most Organizations?

Most Organizations?
• Cloud
– Why now?
– Types of Clouds

Most Organizations?
• Because of these reasons, there are three basic ways in
which the Cloud is used today.
• Software as a service (SaaS) in which organizations can
gain access to not only hardware infrastructure but
also an operating system and application programs.
• Platform as a service (PaaS) whereby vendors provide
hosted computers, an operating system, and possibly a
DBMS to the consumer.
• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is the Cloud
hosting only a bare server computer or disk drive.

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Management Information Systems

Prof. Tagelsir Mohamed

Copyright © 2018 Prof. Tagelsir Mohamed,

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