Essential Business and Technology Concepts Defined

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Is a formal contract between

Adhocracy

Task force organization that

Agency Theory

The firm is viewed as a “nexus

Android

Is an open source operating

Apps

Small pieces of software that

Autonomic Computing

Is an industry-wide effort to develop

Benchmarking

Involves comparing the efficiency

Best Practices

Are usually identified by consulting

Blade Servers

Computers consisting of a circuit board

Business Ecosystem

Is another term for these loosely

BYOD

Is one aspect of the consumerization of IT,

Measured Service

Charges for cloud resources are based

Client/Server Computing

Desktop or laptop computers

Cloud Computing

Refers to a model of computing that provides

Ubiquitous Network Access

Cloud resources can be accessed using standard

Cloud-Based Software and Data

Are hosted on powerful servers in data centers and can

Competitor Firm IT Infrastructure Investments

Benchmark your expenditures for IT infrastructure against your competitors.

Core Competency

Is an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader

Customers

A profitable company depends in large measure

Customers’ Bargaining Power

Availability of global price and product

Disruptive Technologies

Substitute products that perform as well as

Efficient Customer Response System

Directly links consumer behavior to distribution and production and supply chains.

Entrepreneurial Structure

Young, small firm in a fast-changing environment.

Focus on Market Niche

Use information systems to enable a specific

Google’s Chrome OS

Provides a lightweight operating system for

Green Computing

Refers to practices and technologies for designing,

HTML5

It solves this problem by making it possible

Hybrid Cloud

Combination of private and public cloud services that remain separate entities

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

Is an operating system-independent, processor-independent, object-oriented programming language

Information Systems

Have fundamentally altered the economics

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Customers use processing, storage, networking,

iOS

Is the operating system for the phenomenally popular Apple iPad,

Web Browser

Is an easy-to-use software tool with

Business Ecosystems

Is another term for these loosely

IT Infrastructure

Consists of a set of physical devices and software

Law of Mass Digital Storage

The amount of digital information is roughly

Legacy Systems

Are generally older transaction processing systems

Location-Independent Resource Pooling

Computing resources are pooled to serve

Low-Cost Leadership

Use information systems to achieve the lowest

Machine Bureaucracy

Exists in a slowly changing environment

Mass Customization

This ability to offer individually tailored

Metcalfe’s Law

The value or power of a network grows exponentially

Michael Porter Competitive Forces Model

This model provides a general view of the firm, its competitors,

Minicomputers

Offered powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM mainframes,

Moore’s Law

This law would later be interpreted in multiple

Multicore Processor

Is an integrated circuit to which two or more processor cores

Nanotechnology

Uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer

Network Economics

Refers to market situations where the economic

Open Source Software

Is software produced by a community of several

Organization

Is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the

Organizational Culture

Set of assumptions about what products the organization

Personal Computer (PCs)

Appeared in the 1970s (the Xerox Alto, the MITS Altair

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Customers use infrastructure and programming tools

Platforms

Are composed of information systems, technologies, and services that

Primary Activities

Are most directly related to the production and distribution of

Private Cloud

Cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization and

Product Differentiation

Use information systems to enable new products and

Quantum Computing

Is an emerging technology with the potential to dramatically

Rapid Elasticity

Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or

Routines

Sometimes called standard operating procedures. Are precise rules,

Scalability

Refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve

Software Outsourcing

Enables a firm to contract custom software development or

Software Package

Is a prewritten commercially available set of software programs

Storage Area Networks

Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed

Strategic Transitions

A movement between levels of sociotechnical systems. Such

Strengthen Customer and Supplier Intimacy

Use information systems to tighten linkages with suppliers

Substitute Products or Services

Enables new substitutes to emerge with new approaches to meeting

Suppliers

Can have a significant impact on firm profits, especially when

Suppliers’ Bargaining Power

Procurement over the internet tends to raise bargaining power over they.

Support Activities

Make the delivery of the primary activities possible and consist

Switching Costs

The cost of switching from one product to a competing product

Synergies

Is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units

Technology Standards

Specifications that establish the compatibility of products

Traditional Competitors

All firms share market space with other competitors who

Transaction Cost Theory

Firms and individuals seek to economize on transaction

Unix and Linux

Are scalable, reliable, and much less expensive than mainframe

Value Chain Model

Highlights specific activities in the business where competitive.

Value Web

Is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to

Virtual Company Model

Another network-based strategy uses the model of a

Virtualization

Is the process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as

Web Server

Will serve a web page to a client in response to a request for service

Web Services

Refer to a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange

Your Firm’s Business Strategy

Analyze your firm’s five-year business strategy and

Your Firm’s IT Strategy, Infrastructure, and Cost

Examine your firm’s information technology plans for the next five years and assess its alignment with the firm’s.