OChapter 5

IT Infrastructure and Emerging

Technologieso
True-False Questions

IT infrastructure technology is purely a set of physical devices and software applications that are
required to operate the entire enterprise.

Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: pp. 171–172

Client/server computing is a widely used form of centralized processing.

Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 175, 178

In two-tiered client/server architecture, the processing is split between two types of servers.

Answer: False Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 175

Application server software is responsible for locating and managing stored Web pages.

Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 176

An application server may reside on the same computer as a Web server or on its own dedicated
computer.

Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 176

Enterprise integration requires software that can link disparate applications and enable data to flow
freely among different parts of the business.

Answer: : True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 177

The mainframe market has grown steadily over the past decade.

Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 186

The operating system is used to manage the computer’s activities.

Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 186

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SANs create large central pools of storage that can be rapidly accessed and shared by multiple
servers.

Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 187

Like an ASP, a Web hosting service provides shared applications to subscribed users, but does this
through a Web portal.

Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 188

Autonomic computing is implemented primarily with enterprise or ISP servers.

Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 192

N-tier computing is a multi-tier, load-balancing scheme for Web-based applications in which

significant parts of Web site content, logic, and processing are performed by smaller, less expensive
servers located nearby the user.

Answer: True Difficulty: Hard Reference: pp. 175–176

Java software is designed to run on any computer or computing device, regardless of the specific
microprocessor or operating system it uses.

Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 198

Web services can exchange information between two different systems regardless of the operating
system or programming languages on which the systems are based.

Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 200

XML is limited to describing how data should be presented in the form of Web pages; HTML can
perform presentation, communication, and storage of data.

Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 200

Hypertext markup language specifies how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page
document.

Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 200

The collection of Web services that are used to build a firm’s software systems constitutes what is
known as a service-oriented architecture.

Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 201

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 Today most business firms have discontinued operating their legacy systems, replacing these with
inexpensive Web services and hosted software.

Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 204

Scalability refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number
of users without breaking down.
Gb
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 209

TCO refers to the original cost of purchased technology: both hardware and software.

Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 211

Multiple-Choice Questions

Synthesis

As discussed in the chapter case, DreamWorks Animation invested in IT infrastructure in

order to counter which competitive force?

a. Traditional competitors
b. New market entrants
c. Customers
d. Substitute products

Answer: a Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 169

Synthesis in terms of formulate

Which type of infrastructure services provide voice and video connectivity to employees,
customers, and suppliers?

a. Networking
b. Telephone
c. VOIP
d. Telecommunications

Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 172

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Which of the following is not an IT infrastructure service component?

a. Operating system software

b. Computing platforms to provide a coherent digital environment
c. Physical facility management to manage the facilities housing physical components
d. IT management services to plan and develop the infrastructure and provide project
management

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 172

Synthesis

Place the following eras of IT infrastructure evolution in order, from earliest to most recent:
(1) Mainframe and Minicomputer; (2) Client/Server; (3) Enterprise Internet; (4) Personal
Computer; and (5) Electronic Accounting Machine.

a. 5, 1, 2, 3, 4
b. 5, 1, 4, 2, 3
c. 1, 5, 4, 2, 3
d. 1, 5, 2, 3, 4

Answer: b Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 174

The introduction of the minicomputer:

a. allowed computers to be customized to the specific needs of departments or business

units.
b. enabled decentralized computing.
c. offered new, powerful machines at lower prices than mainframes.
d. all of the above.

Answer: d Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 175

In a multi-tiered network:

a. the work of the entire network is centralized.

b. the work of the entire network is balanced over several levels of servers.
c. processing is split between clients and servers.
d. processing is handled by multiple, geographically remote clients.

Answer: b Difficulty: Easy Reference: pp. 175–176

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A client computer networked to a server computer, with processing split between the two
types of machines, is called a:

a. service-oriented architecture.
b. on-demand architecture.
C. multi-tiered client/server architecture.
d. two-tiered client/server architecture.

Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 175

Interpretations of Moore’s law assert that:

a. computing power doubles every 18 months.

b. transistors decrease in size 50% every two years.
c. data storage costs decrease by 50% every 18 months.
d. none of the above.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 177

Today’s nanotechnology-produced computer transistors are roughly equivalent in size to:

a. the width of a fingernail.

b. a human hair.
c. a virus.
Kd. an atom. O

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 180

Which of the following factors provides an understanding of why computing resources today
are ever more available than in previous decades?

a. Network economics
b. Law of mass digital storage and Moore’s law
c. Declining communications costs, universal standards, and the Internet
d. All of the above

Answer: d Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 177–183

Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a
network are called:

a. network standards.
b. telecommunications standards.
c. technology standards.
d. Internet standards.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 183

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___________ unleash powerful economies of scale and result in declines in manufactured

computer products.

a. Internet and web technologies

b. Technology standards
c. Linux and open-source software
d. Client/server technologies

Answer: b Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 183

The multitasking, multi-user, operating system developed by Bell Laboratories that operates
on a wide variety of computing platforms is:

a. Unix.
b. Linux.
c. Mac OS.
d. COBOL.

Answer: a Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 184

Software that manages the resources of the computer is called:

a. operating system software.

b. application software.
c. data management software.
d. network software.

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 186

A SAN is a:

a. server area network.

b. storage area network.
c. scalable architecture network.
d. service-oriented architecture network.

Answer: b Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 187

As referred to in the text, legacy systems are:

a. traditional mainframe-based business information systems.

b. electronic spreadsheets used on a PC.
c. any pre-1990 Wintel systems.
d. systems found on older ASPs.

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 189

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Legacy systems are still used because:

a. they can only be run on the older mainframe computers.

b. they are too expensive to redesign.
c. many integrate well using new Web services technologies.
d. they contain valuable data that would be lost during redesign.

Answer: b Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 189

Connecting geographically remote computers in a single network to create a “virtual

supercomputer” is called:

a. co-location.
b. edge computing.
c. grid computing.
d. utility computing.

Answer: c Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 190

An example of technology convergence is:

a. virus protection software that runs and updates itself automatically.

b. software programmed to run on any hardware platform.
c. cell phones taking on the functions of handheld computers.
d. programming languages that allow non-programmers to create custom applications.

Answer: c Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 190

This type of computing refers to firms off-loading peak requests for computing power to
remote, large-scale data processing centers.

a. On-demand
b. Grid
c. Edge
d. Autonomic

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 191

When a firm purchases computing power from a central computing service and pays only for
the amount of computing power it uses, this is commonly referred to as:

a. grid computing.
b. utility computing.
c. edge computing.
d. autonomic computing.

Answer: b Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 191

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The business case for using grid computing involves all of the following EXCEPT:

a. cost savings.
b. increased accuracy.
c. speed of computation.
d. agility.

Answer: b Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 191

Analysis

An example of autonomic computing is:

a. spyware protection software that runs and updates itself automatically.

b. software programmed to run on any hardware platform.
c. cell phones taking on the functions of handheld computers.
d. programming languages that allow non-programmers to create custom applications.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 192

The components of edge computing are:

a. local client, ISP servers, corporate enterprise servers.

b. l ocal client, corporate Web servers, corporate enterprise servers.
c. ISP servers, corporate Web servers, corporate enterprise servers.
d. ISP servers, corporate enterprise servers, Web servers.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 192–193

An industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure, optimize, tune, and heal
themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction
is called:

a. grid computing.
b. utility computing.
c. edge computing.
d. autonomic computing.

Answer: d Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 192

As discussed in the chapter case, the major driver for E*Trade’s adoption of Linux was:

a. cost.
b. reliability.
c. ease-of-use.
d. integration with existing back-office integrations.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 196

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Linux is:

a. primarily concerned with the tasks of end users.

b. d esigned for specific machines and specific microprocessors.
c. an example of open-source software.
d. especially useful for processing numeric data.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 195

Which type of software is created and updated by a worldwide community of programmers

and available for free?

a. Software packages
b. Mashups
c. Outsourced
d. Open source

Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 195

A software tool with a graphical user interface for displaying Web pages and for accessing the
Web and other Internet resources is called a:

a. JVM.
b. Web browser.
c. FTP client.
d. All of the above.

Answer: b: Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 198

The single most urgent software priority for U.S. firms is:

a. integrating Internet technologies.

b. integrating legacy applications with newer Web-based technologies into a single system.
c. standardizing existing applications.
d. replacing legacy applications with newer technologies and services.

Answer: b Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 198

Running a Java program on a computer:

a. requires a Java Virtual Machine to be installed on the computer.

b. requires a Java Virtual Machine to be installed on the server hosting the Java applet.
c. requires a miniature program to be downloaded to the user’s computer.
d. does not require any specialized software, as Java is platform-independent.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 198

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Commercially available software that enables multiple systems to exchange data through a
single software hub is called:

a. SOAP.
b. WSDL services.
c. EAI software.
d. XML software.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 199

Software that connects two disparate applications, allowing them to communicate with each
other and to exchange data, is called:

a. enterprise software.
b. integration software.
c. distributed software.
d. middleware.
M
Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 199

HTML is a:

a. hybrid language providing more flexibility than the popular language in current use.
b. language that delivers only the software functionality needed for a specific task.
c. page description language for creating Web pages and other hypermedia documents.
d. language that combines data and program code.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 200

What is the foundation technology for Web services?

a. XML
b. HTML
c. SOAP
d. UDDI

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 200

Sets of loosely coupled software components that exchange information with each other
using standard Web communication standards and languages are referred to as:

a. Web services.
b. EAI software.
c. SOA.
d. SOAP.

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 200

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A set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working
software application is called:

a. Web services.
b. EAI software.
c. SOA.
d. SOAP.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 201

Which of the following is an example of an SOA environment?

a. Amazon.com’s operation of hundreds of services, such as billing or customer interface,

delivered by different application servers
b. E*Trade’s use of lower-cost Linux servers that delivered increased computer
performance
c. Thermos’s use of hosted Oracle systems software running on Oracle’s computers
d. None of the above

Answer: a Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 201

Synthesis

Which competitive strategies can be enhanced through the use of SOAs to connect with
partners in a business ecosystem?

a. Low-cost leadership and product differentiation

b. Focus on market niche and product differentiation
c. Low-cost leadership, product differentiation, and strengthening customer and supplier
intimacy
d. Focus on market niche, low-cost leadership, and strengthening customer and supplier
intimacy

Answer: c Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 201

Synthesis in terms of bringing knowledge from different sources together

Software applications that are based on combining different online software applications are
called:

a. integrated software.
b. Ajax.
c. mashups.
d. edge computing.

Answer: c Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 203

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This model can be used to analyze the direct and indirect costs to help firms determine the
actual cost of specific technology implementations.i

a. Total cost of ownership

b. Return on investment
c. Breakeven point
d. Cost benefit analysis

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 211

Prewritten, commercially available sets of software programs that eliminate the need for a
firm to write its own software programs for certain functions, are referred to as:

a. software packages.
b. mashups.
c. outsourced.
d. open source.

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: pp. 204–205

The practice of contracting custom software development to an outside firm is commonly

referred to as:

a. outsourcing.
b. scaling.
c. service-oriented architecture.
d. application integration.

Answer: a Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 204

An ASP:

a. supplies online access over networks to storage devices and storage area network
technology.
b. manages combinations of applications, networks, systems, storage, and security as well
as providing Web site and systems performance monitoring to subscribers over the
Internet.
c. uses centrally managed facilities to host and manage access to package applications
delivered over networks on a subscription basis.
d. all of the above.

Answer: c Difficulty: Hard Reference: pp. 205–206

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The time-sharing services of the 1970s, which ran applications such as payroll on their
computers for other companies, were an early version of:

a. ASPs.
b. outsourcing.
c. A jax.
d. Web services.

Answer: a Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 206

As discussed in the Interactive Session: Technology, ResortCom’s use of a hosted on-demand

CRM illustrated:

a. the benefits of adapting to the business processes embedded in enterprise software.

b. the difficulties in adapting to the business processes embedded in enterprise software.
c. the challenges involved in customizing enterprise software.
d. the speed with which a hosted enterprise solution can be brought online to replace
existing back-office applications.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 207–208

Which of the following refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to
serve a larger number of users without breaking down?

a. Modifiability
b. Scalability
c. Expandability
d. Disintermediation

Answer: b Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 209

How would you determine the market demand for your firm’s IT services?

a. Perform a TCO analysis.

b. Perform a benchmarking on these services.
c. Hold focus groups to assess your services.
d. Analyze sales returns on key investments.

Answer: c Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 209

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Evaluate

Your firm, an auto parts manufacturer, has just merged with an automobile engine
manufacturer, and the two companies have different SCM systems. Which of the following
strategies would be the most likely course to help to reduce the TCO of the merged firms’
technology investments?

a. Use Web services to join the two systems.

b. Move one firm into using the other’s system in order to centralize management and
support services.
c. Develop single ERP system that encompasses the information needs and business
processes of both firms.
d. Purchase a hosted, on-demand ERP system that encompasses the needs and processes of
both firms.

Answer: b Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 211

Evaluate in terms of judge, predict

Analysis

As discussed in the chapter case study, Merrill Lynch’s IT investments to modernize its
technology infrastructure illustrates the use of what software technology trend?

a. On-demand computing
b. Outsourcing
c. Java
d. Web services

Answer: d Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 218–220

Analysis in terms of categorize

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