Information Systems

Information Systems and Growth

Abstract

This paper will explain information systems and its major components. Business Architecture, IT Architecture, Information Infrastructure and how they all relate to one another will also be described. When businesses grow they need their information system to grow with them. The different options businesses have to accommodate growth with their IT infrastructure will be explained. Advantages and disadvantages of the different growth options will also be disgusted.

Information Systems and Growth

An information system is the technology used by businesses. The major components in information systems include: hardware, software, data, network, procedures, and people. Hardware refers to the part of the computer that people use such as a keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer and the computer tower. The tower is also called the central processing unit which processes all the data to show it on the monitor for people. Software is the programs that tell the hardware what to do. Data is the information that programs use. Network is a series of computers or other devices that are connected which share information together. Procedures are the way everything is connected to make sure it all properly works. People are the operators of the information systems.

Relationships with Business Architecture, IT Architecture, and Information Infrastructure

Business Architecture provides multidimensional views of business capabilities, governance structures, partners, semantics, projects, value chains, processes and rules. Business architecture also serves as the basis for IT architecture alignment ("About businessarchitectureinstitute.org," 2008). Probably the most encompassing term is Enterprise IT Architecture. When you model an enterprise architecture you would typically start with the business processes then map them to applications and finally map those to (infrastructure) components. Here we consider...