IT Infrastructure and Computing Eras

• The IT infrastructure includes investment in hardware, software, and services that are shared across the entire firm or across entire business units in the firm.
• IT infrastructure consists of a set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate the entire enterprise.
• IT infrastructure consists of a set of firmwide services budgeted by management and comprising both human and technical capabilities.
• The five eras are general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer computing, personal computers, client/server networks, enterprise computing, and cloud and mobile computing.
• In the personal computer era, PCs became widely adopted and spawned a slew of personal desktop productivity software tools.
• In the client/server era, desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to powerful server computers that provide centralized services.
• The Enterprise Computing Era (1992 to Present) saw the widespread use of networking standards and software tools to integrate disparate networks and applications throughout an organization.
• In the Cloud and Mobile Computing Era (2000 to Present), firms turn to cloud computing to provide access to a shared pool of computing resources over the Internet.

Test your knowledge about IT infrastructure and the evolution of computing eras from mainframes to cloud and mobile computing. Explore the hardware, software, and services essential for enterprise operations in this quiz.