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Doing IT Right Technology, Business, and Risk of Computing Harold Lorin 1995 | 350 pages ISBN: 133964256 |
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$42.95 | Softbound print book | |
Table of Contents
Contents
Thanks iii
About the author iv
Preface xiii
1 Out of control
Out of control 2
Dynamics of industry 4
System and industry structure 6
Value of software 8
IT decisions and system structure 10
System and industry structure 11
Software segments 13
Counterforces 14
Paradigms of computing --- putting it together 16
The mythic beast of centralized computing 17
The mythic beast of open 18
New capabilities, old glories 18
Due diligence 19
The key technologies 21
2 The playing field
Plus a change 28
Change strategy 32
Hardware 34
Systems software 36
Applications 37
What is an architecture? 38
Responsibilities and principles 40
Uncertainty and dispute 41
3 Kinds of computers
Hardware 46
Computer organization 48
Interesting trends: the massively parallel system 49
Interesting trends: the specialized engine 50
Economics of hardware 51
Metrics for performance 53
A system's architecture 54
Building block: the personal computer 55
Building block: the workstation 56
Building blocks: servers 58
Hardware markets and systems software 62
4 Networking
Networking 67
Software-defined networks 68
Systems Network Architecture 69
Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking 70
DECnet 71
Other protocols 72
TCP/IP --- the Internet protocol 73
The core TCP/IP 74
Local area networking 76
NetWare 77
NetBIOS 77
VINES 78
Interfaces 78
Models of program interaction 78
Dialogues or conversations 78
Messaging 80
Remote procedure calls 81
Network integration 84
Protocol integration 84
Protocol independence 84
Interoperability 85
LAN/WAN convergence 87
New technologies and protocols 89
Asynchronous transfer mode 90
Operating systems and networking 91
5 Software infrastructures
Software environments 94
Systems populations 96
What limits a market? 97
Limitation: Architecture it runs on 98
Limitation: Scale 99
Limitation: Other platforms and older applications 103
The market dynamic 106
Unix in the market 108
Windows in the market 111
Windows for Workgroups 112
Windows NT 112
Windows 95 113
Windows At Work 114
Environment pricing 114
Key trends summary 116
6 Distributed and client/server computing
Distributed computing 120
Evolution and morphology 121
Forms of distributed systems --- choices 123
Peer to peer 125
Client/server 125
Smart network 126
Granularity 126
Distributed elements 127
Distributed data 127
Distributed file systems --- choices 130
Distributed relational data base 132
Distributed software 132
Distributing control 133
Economics and system structure 135
Client/server --- development views and technologies 136
Client/server technology and variations 137
Toward a next generation 138
Common services 140
Grouping of services 142
The relations between servers 144
7 Open interoperable systems
The dimension of heterogeneity 148
Open systems 150
Make a choice 152
Make no choice 152
De jure standards 153
International Standards Organization 155
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 157
De facto standards 159
Alliances 161
X/Open 161
Open Software Foundation 163
Object Management Group 165
Profiles 166
Higher-layer standards 167
Application development 167
Mail 168
Documents 169
Heterogeneous data base 169
8 Benchmarking migration
Investing 172
The context 174
Hardware costs 175
The hardware choices 175
Partitioning the workload 179
Software environments 181
Mapping the workload onto the choices 183
Discussion 185
How good are the numbers? 186
Proper accounting and reasonable alternatives 186
Benefits 186
Migration costs 186
Some software economics 187
9 Cost of ownership
Shifting the culture 192
Skills planning 195
Management, administration, and operations 195
Systems salary and staffing 197
Distributed, centrally managed system 198
Decentralized system 202
Compared costs 203
Dynamics of decision making 203
10 Due diligence
Rates of change 208
An economic framework 210
Benefits 216
Cost and risk 217
Nature of risk 218
Data and risk assessment 218
Risk and consensus 219
Risk and statistics 219
Risk and strategy 221
Risk and projection 222
Cost of being wrong 223
Other Statistics 224
There's no safety in numbers (or in anything else) 225
11 Software development and objects
Software development 229
The software development cycle 232
CASE 235
Applications strategies 238
Objects 239
Object-oriented 242
Basic object technologies 246
Underlying economics of objects 250
Objects and open distributed computing 251
Netting it out 252
Rapid application development 253
12 Accessing resources
Overview 257
User interfaces (the end user interface model) 257
Elements of usability 258
Principles of usability 259
Usability software 260
Multimedia 261
Coming technology 263
Economics of usability 263
Directory 264
Naming and information 265
Directory interfaces 266
Directory and open distributed systems 267
Data 269
Entity--relation data model 270
Entity--relation and objects 273
Object-oriented data bases 274
Data warehousing 276
Transaction processing 278
The technology 278
13 Systems management
Systems management 282
OSI and ISMA views of systems management 285
Basic technologies and protocols 286
Issues of systems management 288
Applications 292
Directions 293
14 Some systems players
Apple 296
AT&T Global (NCR) 297
DEC 298
Hewlett-Packard 300
IBM 302
Microsoft 305
Novell 307
Sequent Computing 308
Sun Microsystems 310
Basics book 1 The queen in the hive
Architecture, design, and technology 314
Architecture 315
Design 317
Technology 318
System components 322
Buses 324
Storage 327
Basics book 2 Communications review
Communications 332
Communications protocols and interfaces 333
Protocols 333
Interfaces 334
Protocol families 335
Bottom layers 336
Upper layers 337
Local area networks 340
Boundary crossing 340
Bridges 341
Routers 342
Gateways 342
Other network instruments 342
Metropolitan area networks 342
Basics book 3 Operating systems basic functions
Process and program management 346
The memory and storage model 347
The workload management model 348
The recovery model 348
The authorization and security model 349
The data model 351
Unix as a model 352
Unix commands (shells) 353
The kernel 354
Unix file system 355
Unix processes 355
Unix memory management 356
Unix communications 357
Unix development 357
Unix and open 357
Structure of Windows NT 358
Windows NT networking 361
IBM MVS: Multiple Virtual Storage 362
The end user model 363
Authorization and security 364
Data 364
The communications model 365
The program and process model 365
The memory model 366
The workload management model 366
The recovery model 366
The systems management model 366
The application model 367
The object model 367
The future 367
IT acronyms 369
Guide to publications 375
Index 389
DESCRIPTION
Only a handful of Information Technology leaders understand the complete range of IT issues, from basic technology to business strategy. One of them, Harold Lorin, has written a definitive guide for the IT decision maker, the technologist, and the system developer.
The breadth and insight of Doing IT Right is unparalleled. Its usefulness as a guide to deeper understanding of business computing will be appreciated by professionals and managers at all levels. This book covers a rich collection of topics, each explained, interrelated, and placed in a coherent framework so that its importance and likely evolution are clear. The author does not shy away from stating his views; he provides color, insight and humor.
Doing IT Right is a tour de force based on Lorin's prodigious knowledge of the industry derived from years of involvement with development and marketing at IBM and other systems houses and from consulting in a variety of environments. It also has its roots in a great many publications of the author, from trade and journal articles and book chapters to six earlier books.
Doing IT Right explores IT in its full complexity. It explains fundamental issues of hardware and software structures; it illuminates central issues of networking and encapsulates the essence of client/server computing; its coverage of costing, risk assessment, and due diligence in making computing decisions is unique; its presentation of the concepts and issues of object-orientation was considered by the managers at an IBM development laboratory to be Unique and more informative than fifteen other OO presentations put together.
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK...
"If you are concerned about (or even responsible for) technological change in your company this might be a good book to get, read and pass on to others, particularly those whose thinking is not rigid even though it may be conservative (management) or overly adventurous (technologists). The book has been around for more than three years but stands up well to the test of time. The details may change but the fundamentals remain (however much the technologists like to think otherwise)."
--Francis Glassborow, C Vu
"This book is unique in both scope and implementation - it is amazing how successfully Mr. Lorin has pulled it off"
--Ted Gerbracht, Vice President Operations,
Systems, and Telecommunications, Merrill Lynch
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...
Harold Lorin is a principal at the Manticore Consultancy and a Professor at Hofstra University. He has been the ranking Consultant Member of the IBM Systems Research Institute and has consulted to organizations in the United States, Europe, and AKsia. His articles have been published by MIS Quarterly, ACM SIGOPS, ACM SIGARCH, IEEE JSAC, Computers and Communications, Computerworld, and many others. He has presented at meetings of SHARE and GUIDE, as well as of the ACM, the lEEE , and at leading academic institutions including MIT and Cambridge University.<