Description
The next three chapters address the technology that underlies information systems. You may think that such technology is unimportant to you as a business professional. However, as you will see, today’s managers and business professionals work with information technology all the time, as consumers, if not in a more involved way.
Chapter 4 discusses hardware and software and defines basic terms and fundamental computing concepts. You will see that AllRoad has important decisions to make about a critical software development project.
Chapter 5 addresses the data component of information technology by describing database processing. You will learn essential database terminology and will be introduced to techniques for processing databases. We will also introduce data modeling because you may be required to evaluate data models for databases that others develop for you.
Chapter 6 continues the discussion of computing devices begun in Chapter 4 and describes Internet technologies and the cloud. AllRoad needs to make decisions about building its infrastructure for the next stage of its growth. To make those decisions, it needs to understand the advantages and disadvantages of cloud-based computing.
The purpose of these three chapters is to teach you technology sufficient for you to be an effective IT consumer, like Kelly, Addison, and Drew at AllRoad. You will learn basic terms, fundamental concepts, and useful frameworks so that
you will have the knowledge to ask good questions and make appropriate requests of the information systems professionals who will serve you. Those concepts and frameworks will be far more useful to you than the latest technology trend, which may be outdated by the time you graduate!