Week 3 Project

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Hardware and Software for Digital Enterprise—Part 3

Computer hardware alone is not enough to run the IS function. You also require appropriate computer software along with the hardware. So let us focus now on how software controls the operating system (OS) of a computer and ful�ls the end user requirements in an organization.

Software

The two major types of software are:

Application software: Are programs written for a speci�c business application and used by end users and application programmers to run and develop applications.

System software: Are programs that control the IS by allocating, assigning, and scheduling system resources of a computer. System software mediates between application software and computer hardware and coordinates the various parts of the computer system with the OS. Several types of system software are used for OSs such as:

Microsoft Windows— XP, Vista, Version 7, and Version 8

UNIX

IBM AIX

Linux

HPUX

Apple Macintosh

MS-DOS

Data Processing

IS can collect and process data in the following two ways:

Batch Processing: Accumulates and stores transactions in a group until it is necessary to process them.

Online Processing: Enters transactions directly into the computer system and processes them immediately.

In the client/server model of computing, the clients and the servers connected to a network perform computer processing. Network computers obtain most or all their data and software from a central network server because they have minimal or no local processing or storage capability. Peer-to-peer computing puts processing power back on users’ desktops linking individual workstations and PCs through the Web or via private networks to share disk storage space, data, and processing power to accomplish a variety of tasks. Grid computing is a form of peer-to-peer computing that divides problems into smaller pieces that can run on several computers that are organized into a computational grid.

When calculating expenses for buying a computer we consider the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes not only the original cost of the computer system but also the costs for upgrades, maintenance, training, and technical support for hardware and software.