Week 6: Enterprise Architectures 


1) What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?


Information architecture is a general plan of how IT is to be used within an organisation, that is, useful for planning. It identifies where and how important information is maintained and secured. It should also focus on backup and recovery, disaster recovery and information security.


IT infrastructure is the actual implementation stage that will provide for effective information systems, including hardware, software, services as well as the people involved. It includes equipment for all hardware, software and telecommunications activities that provide the underlying foundation to support the organisation's goals when combined. 


2) Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture


An organisation can implement solid information architecture by having a strong information security plan, managing user access and having up-to-date antivirus software and patches.


3) List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.


The five required characteristics of infrastructure and architecture include:
1.Reliability:
- high accuracy
- low accuracy puts the organisation at risk


2. Scalability
- systems ability to meet growth requirements
capacity planning


3. Flexibility
- ability to meet changing business demands
- may involve multinational challenges


4. Availability
- high availability 99.99% uptime
- ensures business continuity


5. Performance 
- how quickly a system performs a certain task
- growing pressure on systems to be faster


4) Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repeatable tasks or services. It ensures IT systems can adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs. A SOA allows enterprises to plug in new services or upgrade existing services in a granular fashion. As well it responds more quickly and is cost-effective to changes in market-conditions.

5) What is an event?


An event is an electronic message that indicates something has happened. It detects threats and opportunities and alerts those who can act on the information


6) What is a service?


A service contains a set of related commands that can be re-used. It is more like a software product as opposed to a coding product.


7) What emerging technologies can companies use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?


The emerging technologies that companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively include:
- Service
- Interoperability
- Loose coupling
- Virtualisation