Chapter 12 Learning Objectives

SECTION A

After reading Section A, you should be able to:

• define the term "enterprise computing" and explain how it differs from the term "information system"
• provide some idea of the scale of a typical enterprise system
• explain the difference between scaling up and scaling out
• discuss the significance of enterprise system integration in regard to the way an organization operates and serves customers
• provide examples of enterprise hardware integration and enterprise application integration
• list and describe four ways in which an organization can integrate applications
• provide an example of how EAI can help prevent consumer fraud
• list at least three applications for high-performance computing
• define the term "compute intensive" and explain how it relates to high-performance computing
• explain the acronym "MIPS"
• discuss the difference between high-performance computing and enterprise computing

SECTION B

After reading Section B, you should be able to:

• describe the types of hardware that might be included in an enterprise system
• define the term "legacy system" and discuss how these systems relate to enterprise computing
• explain why enterprise computing systems typically require specialized storage devices
• discuss the differences between storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS), and explain their role in enterprise computing systems
• explain how SANs provide mirroring services, and their importance for data security
• list at least five input/output devices that are designed to support the huge volumes of information that flow through an enterprise system
• discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using supercomputers for high-performance computing
• explain how low-cost computers can be harnessed for high-performance computing
• describe why parallel processing is a key technology for high-performance computing
• differentiate between symmetric multiprocessing and massively parallel processing
• list at least three utilities that might be found on a typical enterprise computing system
• list the three characteristics of enterprise-level applications and explain how each contributes to making data available enterprise wide, yet secure
• discuss the relationship between middleware and legacy system within an enterprise computing system
• explain why HPC systems typically require custom software, whereas many enterprise computing systems can use commercial software and utilities

SECTION C

After reading Section C, you should be able to:

• draw a diagram of a centralized computing system, label its components, and explain the flow of data between its components
• explain the significance of terminal emulation software and describe the type of system in which it would typically be required
• describe the advantages and disadvantages of a centralized computing system
• draw a diagram of distributed computing system, label its components, and explain the flow of data between its components
• describe the advantages and disadvantages of a distributed computing system
• explain why a distributed computer system might be divided into tiers, and provide examples of the tasks that each tier might be assigned
• draw a diagram of a grid computing system, label its components, and explain the flow of data between its components
• describe the advantages and disadvantages of a grid computing system
• define the term "cluster" as it applies to a distributed computing system, then describe provide examples of tasks that might be assigned to processing clusters or to storage clusters
• explain how cluster failover provides some degree of fault tolerance to a computer system
• discuss how load balancing can be achieved using active-active clusters or active-passive clusters
• explain the popularity of Beowulf clusters

SECTION D

After reading Section D, you should be able to:

• explain why quality of service is so important to organizations and consumers
• list and define six QoS metrics
• discuss the purpose of risk management as it relates to large-scale computing systems
• provide examples of at least eight threats to large-scale computer systems and discuss how preventative measures, corrective procedures, and detection activities can protect system from these threats
• discuss the importance of a data center for maintaining high quality of service
• list the elements of a well-formulated disaster-recovery plan

TechTalk

• explain the basic concept of hierarchical storage management (HSM)
• define the terms "migration" and "recall" in the context of HSM
• explain how a user can access files that have migrated off of the primary storage device
• discuss the reasons why HSN is so important for enterprise computing