Kenneth C. Laudon,Jane P. Laudon Management Information System 12th Edition pdf

1.

What business and social problems does data

center power consumption cause?

2.

What solutions are available for these problems?

Which are environment-friendly?

3.

What are the business benefits and costs of these

solutions?

4.

Should all firms move toward green computing?

Why or why not?

Health insurer Highmark initially wanted to

increase its CPU utilization by 10 percent while

reducing power use by 5 percent and eventually by

10 percent. When the company inventoried all of its

information technology assets, it found that its

information systems staff was hanging onto “dead”

servers that served no function but continued to

consume power. Unfortunately, many information

systems departments still aren’t deploying their

existing technology resources efficiently or using

green measurement tools.

Programs to educate employees in energy conser-

vation may also be necessary. In addition to using

Perform an Internet search on the phrase “green

computing” and then answer the following questions:

1.

Who are some of the leaders of the green comput-

ing movement? Which corporations are leading

the way? Which environmental organizations are

playing an important role?

2.

What are the latest trends in green computing?

What kind of impact are they having?

3.

What can individuals do to contribute to the green

computing movement? Is the movement worth-

while?

energy-monitoring tools, Honda Motor Corporation

trains its data center administrators how to be more

energy efficient. For example, it taught them to

decommission unused equipment quickly and to use

management tools to ensure servers are being

optimized. 

Sources:

Kathleen Lao, “The Green Issue,” 

Computerworld

Canada

, April 2010; Matthew Sarrell, “Greening Your Data Center:

The Real Deal,” 

eWeek

, January 15, 2010; Robert L. Mitchell, “Data

Center Density Hits the Wall,” 

Computerworld

, January 21, 2010;

Jim Carlton, “The PC Goes on an Energy Diet,” 

The Wall Street

Journal

, September 8, 2009; and Ronan Kavanagh, “IT

Virtualization Helps to Go Green,” 

Information Management

Magazine

, March 2009. 

C A S E   S T U D Y   Q U E S T I O N S

M I S   I N   A C T I O N

Chapter 5

IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

187

5.4

C

ONTEMPORARY

S

OFTWARE

P

LATFORM

T

RENDS

There are four major themes in contemporary software platform evolution:

• Linux and open source software 

• Java and Ajax 

• Web services and service-oriented architecture

• Software outsourcing and cloud services

LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE