Information System Infrastructure in Smart City
Introduction
An appropriately and suitably modeled information system is established in a coherent framework that aids responsive transformations. As a result, an organization's agility as a new enterprise or administrative programs comes up [3]. An information system refers to an integrated series of elements that aid in the collection, storage and processing information to enable data, knowledge and digital products. Various companies such as Alibaba, business to business marketplace, Amazon, the global online market, eBay and much use the concept of information systems. Considered the information system infrastructure, the framework is composed of key networks of telecommunication, databases and data warehouses, software and hardware. Also, the processes and or procedures that are managed by various expertise is the other component of the infrastructure. [1]With the globalization is the corporate world, a company’s information infrastructure usually comes across several limits.
Creating and sustaining such complex infrastructures demands comprehensive strategy and consistent execution to take care of corporate strategic projects, changes, mergers, and acquisitions. Information system infrastructure is or ought to be developed to come up with sensible options for future corporate growth.[2]When put up in a coherent way, the specific information systems that help in the daily operations, management, and the creation of awareness objectives compose the systems architecture of an entity. Ultimately, the overall long-term plans of a company have to be factored in the process of modeling an information infrastructure and architecture.
Telecommunications
These are used to create a connection, or a network, computer systems and movable and wearable gadgets and to disseminate data. The connections are created through a wired or wireless media, and the wired media refers to the coaxial cable and fiber optics [4]. The wireless technology majorly established on the dissemination of the microwaves and radio waves, aid in the concept of phone computing. [5]Through the wireless connections that are linked online, the result is a massive quantity of information that can be applied to the access of higher productivity or in monitoring the surrounding. With the assistance of the networking, individual and organizations can obtain a lot of information. Extensive networking infrastructure aids the increasing move cloud computing with the information system- resources distributed among various companies, resulting in utilization productivities and freedom in the localization of the information centers. [6]Through the software-integrated networks, there is the affordability on the flexible administration of the telecommunications networks with algorithms that are compatible with the real-time requirements and presence of resources.
Database and data warehouses
[7]Numerous information systems are majorly delivered tools for information kept in the databases. A database can be explained as a collection of information which ae interrelated and systematic in nature so that records can be accessed to meet the various individual and corporate objectives. Substantial data collection and processing of data which are often obtained from the internet have resulted in a broad concept called ‘big data’ [8]. A lot of advantages is achieved from the choices made form the basis of the facts prevalent in the ‘big data’. For example, there is the economy of resources which is as a result of evading waste, and recommendation on better products namely books or films based on the interest of an individual. Big data supports innovative business approaches. For example, an organization retrieves information regarding the prices of products by the means of collecting from various independent persons through smartphones globally. Subsequently, the computed information offers early information on the shifts in the prices, making possible for more responsive decision-making than was possible before[9].
Computer software
In this case, the main software is the operating system.[10]It manages the hardware, data and application files and the rest of the system resources and it is through the GUI (graphical user interface) that a person can control and monitor the computer. In big organizations, certified applications are created and maintained by specialized software firms; they customize them to suit the requirements and create other software for either in-house or on outsourced reasons.
Computer hardware
People could be in ownership of various computer devices in the form of smartphone and tablets. Similarly, big corporations use the distributed computer systems from powerful parallel-procession of servers situated in the information areas to vastly distributed individual computers and mobile devices, assimilated in the organizational information system [11]. Sensors are merging to be more extensively disseminated in the physical and the biological surroundings to collect information and in most situation, to take control through devices called, actuators. In combination with the peripheral tools, such as storage disks, input-output gadgets, and telecommunication devices these are the components of the hardware information system. The costs of buying the hardware devices have gradually decreased with a corresponding increase in the speed of processing and storage capacity [12]. The other concept that should be understood under the information systems is the Intelligent information systems.
An intelligent information system is a technology that will be applied in any developed society to assist in different activities like transport and the communication sector. The new technology, in other words, the new mobile technology is used in the transportation sector, integrating the technology to help in mobility of goods and people from one place to another. Intelligent transformation system has an important feature that for its execution, it has a strong dependency on the developed structure. There are two types of infrastructure development. There is the technical part that deals with the technical equipment used. On the other hand, there is the system information part of technology. It deals mainly with the infrastructure of the network actors and mainly different types of the information system. Since the interest of the paper is the information system infrastructure, we will only look at how the information system part of the infrastructure and how assists in the development of a given town. They are essential for the creation of enabling development.
Nowadays, there are rapid developments in most parts of the world especially in the developed countries and some developing countries and hence the necessity of effective communication. The technological development makes it possible to send information from one place to another using the mobile devices. Examples of mobile devices are cell phones and PDAs. Besides, advanced technology can be used in transportation and different situations especially in the management sector. As we said, they are important in transport and travel management because transportation is becoming very essential and in today’s society.
It is through transport systems with the development of intelligent transport system. It is used to describe how for instance the mobile information technology is applicable in the transportation sector. It helps in bringing more knowledge to the participants of the transportation especially the operators and travelers with the goal of increasing the efficiency[11]. A good example is the use of information system in a car where a driver can use it to navigate, to avoid the traffic jams among other uses. The companies that have a fleet of busses and the train can use the information system to optimize the fleet operations. It can also be used in offering an automatic ticketing where the passengers do not have to line necessarily for tickets and in delivering the real tie traffic information to the passengers. It makes these activities easier and efficient as compared to the past manual methods. The intelligent transport network, which is an example of the information system, can be used on the roadsides for the coordination of traffic lights in the form of traffic signals. It also displays important information to the driver, pedestrians and finally the passengers. They are having very strong dependency and efficiency compared to the other methods.
The term infrastructure can be used to define the physical components and the technical foundation of a project. The information system should have the enabling feature. It supports to different groups, that is, they should not be tailored to a specific group [8].A good example of an information system is found in Sweden. The cities' National Road Database controls the traffic. The database is divided into three categories that involve the local and he national level category. There are different bodies that keep the information about the roads in Sweden.
Firstly, municipalities keep the information about all the cities that are in the country. It keeps the largest data of the road in the country since there is a dense network of roads in the town. On the other hand, a body called Sweden National Roads Authority keeps the information about all the roads, especially the national roads that connect Sweden. It also keeps the information about the roads that connect different cities within the country. However, to obtain the most reliable and location of roads, the information is found in the Land Survey Administration. It has the duty of keeping the all the data regarding the location of the national roads.
The main challenge is that these databases only provide bits of the network information. They cannot be used from information system application [6]. Therefore, all the information from these bodies should be integrated into the National roads database. The owner of a fleet who may be willing to form navigation systems or any other system will use the integrated information. It is important to note that the traffic information is dependent on the location. Therefore, for the National Roads data to be useful, it has to be combined with the other databases for it to increase its usefulness.
A good example in transport management system is a truck driver who has to deliver a certain load to given destination. In this case of a driver, there are three types of data that the driver will be given. The first one will be the transportation order which shows the driver where the delivery destination. He will also have the network system, which will avail all the information regarding the roads. Finally, the traffic message will inform the driver that there was an accident on a specific place. These are examples of different databases [11]. The system can be improved by the combination of these different data. To develop this system, the system the transportation order data will be combined with national roads Authority database and the address/traffic information such those alerting of just occurred accident.
There are important deductions that can be made from the above example of the truck driver. The information system infrastructure is formed from different types of structures. A single data cannot be used to make a complete system. There must be the integration of different data from different sources to increase the usability [sic] the system. By so doing, the information system will not be directed to a specific use.
The other application of information system infrastructure is in the operational support and the enterprise systems. For instance, the transaction processing systems are used to support designing, marketing, production, and delivery of products [12]. In the large organizations, the transaction processing is made possible by the integration of large system referred to as enterprise systems. It involves the integration of different functional units into a transaction processing system known as enterprise resource planning. Examples of the functional units are the sales and marketing data, the finance department and the human resource. The combination of these units makes the management easy, which is one of the advantages of the using of information system in a firm. The other feature of these systems is that they support the value chains. It means the whole complex systems through which an organization uses to increase the value of the goods they produce.
The Web is actively used in these systems. For example in the operation of business, the customer may place a custom order over the web. The internet used triggers the just-in-time production of the goods with the specifications of the customer. It is possible through a process known as mass customization in the production process. It involves sending orders from the customer to the warehouse and in some cases to the suppliers thus making the process very effective. On depletion of the raw materials, the suppliers are initiated to bring more materials automatically. Upon the completion of these activities, the accounts details are updated accordingly. The work of the management is reduced, to the only cross checking the documents because the information systems are dependable.
The other common type of processing information system is the Supply Chain Management. It allows the flow of the money, data, products, and the information thought the whole supply chain. The supply chain mainly runs from the suppliers all the way through intermediaries and ends with distributors. A good example is the purchase of a product from a large retail store. The system automatically produces more that cash receipt, but also sends restocking information to the relevant supplier. The deliveries of the supplier are timely and in the appropriate quantities since the supplier can obtain the information about the retailers inventory over the web. In conclusion, processing system infrastructure assists in the reduction of the transactions, and time wasted in the processing systems.
Organization Information Services
The information services of a company could be offered internally or eternally, or the two. An external source of information aids with such goals, namely saving on expenses, access to superior expertise, and focusing on key competencies [13]. An information service is in control of the data of a company through the information systems. In the situation of extensive outsourcing of the services, this unit is of controlled portion and focuses on aligning the system with the competitive business plan and on supervising the services of the outsourcing company. If data is offered in a centralized place, this unit is accountable for the planning, acquiring, managing and maintenance of the information systems for the whole company. On the other hand, in a decentralized structure, the central unit is accountable strictly accountable for strategizing and maintaining the infrastructure, although the business and administrative analysts oversee the services and the system for their personal units. Various form of intermediate organizational types is conceivable.
In several companies, it is either the Chief Information Officer of the Chief Technology Officer who is in charge of the information systems[14]. The roles of the information services are often overseen by a steering committee composed of executives who represent the different operational units of the company. Steering committees establish the priorities for the growth of the forthcoming systems. In a company where the information systems have a keep obligation, the boards of the director are required to take part in their control. As will be seen later, the key obligations of the infrastructural information unit are to ascertain a service which is not interrupted and also the integrity of the systems and data in the circumstances of the various security threats.
Impacts of the Information System Infrastructure
The key capabilities of the companies have been enabled and boosted by the means of the information systems infrastructure. The systems offer assistance for the business activities; for decision making of a person and or a group, for modernization via the new product processes progress, and in some situations for the business approach itself (such as Google)[15]. Through the information system infrastructure, there are inventive ways to which organizations relate and compete in alignment to the organization’s structure and the manner in which the place of work are modeled.
Conversely, information systems do not uniformly attribute to higher proceeds for the organizations. The success of an organization is dependent on the expertise that the information systems are applied and their application in being joined with the other relevant resources of the organization. These, for example, are the correlations with the business partners or superior knowledge in the sector of the industry.
Conclusion
Information systems infrastructure has a lot of relevance to the organizational and individual setting. It is through the same that the forms and individuals can make sound decisions in comparison with the other sectors in the same industry. As seen, the information system infrastructure and its framework consist of key networks of telecommunication, databases and data warehouses, software and hardware. Notably, the processes and or procedures is managed by various expertise is the other component of the infrastructure.
With the globalization is the corporate world, a company’s information infrastructure usually comes across the certain control. It is through the information system infrastructures that there are prevalent business activities, and enabling decision making of a person and or a group, for modernization via the new product processes progress. For the proper utilization of the information systems, there has to be existing expertise to implement the logics of the information infrastructure for the success of the organization.
Works Cited
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