Chapter 13 Keywords:

Outsourcing (slide 14): the use of external service providers to effectively deliver IT-enabled business process, application service and infrastructure solutions for business outcomes. Offshoring, outsourcing to firms in other countries. Outsourcing Trends for 2021

Cloud based Outsourcing

Service Level Agreement (SLA): An SLA is a defined performance measure that is specified in the contract. For example, a contract might specify that an outsource vendor must provide a new network port within 24 hours of the initial request. These agreements generally contain penalty clauses in the form of reduced payments. Some internal MIS organizations have mimicked the approach by writing SLAs for basic services. The main benefit to an SLA is that it provides a defined measure of the organization’s capabilities. The drawbacks are that (1) it is difficult to specify all of the detailed SLAs that you might need, and (2) contracts rarely encourage continuous process improvement. (see the section on SLA in cloud-based outsourcing)

Total Cost of Ownership: the purchase price of an asset plus the costs of operation. When choosing among alternatives in a purchasing decision, buyers should look not just at an item's short-term price, which is its purchase price, but also at its long-term price, which is its total cost of ownership. The item with the lower total cost of ownership is the better value in the long run. Doesn't include costs of using the machine such as new software developed for a software company or materials input into a manufacturing process.

Centralization v Decentralization (slide 22): Know advantages and disadvantages. The thin-client or browser-based approach uses a relatively simple computer to run a Web browser that is responsible for displaying data and getting input from the user. This approach recentralizes many of the MIS functions. All of the data and most of the applications reside on centralized servers.

Thin Client: A thin client is a lightweight computer that has been optimized for remoting into a server-based computing environment [such as the cloud]. The server does most of the work, which can include launching software programs, crunching numbers, and storing data. In contrast, a conventional desktop PC (fat client) typically performs the same tasks locally, but can also remote into a server-based environment when needed. Thin client is designed to reduce total cost of ownership.

Replication: Replication is the continuous copying of data changes from one database (publisher) to another database (subscriber). The two databases are generally located on a different physical servers, resulting in a load balancing framework by distributing assorted database queries and providing failover capability. The server for the subscriber database may be configured as a backup in the event of failure of the server for the publisher database. This can involve storing data at multiple locations.