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Infrastructure:

To information technology users, infrastructure is everything that supports the flow and

processing of information. Infrastructure is a collection of physical or virtual resources that

supports an overall IT environment: server, storage and network components.An IT

infrastructure provides a means of moving data from one place to another and acting upon it. The

scale of the move ranges from locally -- from a storage device to a server for use or changes

prior to returning to storage -- to client/server -- a user at an access device (PC, tablet,

smartphone) pulling data from a central location. Infrastructure may be centered within a data

center, with connections to users in different environments using intelligent or dumb access

devices. Some vendors provide pre-engineered blocks of compute, storage and network

equipment (converged infrastructure) that optimize the IT hardware and virtualization platform

into a single system that can be easily interconnected to other systems. Infrastructure also may be

spread across a mix of data centers controlled by the organization or other entities such as

colocation facilities or hosting/cloud companies. Cloud computing promises a flexible IT

infrastructure, where resources can be applied and removed dynamically to workloads as

required across a broad collection of individual platforms. End-to-end infrastructure also may

include mobile wide area networks (WAN) and other IT components. Internet infrastructure

includes transmission media, including network cables, satellites and antennas, and routers,

aggregators, repeaters, and other devices that control transmission paths. Technology

infrastructure generally does not include the operating systems or software stack above the

hardware. However, where public WANs or public cloud are used, such transport mechanisms,

along with platform or software as a service, may be part of the overall definition of

infrastructure. Infrastructure must provide a suitable platform for all the necessary IT

applications and functions for an organization or individual. Viewing IT infrastructure as a single

entity makes for more effectiveness and efficiencies: Resources can be optimized for different

workloads, and the impact of any changes on interrelated resources is more readily understood

and handled. For example, the infrastructure manager may solve a CPU-constrained workload by

increasing its server resources, but causes the workload to become I/O-constrained. A full

infrastructure management scheme helps curb this domino effect. The meaning of infrastructure

is expanding all the time. The Internet of Things means that more devices are connecting to the

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main infrastructure. On the whole, it is better to regard monitoring and measurement devices and

other point-specific items as being outside of the IT infrastructure proper. Data center

infrastructure refers to the power, cooling and building elements that create an environment for

the technology infrastructure.

Architecture:

His profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions

and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes

design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the

examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings. Design, the way components fit

together. The term is used particularly of processors, both individual and in general. "The ARM

has a really clean architecture". It may also be used of any complex system, e.g. "software

architecture", "network architecture In information technology, especially computers and more

recently networks, architecture is a term applied to both the process and the outcome of thinking

out and specifying the overall structure, logical components, and the logical interrelationships of

a computer, its operating system, a network, or other conception. An architecture can be

a reference model, such as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, intended as

a model for specific product architectures or it can be a specific product architecture, such as that

for an Intel Pentium microprocessor or for IBM's OS/390 operating system. Computer

architecture can be divided into five fundamental components: input/output, storage,

communication, control, and processing. In practice, each of these components (sometimes

called subsystems) is sometimes said to have architecture, so, as usual, context contributes to

usage and meaning. By comparison, the term design connotes thinking that has less scope than

architecture. Architecture is a design, but most designs are not architectures. A

single component or a new function has a design that has to fit within the overall architecture. A

similar term, framework, can be thought of as the structural part of an architecture.

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Mobile E-Commerce (M-Commerce):

DEFINITION of 'Mobile Commerce':

The use of wireless handheld devices such as cellular phones and laptops to conduct commercial

transactions online. Mobile commerce transactions continue to grow, and the term includes the

purchase and sale of a wide range of goods and services, online banking, bill payment,

information delivery and so on. Also known as m-commerce.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'Mobile Commerce:

The range of devices that are enabled for mobile commerce is growing, having expanded in

recent years to include smartphones and tablet computers. The increasing adoption of electronic

commerce provided a strong foundation for mobile commerce, which is on a very strong growth

trajectory for years to come. The rapid growth of mobile commerce is being driven by a number

of positive factors - the demand for applications from an increasingly mobile customer and

consumer base; the rapid adoption of online commerce thanks to the resolution of security issues;

and technological advances that have given wireless handheld devices advanced capabilities and

substantial computing power.

What Is Ecommerce?

Transacting or facilitating business on the Internet is called ecommerce. Ecommerce is short for

"electronic commerce. Revolve around buying and selling online. But the ecommerce universe

contains other types of activities as well. Any form of business transaction conducted

electronically is ecommerce.

Examples of Ecommerce:

Online Shopping:

Buying and selling goods on the Internet is one of the most popular examples of ecommerce.

Sellers create storefronts that are the online equivalents of retail outlets. Buyers browse and

purchase products with mouse clicks. Though Amazon.com is not the pioneer of online

shopping, it is arguably the most famous online shopping destination.

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Electronic Payments:

When you are buying goods online, there needs to be a mechanism to pay online too. That is

where payment processors and payment gateways come into the picture.Electronic payments

reduce the inefficiency associated with writing and mailing checks. It also does away with many

of the safety issues that arise due to payment made in currency notes.

Online Auctions:

When you think online auction, you think eBay. Physical auctions predate online auctions, but

the Internet made auctions accessible to a large number of buyers and sellers. Online auctions are

an efficient mechanism for price discovery. Many buyers find the auction shopping mechanism

much interesting than regular storefront shopping.

Internet Banking:

Today it is possible for you to perform the entire gamut of banking operations without visiting a

physical bank branch. Interfacing of websites with bank accounts, and by extension credit cards,

was the biggest driver of ecommerce.

Online Ticketing:

Air tickets, movie tickets, train tickets, play tickets, tickets to sporting events, and just about any

kind of tickets can be booked online. Online ticketing does away with the need to queue up at

ticket counters.

Types of Ecommerce:

Ecommerce can be classified based on the type of participants in the transaction:

Business to Business (B2B):

B2B ecommerce transactions are those where both the transacting parties are businesses, e.g.,

manufacturers, traders, retailers and the like.

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Business to Consumer (B2C):

When businesses sell electronically to end-consumers, it is called B2C ecommerce.

Consumer to Consumer (C2C):

Some of the earliest transactions in the global economic system involved barter -- a type

of C2C transaction. But C2C transactions were virtually non-existent in recent times

until the advent of ecommerce. Auction sites are a good example of C2C ecommerce.

Benefits of Ecommerce:

The primary benefits of ecommerce revolve around the fact that it eliminates limitations of time

and geographical distance. In the process, ecommerce usually streamlines operations and lowers

costs.

Specialized Forms of Ecommerce:

On some platforms, ecommerce has shown the promise of explosive growth. Two such examples

are:

M commerce:

M commerce is short for "mobile commerce." The rapid penetration of mobile devices with

Internet access has opened new avenues of ecommerce for retailers.

F commerce:

F commerce is short for "Facebook commerce." The immense popularity of Facebook provides a

captive audience to transact business.

What is a computer-based information system?

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A computer-based information system, or CBIS, uses computers to collect, process, store,

analyze and distribute information for a specific purpose, such as meeting a business objective.

The main components of a CBIS include hardware, software, data, procedures and people. In a

CBIS, the hardware is the physical machinery, such as a computer, printer, display screen and

cables. The hardware devices work together to accept data, or raw facts, as input before

processing the data into useful information and then displaying the information as output.

Software refers to computer programs that provide instructions for processing the data. The

procedures are what people perform when working with a CBIS to process data and produce

information. Traditionally, a business uses four types of computer-based information systems.

The one used by the most people in the business is a transaction processing system, which

processes events or activities that affect the entire organization, such as customer orders. A

management information system provides information to managers so that they can plan and run

the business. Managers also use decision support systems when making major decisions that

affect the entire business. Senior executives use a special type of decision support system known

as an executive information system, which provides an overview of the entire business.

Element of computer-based information system:

A computer-based information system (CBIS) is an information system in which the computer

plays a major role. Such a system consists of the following elements:

Hardware:

The term hardware refers to machinery. This category includes the computer itself, which is

often referred to as the central processing unit (CPU), and all of its support equipment's. Among

the support equipment's are input and output devices, storage devices and communications

devices.

Software:

The term software refers to computer programs and the manuals (if any) that support them.

Computer programs are machine-readable instructions that direct the circuitry within the

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hardware parts of the CBIS to function in ways that produce useful information from data.

Programs are generally stored on some input / output medium-often a disk or tape.

Data:

Data are facts that are used by program to produce useful information. Like programs, data are

generally stored in machine-readable from on disk or tape until the computer needs them.

Procedures:

Procedures are the policies that govern the operation of a computer system. "Procedures are to

people what software is to hardware" is a common analogy that is used to illustrate the role of

procedures in a CBIS.

People:

Every CBIS needs people if it is to be useful. Often the most over-looked element of the CBIS is

the people: probably the components that most influence the success or failure of information

system.

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References:

http://www.ask.com/technology/computer-based-information-system-

2b71b55a1d045af

http://ecommerce.about.com/od/eCommerce-Basics/f/What-Is-

Ecommerce.htm

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mobile-commerce.asp

http://www.archdaily.com/425761/what-is-architecture-steven-holl-describes-it-

in-four-words/

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/architecture

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/infrastructure

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