Enterprise Wide Computing

Enterprise Portal
Definition Also known as an Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) or Corporate Portal , it is a framework for integrating information, people and processes across organizational boundaries. It provides a secure unified access point, often in the form of a web-based user interface, and is designed to aggregate and personalize information through application-specific portlets. One hallmark of enterprise portals is the de-centralized content contribution and content management, which keeps the information always updated. Employee portals can be described as a specific set of enterprise portals and are used to give an interface for employees to personalized information, resources, applications, and e-commerce options. How they started Enterprise portals started with and evolved from public web portals. Examples are yahoo.com and gmail.com. These sites provided a key set of features (e.g., news, e-mail, weather, stock quotes, and search) presented in self-contained boxes or portlets. Companies wanted similar web pages in their websites where employees and others could log in and then navigate to their desired information. Software packages became available for this purpose. Using these software packages enterprises could quickly develop and deploy their own customized enterprise portal. Some application server vendors such as BEA, IBM, Passageways, Oracle Corporation and Sun Microsystems became vendors for web portals. Java-based enterprise portals Used a standard known as JSR-168. It eases interoperability between enterprise portals and portlets.

Key Features
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Single Sign-On this requires a user to authenticate only once. Integration of info from multiple systems into new components/portlets/web parts, and also integrated navigation between these components Federation the integration of content provided by other portals Customization Users can customize the look and feel of their environment, and also choose the specific content and services they prefer. Personalization Personalization is more about automatically matching content with the user. (Using rules based on a user profile) Access Control For only company employees or suppliers Enterprise Search search enterprise content using enterprise search

Networks Types in Enterprise Wide Computing In networking, the term enterprise refers to an entire organization, including its local and remote offices, a mixture of computer systems, and a number of departments. Enterprise-wide computing must therefore take into account the breadth and diversity of a large organization s computer needs. Enterprise-wide networks require more interconnection devices and more reliable routes than simple LAN network can provide. An enterprise-wide network may include or form part of a WAN, but an enterprise-wide network connects only one organization s resources. A WAN (for example, the Internet) may connect resources from many different organizations. As with LAN topologies, a number of variations on the basic enterprise-wide topologies exist. This section describes some popular methods of arranging these larger networks.

Backbone Networks A network backbone is the cabling that connects the hubs, switches, and routers on a network. Backbones usually are capable of more throughput than the cabling that connects workstations to hubs. This added capacity is necessary because backbones carry more traffic than any other cabling in the network. Serial Backbone A serial backbone is the simplest kind of backbone network. It consists of two or more hubs connected to each other by a single cable. Although the serial backbone topology could be used for enterprise-wide networks, it is rarely implemented for that purpose. Distributed Backbone A distributed backbone consists of a number of hubs connected to a series of central hubs or routers in a hierarchy. This kind of topology allows for simple expansion and limited capital outlay for growth, because more layers of hubs can be added to existing layers. A distributed backbone also provides network administrators with the ability to segregate workgroups and therefore manage them more easily. It adapts well to an enterprise-wide network confined to a single building, where layers of hubs can be assigned according to the floor or department. Collapsed Backbone The collapsed backbone topology uses a router or switch as the single central connection point for multiple subnetworks. In a collapsed backbone, a single router or switch that makes up the collapsed backbone must contain multiprocessors to handle the heavy traffic going through it. The dangers of using this arrangement relate to the fact that a failure in the central router or switch can bring down the entire network. In addition, because routers cannot move traffic as quickly as hubs, using a router may slow data transmission.

Parallel Backbone A parallel backbone is the most robust enterprise-wide topology. This variation of the collapsed backbone arrangement consists of more than one connection from the central router or switch by more than one cable. The most significant advantage of using a parallel backbone is that its redundant links ensure network connectivity to any area of the enterprise. Parallel backbones are more expensive than other enterprise-wide topologies because they require much more cabling than the others. However, they make up for the additional cost by offering increased performance.

Mesh Networks In a mesh network, routers are interconnected with other routers, with at least two pathways connecting each router. The mesh network is more complex than the backbone networks. In fact, it typically contains several different backbone networks. Indeed, the term "mesh network" is a general topology term that can apply to many different arrangements of workgroups and interconnection devices.

Enterprise Wide Computing

Enterprise 2.0

Problems in today s organizations: y y y How to work across globe different time zones, cultures? How to work across physically disconnected teams How to work with unknown people?

To overcome these problems, teams today use social media and interactive technologies to enable people to work across teams and boundaries like geography, time-zones and in the process, increase productivity. An organization whose employees follow such communication and collaboration strategy is called Enterprise 2.0. How an Enterprise 2.0 works y y y y y y y Boss and team subscribe to news feeds and updates via RSS . People across globe can subscribe Managers use software to assign tasks and deadlines online. Team members communicate and check off tasks online. Monitoring is also done online No training needed for new team members Company maintains a wiki of its own knowledge enhances collaboration Podcasts (audo-visual presentations) are available to all employees Employees use social sites like LinkedIn to better collaborate with suppliers