Page 226 -

Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 225

The resulting software applications are called mashups. The idea is to take
different sources and produce a new work that is “greater than” the sum of its
parts. You have performed a mashup if you’ve ever personalized your Facebook
profile or your blog with a capability to display videos or slide shows.
Web mashups combine the capabilities of two or more online applications
to create a kind of hybrid that provides more customer value than the original
sources alone. For instance, ZipRealty uses Google Maps and data provided by
online real estate database Zillow.com to display a complete list of multiple
listing service (MLS) real estate listings for any zip code specified by the user.
Amazon uses mashup technologies to aggregate product descriptions with
partner sites and user profiles.
Apps are small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer,
or on your mobile phone or tablet and are generally delivered over the Internet.
Google refers to its online services as apps, including the Google Apps suite of
desktop productivity tools. But when we talk about apps today, most of the
attention goes to the apps that have been developed for the mobile digital
platform. It is these apps that turn smartphones and other mobile handheld
devices into general-purpose computing tools.
An estimated 1 billion people used apps in 2012 worldwide, with about 200
million in the United States (eMarketer, 2012). By 2012, over 32 billion apps had
been downloaded. Many are free or purchased for a small charge, much less
than conventional software. There are already over 700,000 apps for the Apple
iPhone and iPad platform and a similar number that run on devices using
Google’s Android operating system. The success of these mobile platforms
depends in large part on the quantity and quality of the apps they provide.
Apps tie the customer to a specific hardware platform: As the user adds more
and more apps to his or her mobile phone, the cost of switching to a competing
mobile platform rises.
Some downloaded apps do not access the Web but many do, providing faster
access to Web content than traditional Web browsers. At the moment, the most
commonly downloaded apps are games, news and weather, maps/navigation,
social networking, music, and video/movies. But there are also serious apps for
business users that make it possible to create and edit documents, connect to
corporate systems, schedule and participate in meetings, track shipments, and
dictate voice messages (see the Chapter 1 Interactive Session on Management).
There are also a huge number of e-commerce apps for researching and buying
goods and services online.

5.5 MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Creating and managing a coherent IT infrastructure raises multiple challenges:
dealing with platform and technology change (including cloud and mobile
computing), management and governance, and making wise infrastructure
investments.

DEALING WITH PLATFORM AND INFRASTRUCTURE
CHANGE

As firms grow, they often quickly outgrow their infrastructure. As firms
shrink, they can get stuck with excessive infrastructure purchased in better
times. How can a firm remain flexible when most of the investments in IT

MIS_13_Ch_05_Global.indd 225 1/17/2013 3:04:29 PM