BA325 – Chapter 12 – Flashcards
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Firms that adopt software as a service actually buy a system's software and hardware, so these systems become a fixed operating expense.
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false
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With the advent of cloud computing and SaaS, smaller firms no longer have access to the kinds of sophisticated computing power they had access to in the past.
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false
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Products and services designed to target a specific industry are known as _____.
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Vertical niches
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The LAMP stack of open source products is used:
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to power many of the Internet's most popular Web sites.
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The _____ of open source products is used to power many of the Internet's most popular Web sites.
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LAMP stack
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SaaS and the utility computing style efforts differ widely in terms of the benefits and risks they offer.
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false
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Cloud computing is not suited for situations:
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where complex legacy systems have to be ported.
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The software business is extremely profitable compared to the hardware business because:
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the marginal cost to produce an additional copy of a software product is effectively zero.
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Which of the following is true of software as a service (SaaS)?
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It refers to software that is made available by a third-party online.
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Which of the following was considered a contributor to vulnerabilities in the OpenSSL security product, known as the Heartbleed bug:
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Few developers were working on the project, so the ideal that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" wasn't met with OpenSSL.
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Vendors who use open source as part of their product offerings can expect to bring new products to the market faster because:
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they can skip whole segments of the software development process.
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For large enterprises, the cost to license, install, and configure products like ERP and CRM systems are usually a one-time fee running into approximately one million dollars.
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false
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Consumerization of corporate technology stifles employee creativity.
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false
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_____ refers to a form of cloud computing where a firm subscribes to third-party software and receives a service that is delivered online.
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Software as a service
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_____ refers to software that is free and that anyone can look at and potentially modify the code.
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Open source software
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Which of the following is true about cloud computing?
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Cloud firms are often located in warehouse-style buildings designed for computers, not people.
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The marginal cost to produce an additional copy of a software product is effectively zero.
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true
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One of the risks associated with SaaS is the:
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dependence on a single vendor.
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Which of the following statements relating to open source software is true?
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The flagship OSS product is the Linux operating system, now available on all scales of computing devices.
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Which of the following was an outdated notion regarding open source software and has been shown to be inaccurate?
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Open source is fueled on the contributions of loners tooling away for the glory of contributing to better code.
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Some of the largest technology companies now support open source software initiatives.
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true
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Open source software products often have fewer bugs than their commercial counterparts because of the:
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large number of people who have looked at the code.
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SaaS offerings usually work well when the bulk of computing happens at the client end of a distributed system.
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false
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Oracle, a firm that sells commercial ERP and database products, provides Linux for free, selling high-margin Linux support contracts for as much as five hundred thousand dollars. Oracle's motivation for this lies in:
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using open source software to wean customers away from competitors.
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_____ is a cloud computing model in which a service provider makes computing resources such as hardware and storage, along with infrastructure management, available to a customer on an as-needed basis.
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hardware cloud
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Less popular open source products are not likely to attract the community of users and contributors necessary to help improve these products over time. This situation reiterates the belief that _____ are a key to success.
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network effects
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Technology products with particularly strong security features are said to be:
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Hardened
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Just about every type of commercial product has an open source equivalent.
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true
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Conventional software firms treat their intellectual property as closely guarded secrets and almost never provide the source code for their commercial software products.
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true
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Linux is one of the most used operating systems in desktop computers, but can be found only in a tiny fraction of mobile phones, and consumer electronics.
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false
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Scalability allows a firm to scale from start-up to blue chip without having to significantly rewrite its code.
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true
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The cost of producing an additional unit of a product is known as its:
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marginal cost
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Which of the following refers to a variant of utility computing where vendors provide the operating system and supporting software like database management systems but where client firms write their own code?
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Platform as a service
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Migrating from commercial database products to MySQL's open source alternative is relatively easy because:
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they are based on the same standard.
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Firms pay for the otherwise free MySQL software for the right to incorporate MySQL's code into their own products.
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true
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Installing a complex set of an organization's legacy systems on third-party hardware can be a brutal challenge. For that reason we can expect most cloud computing efforts to focus on:
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new software development projects.
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_____ is the flagship open source product.
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linux
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Employees, at their own initiative, can go to SocialText or Google Sites and set up a wiki, WordPress to start blogging, or subscribe to a SaaS offering like SalesForce.com, all without corporate oversight and approval. This _____ of technology is one of the challenges associated with the adoption of SaaS models.
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Consumerization
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_____ is a term used to describe unpredictable, but highly impactful events.
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black swans
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Hardware clouds are pools of computing resources that reside inside an organization and that can be served up for specific tasks as need arises.
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false
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Which of the following is one of the characteristics of using software as a service model?
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scalable systems
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While large groups of individuals work on key OSS projects, such as the Linux operating system, some widely used efforts have had fewer developers, creating concerns over quality and security.
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true
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All of the costs associated with the design, development, testing, implementation, documentation, training and maintenance of a software system are collectively termed as:
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Total cost ownership
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For organizations with high-volume, low-maintenance systems, it makes sense to rent hardware clouds rather than buying their own systems.
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false
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Migrating from a commercial product to MySQL's open source alternative is relatively complex, as most commercial database products are based on diverse standards and the switching costs are rather high.
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false
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Cloud vendors that host hardware, operating system, database, and other software, which clients can then use to build their own applications, are said to be providing:
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Platform as a service
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Vendors frequently sign _____ with their customers to ensure a guaranteed uptime and define their ability to meet demand spikes.
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service level agreements
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Which of the following sets of software represents the constituents of the LAMP stack?
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Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl
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One area where open source software contributions have been virtually non-existent is in tools to support the massive file systems used in so-called Big Data projects.
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false
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One of the drawbacks of open source software is that it cannot be easily migrated to more powerful computers as circumstances dictate.
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false
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Some of the SaaS firms are backed by leading enterprise software executives such as founders of Oracle and Peoplesoft.
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true
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Firms using SaaS products can dramatically lower several costs associated with the care and feeding of their information systems.
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true
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_____ refer to pools of computing resources that reside inside an organization and that can be served up for specific tasks as need arrives.
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private clouds
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Which of the following is one of the benefits enjoyed by SaaS vendors?
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Lower distribution costs
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The scalability of a software product is defined as the:
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ability to be easily expanded to manage workload increases.
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_____ is a language used to create and manipulate databases.
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SQL
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Many SaaS vendors have improved system customization options and integration with standard software packages.
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true
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Which of the following is one of the sources of revenue for open source vendors?
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Selling support and consulting services
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Cloud computing refers to:
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replacing computing resources with services provided over the Internet.
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marginal cost
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the cost of producing one more unit of a good
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open source software (OSS)
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Software that is free and where anyone can look at and potentially modify the code.
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cloud computing
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Replacing computing resources—either an organization's or individual's hardware or software—with services provided over the Internet
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software as a service (SaaS)
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A form of cloud computing where a firm subscribes to a third-party software and receives a service that is delivered online.
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virtualization
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A type of software that allows a single computer (or cluster of connected computers) to function as if it were several different computers, each running its own operating system and software. Virtualization software underpins most cloud computing efforts, and can make computing more efficient, cost-effective, and scalable
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linux
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An open source software operating system.
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n00b
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Written with two zeros, pronounced "newb." Geek-slang (leet speak) derogatory term for an uninformed or unskilled person.
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LAMP
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An acronym standing for (L)inux, the (A)pache Web server software, the (M)ySQL database, and any of several programming languages that start with (P) (e.g., Perl, Python, or PHP).
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security-focused
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Also known as "hardened." Term used to describe technology products that contain particularly strong security features.
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scalability
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Ability to either handle increasing workloads or to be easily expanded to manage workload increases. In a software context, systems that aren't scalable often require significant rewrites or the purchase or development of entirely new systems.
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total cost of ownership (TCO)
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All of the costs associated with the design, development, testing, implementation, documentation, training and maintenance of a software system.
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utility computing
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A form of cloud computing where a firm develops its own software, and then runs it over the Internet on a service provider's computers.
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private clouds
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Pools of computing resources that reside inside an organization and that can be served up for specific tasks as need arrives.
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service level agreement (SLA)
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A negotiated agreement between the customer and the vendor. The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other commitment requirements.
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vertical niches
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Sometimes referred to as vertical markets. Products and services designed to target a specific industry (e.g., pharmaceutical, legal, apparel retail).
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platform as a service (PaaS)
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Where cloud providers offer services that include the hardware, operating system, tools, and hosting (i.e., the platform) that its customers use to build their own applications on the provider's infrastructure. In this scenario the cloud firm usually manages the platform (hosting, hardware, and supporting software), while the client has control over the creation and deployment of their application.
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infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
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Where cloud providers offer services that include running the remote hardware and networking (i.e., the infrastructure), but client firms can choose software used (which may include operating systems, programming languages, databases, and other software packages).
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cloudbursting
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Describes the use of cloud computing to provide excess capacity during periods of spiking demand. Cloudbursting is a scalability solution that is usually provided as an overflow service, kicking in as needed.
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black swans
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Unpredicted, but highly impactful events. Scalable computing resources can help a firm deal with spiking impact from Black Swan events. The phrase entered the managerial lexicon from the 2007 book of the same name by Nassim Taleb.
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server farm
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A massive network of computer servers running software to coordinate their collective use. Server farms provide the infrastructure backbone to SaaS and hardware cloud efforts, as well as many large-scale Internet services.
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virtual desktop
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When a firm runs an instance of a PC's software on another machine and simply delivers the image of what's executing to the remote device. Using virtualization, a single server can run dozens of PCs, simplifying backup, upgrade, security, and administration.
