The Networked Enterprise

Introduction

The networking infrastructure in a large enterprise with multiple computer systems and networks of different types is extraordinarily complex. An enormous amount of effort goes into planning the integration of disparate networks and systems and managing them, and, planning again for yet more interfaces as marketing pressures force vendors to develop new techniques that routinely change the ground rules.

We discuss some of the basic terminology and help you to understand the Technical world behind the Networked Enterprise. Here we also focus on the on going global trends in telecommunications and their business value. We also see the role of Internet, intranet and extranet in our global trends in Telecommunications.

Enterprise Networking

The networking infrastructure in a large enterprise with multiple computer systems and networks of different types is extraordinarily complex. Due to the myriad of interfaces that are required, much of what goes on has little to do with the real data processing of the payroll and orders. An enormous amount of effort goes into planning the integration of disparate networks and systems and managing them, and, planning again for yet more interfaces as marketing pressures force vendors to develop new techniques that routinely change the ground rules.

Application Development/Configuration Management

There is a large number of programming languages and development tools for writing today’s applications. Each development system has its own visual programming interface for building GUI front ends and its own fourth- generation language (4GLs) for doing the business logic. Programmers are always learning new languages to meet the next generation.

Traditional programming has given way to programming for graphical user interfaces and object-oriented methods, two technologies with steep learning curves for the traditional programmer.

Programming managers are responsible for maintaining legacy systems in traditional languages while developing new systems in newer languages. They must also find ways to keep track of all the program modules and ancillary files that make up an application when several programmers work on a project. Stand-alone version control and configuration management programs handle this, and parts of these systems are increasingly being built into the development systems themselves (see configuration management).