Components and Infrastructure of Information Systems

Information System (IS) is a combination of hardware, software, infrastructure and trained personnel organized to facilitate planning, control, coordination, and decision making in an organization (“Information System,” n.d.) By this definition the major components that make up IS are Information Technology (IT) that includes hardware and software, data/information, procedures/policies, people and communication networks. The components encompass the elements of Business Architecture, IT Architecture and Information Infrastructure. Business Architecture is the graphical representation of a business model, showing the network through which authority, information and work flows. Business Architecture serves as a blueprint of a firm’s business structure and clarifies how the firms activities and polices will affect it defined objectives (“Business Architecture”, n.d). IT Architecture is the blueprint that a blueprint that is developed, implemented, maintained and used to explain and guide how an organization’s IT and information management elements work together to efficiently accomplish the mission of the organization. IT infrastructure consists of the equipment, systems, software, and services used in common across an organization, regardless of mission/program/project. IT Architecture also, addresses business activities and processes, data sets and information flows, application and software, and technology (“IT Infrastructure,” 2004). Information Architecture is a set of rules that determine, what, how and where information will be collected, store, processed, transmitted, presented and used (“Information Architecture,” n.d.). An example of this would be how the content of a website is setup and is viewed by users to help them with navigation and search functions of the web page. The relationship of the three are closely intertwined any discussion on business architecture should include the other two to address how the business artifacts relate to

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