Definition of Computer Environment

When we speak of the "environment" in computer applications, we refer to a whole, but a whole made up of several parts that we can enumerate and define.

A computing environment consists of the combination of hardware Y software to undertake a task or series of tasks.

Although the expression It can be applied to any situation and users (both domestic and corporate), the most common is that we refer to a computer environment linked to a company or a institution, such as a government agency or an NGO, for example.

The ultimate mission of the environment is to facilitate daily work or the performance of specific tasks in a given period of time, by which thing the components must be compatible and satisfy the requirements and needs of the project / organization to which serving.

For example, it will not do us any good to have very powerful servers and competent workstations, if later it turns out that the operating system that we choose is not compatible with that hardware, that the chosen peripherals cannot be connected, and that the software cannot run. That we can't work, well.

In section hardware we must take into account both servers and workstations (workstations), the local network, and peripherals of all kinds.

In professional environments in companies, for example, copy units of safety (backup), the switches and access points necessary to provide service to all the computers that we connect, or the printers.

Keep in mind that not necessarily all hardware is compatible with all the rest; we have differences in bus, connector, or architecture that can prevent interconnection.

The operating system must respond to the operational needs of the environment and its users.

It is not the same to plan the environment of a supercomputing center for scientific projects, than that of a software creation company, or that of managing a chain of centers of video game.

And, more than operating system, we should speak of operating systems, in the plural, since in the same environment several different ones can - and often must - coexist.

This is the case of environments in which, and for example, we find UNIX / Linux servers with workstations. Windows work for most workers, and some Apple macOS workstation for the department from graphic design, for example.

Proprietary or specific platforms would also come into play here. For example, the computing environment of a nuclear power plant will likely include computers equipped with QNX, a highly professional real-time operating system, or some other platform Similary.

Finally, the software It is the last expression of a computing platform, but also the most important, since it allows users to develop their task.

Saying software must meet the needs of the work to be performed by users, in addition to being compatible, for obvious reasons, with the hardware and the chosen operating systems.

There is no single profile from software For a computing environment, these are not limited in number; the combination of programs chosen will end up forming a tool to solve daily jobs.

In recent years, those responsible for planning work environments have had to start to consider BYOD.

Bring your own device (bring your device), which does not respond to a philosophy concrete (although a posteriori it has ended up deriving, precisely, in it), and that consists in that they are the workers themselves who use particular devices of their property for work job.

This has grown as the penetration of mobile telephony increased, and not only with the smartphones; The workers do not want to carry two phones, but neither do they want to go from the private laptop to another of the company, and the same with the tablet.

This entails security problems, since the particular use of devices that are also used for work, makes them more vulnerable to entering undesirable web pages and installing questionable applications source.

That is why, in trend, BYOD has become a kind of "philosophy" at work, and many companies have integrated administrative, control and security tools to facilitate the use of these particular devices in networks corporate.

Photo: Fotolia - Julien Eichinger

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