Business Data Communications &<br>IT Infrastructures

Business Data Communications &
IT Infrastructures

Edition 4.0 | Copyright | Publication Date: October 2024

Manish Agrawal, University of South Florida
Clinton Daniel, University of South Florida
Amy Connolly, James Madison University

Overview


Business Data Communications & IT Infrastructures focuses on a core set of technologies and why they have been designed to work the way they do. An emphasis on the why promotes retention of knowledge, both short and long term. The material provides students with the skills they will need within the first five years of their careers and the insight they will need to continue to advance their knowledge throughout their careers. 

Edition 4.0 has been updated to remain current and advance pedagogical elements.

Features


Prepare students for industry
In developing this textbook, the authors thought through the essential tasks that students will be expected to perform when they enter the technology workforce. Your students will start with the basics and build up the core set of data communications and IT infrastructure knowledge and skills needed to accomplish these tasks competently.

Motivate learning and promote retention by focusing on the "why"
Understanding why technologies work the way they do helps students retain knowledge and creatively apply concepts with the larger goal of efficient and effective resource utilization. The focus on "why" serves as a unifying theme for the textbook.

Contextualize learning with business use cases
Students explore the business use for the technologies in a detailed case at the end of each chapter. Additionally, a threaded enterprise IT infrastructure design case runs throughout the book integrating insights across chapters. 

Speed understanding with analogies
Analogies are regularly employed to further an overarching understanding of concepts and their inter-relationships.

Cement learning with hands-on exercises
Students connect with and retain knowledge based on hands-on exercises in every chapter. Many of these exercises use the networking utilities available on students' personal computers. 

Promote critical thinking
Each chapter includes exercises that challenge students to reflect on the larger implications for society.

 



New in Edition 4.0

 

Present the latest Wireless technologies
A full chapter covers new Wi-Fi technologies including RFID, ultra wideband, NFC and more.

Provide expanded coverage of security
A networks and cybersecurity chapter focus on technologies such as firewalls and viruses. A second chapter examines the managerial controls and frameworks commonly employed.

Explore newer technologies in use today
Examine how computing infrastructures and many of the communication elements have been virtualized and how artificial intelligence is used to dynamically manage large networks.

Up-to-date coverage
Cover new concepts of increasing importance including IoT, smart cities, networks for autonomous vehicles, MultiPath TCP (MTCP), RFID, and more. Facts and examples have been updated throughout the book to keep it current.

About the Authors


Manish Agrawal is a Professor in and former Chair of the School of Information Systems at the University of South Florida, Muma College of Business. He teaches business data communications, information assurance, and applications development. He has been the recipient of the USF university-wide award for teaching excellence.

Dr. Agrawal is an expert in cybersecurity, social media analytics, software quality, offshoring and outsourcing. His research and teaching have been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum and Sun Microsystems. His extensive research has been published in numerous academic journals, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, The INFORMS Journal on Computing, The Journal of Management Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Decision Support Systems and The Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. He earned his Ph.D in Information Systems from the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo in 2001.

Manish Agrawal

Clinton Daniel is an Associate Professor in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department in the Muma College of Business at University of South Florida and Director of the BS in Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics. He teaches courses in Business Data Communications, Business Intelligence, and Systems Analysis & Design and a variety of special topic boot camps.

He is also a Partner with SunCoast Technology Consulting. Previously, Dr. Daniel was with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where he managed a data warehouse and developed business intelligence solutions. He served in the U.S. Army as a combat medic and physical therapist. He earned his Ph.D from University of South Florida in 2018.

Clinton Daniel

Amy Connolly is an Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems and Business Analytics at James Madison University. Her research focuses primarily on two goals: how to develop better IS professionals and the ethical impacts of technology on work. She is active in service to the field and is the 2025-26 President of Information Systems & Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP).

In 2021, Dr. Connolly received the Best Paper award from the Journal of IS Education. In 2019, she was recognized as a Distinguished Member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). She reviews regularly and in 2018 received the Reviewer of the Year award from The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems. She earned her Ph.D in Management Information Systems at University of South Florida in 2014.

Amy Connolly

Instructor Resources


Prospect Press provides instructors with an instructor manual, lecture slides and a test bank for each title. Some texts have additional resources including case teaching notes, tutorials, and addenda.

This content is available to instructors only and is password protected.

Resources Login

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Paperback Orders

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If you have questions about library orders, please contact Beth.Golub@ProspectPressVT.com or call 802-862-4684.

 

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