Operating systems course in a business information systems curriculum

Abstract

Operating systems are traditionally taught from computer science/computer engineering perspective. However, as more and more businesses progressively rely on the availability and scalability of their business information system infrastructures which are in most cases based on client/server architecture, the roles of servers and server operating systems are becoming critical with regard to business applications' availability. It turned out that many businesses in e-business era simply go 'out of business' due to the downtime caused by server operating system crashes. Therefore, operating systems, particularly server operating systems, should be taught in business information systems programs as well, with an emphasis on their business perspective. A framework for designing and delivering an operating system course in a business information systems BIS undergraduate program is presented.