ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors introduce prevalent information technology (IT) concepts and a common framework for professionals who design and manage IT infrastructure in radiation oncology clinics. The infrastructure that supports information and computing solutions in radiation oncology clinics relies on personnel expertise and cutting-edge technology research. Technological proficiency with operating systems, interoperability, licensing costs, training, and application dependencies are all important components to review while planning the IT systems and their applications. The most popular server operating systems are Linux, Windows, and UNIX-based servers. Data centers provide stable facilities for housing servers and key interconnects in networking backbones. Networking servers, firewalls, database servers, file storage servers, and computational performance present different needs, and require prioritizing certain components and limiting the number of channels for certain devices. Servers provide stability, consistency, efficiency, and other infrastructure components to protect the system by ensuring appropriate accessibility for end users.
