INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure is the foundation or framework that supports a system or organization. In computing, information technology infrastructure is composed of physical and virtual resources that support the flow, storage, processing and analysis of data. Infrastructure may be centralized within a data center, or it may be decentralized and spread across several data centers that are either controlled by the organization or by a third party, such as a collocation facility or cloud provider.

Data center infrastructure often includes the power, cooling and building elements necessary to support data center hardware. The data center hardware infrastructure usually involves servers, storage subsystems, networking devices, like switches, routers and physical cabling and dedicated network appliances, such as network firewalls.

A data center infrastructure also requires careful consideration of IT infrastructure security. This can include physical security for the building, such as electronic key entry, constant video and human surveillance of the premises, carefully controlled access to the server and storage spaces, and so on. This ensures only authorized personnel can access the data center hardware infrastructure and reduces the potential for malicious damage or data theft. However, the way IT infrastructures are created is continually changing. Traditional heterogeneous infrastructure development is a highly manual process that requires enormous integration, optimization and systems management efforts especially when integrating servers, storage, network and other components from diverse vendors.

Importance of IT Infrastructure

If an IT infrastructure is flexible, reliable and secure, it can help an enterprise meet its goals and provide a competitive edge in the market. Alternatively, if an IT infrastructure isn’t properly implemented, businesses can face connectivity, productivity and security issues—like system disruptions and breaches. Overall, having a properly implemented infrastructure can be a factor in whether a business is profitable or not.

With an IT infrastructure, a company can:

• Provide a positive customer experience by providing uninterrupted access to its website and online store.
• Develop and launch solutions to market with speed.
• Collect data in real time to make quick decisions.
• Improve employee productivity.

Types of infrastructure

The two primary types of IT infrastructure are traditional and cloud infrastructure.

Traditional infrastructure

A traditional IT infrastructure is made up of the usual hardware and software components: facilities, data centers, servers, networking hardware desktop computers and enterprise application software solutions. Typically, this infrastructure setup requires more power, physical space and money than other infrastructure types. A traditional infrastructure is typically installed on-premises for company-only, or private, use.

Cloud infrastructure

A cloud computing IT infrastructure is similar to traditional infrastructure. However, end users can access the infrastructure via the internet, with the ability to use computing resources without installing on-premises through virtualization. Virtualization connects physical servers maintained by a service provider at any or many geographical locations. Then, it divides and abstracts resources, like storage, to make them accessible to users almost anywhere an internet connection can be made. Because cloud infrastructure is often public, it’s usually referred to as a public cloud.

An optimal IT infrastructure

IT infrastructure setups vary by business needs and goals, but some goals are universal for every enterprise. The optimal infrastructure will provide a business high- performance storage, a low-latency network, security, an optimized wide area network (WAN), virtualization and zero downtime.

• High-performance storage systems store and back up data and include a data recovery system in case of disasters.
• Low-latency networks use enterprise-level infrastructure components to reduce the delay of data flow.
• Secure infrastructures include systems that control information access and data availability. It can also safeguard a business against breaches and cyberattacks wherever the data resides, maintaining the customers’ trust.
• WANs manage the network by prioritizing traffic and giving certain applications more or less bandwidth as needed.
• Virtualization provides faster server provisioning, increases uptime, improves disaster recovery and saves energy.
• Zero downtime aims to reduce disruptions to business operations and eliminates system downtime to keep costs down and profits up.