IT infrastructure

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A server is a physical component to IT Infrastructure. Wikimedia Foundation Servers-8055 35.jpg
A server is a physical component to IT Infrastructure.

Information technology infrastructure is defined broadly as a set of information technology (IT) components that are the foundation of an IT service; typically physical components (computer and networking hardware and facilities), but also various software and network components. [1] [2]

Contents

According to the ITIL Foundation Course Glossary, IT Infrastructure can also be termed as “All of the hardware, software, networks, facilities, etc., that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control or support IT services. The term IT infrastructure includes all of the Information Technology but not the associated People, Processes and documentation.” [3]

Overview

In IT Infrastructure, the above technological components contribute to and drive business functions. Leaders and managers within the IT field are responsible for ensuring that both the physical hardware and software networks and resources are working optimally. IT infrastructure can be looked at as the foundation of an organization's technology systems, thereby playing an integral part in driving its success. [4] All organizations who rely on technology to do their business can benefit from having a robust, interconnected IT Infrastructure. With the current speed that technology changes and the competitive nature of businesses, IT leaders have to ensure that their IT Infrastructure is designed such that changes can be made quickly and without impacting the business continuity. [5] While traditionally companies used to typically rely on physical data centers or colocation facilities to support their IT Infrastructure, cloud hosting has become more popular as it is easier to manage and scale. IT Infrastructure can be managed by the company itself or it can be outsourced to another company that has consulting expertise to develop robust infrastructures for an organization. [6] With advances in online outreach availability, it has become easier for end users to access technology. As a result, IT infrastructures have become more complex and therefore, it is harder for managers to oversee the end to end operations. In order to mitigate this issue, strong IT Infrastructures require employees with varying skill sets. The fields of IT management and IT service management rely on IT infrastructure, and the ITIL framework was developed as a set of best practices with regard to IT infrastructure. The ITIL framework assists companies with the ability to be responsive to technological market demands. Technology can often be thought of as an innovative product which can incur high production costs. However, the ITIL framework helps address these issues and allows the company to be more cost effective which helps IT managers to keep the IT Infrastructure functioning. [7]

Background

Even though the IT infrastructure has been around for over 60 years, there have been incredible advances in technology in the past 15 years. [8]

Components of IT infrastructure

Network switch Cisco Catalyst 2950 network switches in situ - IMG 1076.jpg
Network switch

The primary components of an IT Infrastructure are the physical systems such as hardware, storage, any kind of routers/switches and the building itself but also networks and software . [9] In addition to these components, there is the need for “IT Infrastructure Security”. Security keeps the network and its devices safe in order to maintain the integrity within the overall infrastructure of the organization. [10]

Specifically, the first three layers are directly involved with IT Infrastructure. The physical layer serves as the fundamental layer for hardware. The second and third layers (Data Link and Network), are essential for communication to and from hardware devices. Without this, networking is not possible. Therefore, in a sense, the internet itself would not be possible. [11] It's important to emphasize that fiber optics play a crucial role in a network infrastructure. Fiber optics [12] serve as the primary means for connecting network equipment and establishing connections between buildings.

IT Infrastructure types

Starlink Starlink Mission (47926144123).jpg
Starlink

Different types of technological tasks may require a tailored approach to the infrastructure. These can be achieved through a traditional, cloud or hyper converged IT Infrastructure. [13]

Infrastructure Management segregated into three categories

Systems Management: Any critical and important activities within the IT Infrastructure environment entail this system management. Day-to-day operations and functions such as workload automation, security issues, log management, and event will include in this category.

Storage Management: Ensuring that the storage space is well utilized as well as the data within the system is compressed, well stored, and secured is done in storage management. This ultimately improves the productivity and efficiency of the system.

Network Management: It includes all the activities surrounding the networks and their security. Ensuring quality services and proper resource allocation within the network would prevent any data breaches.

Skills

There are many functioning parts that go into the health of an IT infrastructure. In order to contribute positively to the organization, employees can acquire abilities to benefit the company. These include key technical abilities such as cloud, network, and data administration skills and soft abilities such as collaboration and communication skills. [14] [15]

Future

As data storage and management becomes more digitized, IT Infrastructure is moving towards the cloud. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provides the ability to host on a server and is a platform for cloud computing. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from conventional high-performance computing systems such as cluster computing in that grid computers have each node set to perform a different task/application. Grid computers also tend to be more heterogeneous and geographically dispersed than cluster computers. Although a single grid can be dedicated to a particular application, commonly a grid is used for a variety of purposes. Grids are often constructed with general-purpose grid middleware software libraries. Grid sizes can be quite large.

In software engineering, the terms frontend and backend refer to the separation of concerns between the presentation layer (frontend), and the data access layer (backend) of a piece of software, or the physical infrastructure or hardware. In the client–server model, the client is usually considered the frontend and the server is usually considered the backend, even when some presentation work is actually done on the server itself.

IT disaster recovery is the process of maintaining or reestablishing vital infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster, such as a storm or battle. It employs policies, tools, and procedures. Disaster recovery focuses on information technology (IT) or technology systems supporting critical business functions as opposed to business continuity. This involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events; it can therefore be considered a subset of business continuity. Disaster recovery assumes that the primary site is not immediately recoverable and restores data and services to a secondary site.

NetApp, Inc. is an intelligent data infrastructure company that provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations (CloudOps) solutions to enterprise customers. The company is based in San Jose, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 from 2012 to 2021. Founded in 1992 with an initial public offering in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data services for management of applications and data both online and physically.

A configuration management database (CMDB) is an ITIL term for a database used by an organization to store information about hardware and software assets. It is useful to break down configuration items into logical layers. This database acts as a data warehouse for the organization and also stores information regarding the relationships among its assets. The CMDB provides a means of understanding the organization's critical assets and their relationships, such as information systems, upstream sources or dependencies of assets, and the downstream targets of assets.

Capacity management's goal is to ensure that information technology resources are sufficient to meet upcoming business requirements cost-effectively. One common interpretation of capacity management is described in the ITIL framework. ITIL version 3 views capacity management as comprising three sub-processes: business capacity management, service capacity management, and component capacity management.

Desktop virtualization is a software technology that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical client device that is used to access it.

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In computing, virtualization or virtualisation in British English is the act of creating a virtual version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, storage devices, and computer network resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud computing</span> Form of shared internet-based computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and typically uses a pay-as-you-go model, which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Converged infrastructure</span> Way of structuring an IT system

Converged infrastructure is a way of structuring an information technology (IT) system which groups multiple components into a single optimized computing package. Components of a converged infrastructure may include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.

Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud computing architecture</span> Overview about the cloud computing architecture

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Software-defined storage (SDS) is a marketing term for computer data storage software for policy-based provisioning and management of data storage independent of the underlying hardware. Software-defined storage typically includes a form of storage virtualization to separate the storage hardware from the software that manages it. The software enabling a software-defined storage environment may also provide policy management for features such as data deduplication, replication, thin provisioning, snapshots and backup.

Network functions virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept that leverages IT virtualization technologies to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create and deliver communication services.

Software-defined data center is a marketing term that extends virtualization concepts such as abstraction, pooling, and automation to all data center resources and services to achieve IT as a service (ITaaS). In a software-defined data center, "all elements of the infrastructure — networking, storage, CPU and security – are virtualized and delivered as a service."

In computer networking, a bare-metal server is a physical computer server that is used by one consumer, or tenant, only. Each server offered for rental is a distinct physical piece of hardware that is a functional server on its own. They are not virtual servers running in multiple pieces of shared hardware.

The industrial internet of things (IIoT) refers to interconnected sensors, instruments, and other devices networked together with computers' industrial applications, including manufacturing and energy management. This connectivity allows for data collection, exchange, and analysis, potentially facilitating improvements in productivity and efficiency as well as other economic benefits. The IIoT is an evolution of a distributed control system (DCS) that allows for a higher degree of automation by using cloud computing to refine and optimize the process controls.

Data center management is the collection of tasks performed by those responsible for managing ongoing operation of a data center. This includes Business service management and planning for the future.

In computer networking, east-west traffic is network traffic among devices within a specific data center. The other direction of traffic flow is north-south traffic, data flowing from or to a system physically residing outside the data center.

References

  1. ↑ techopedia.com: IT Infrastructure Quote: "...IT infrastructure refers to the composite hardware, software, network resources and services required for the existence, operation and management of an enterprise IT environment...", backup
  2. ↑ gartner.com: IT Infrastructure Quote: "...IT infrastructure is the system of hardware, software, facilities and service components that support the delivery of business systems and IT-enabled processes...", backup
  3. ↑ "ITIL® V3 Foundation Course Glossary" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "What is IT Infrastructure?". www.ecpi.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  5. ↑ "Beginner's Guide to IT Infrastructure Management". Smartsheet. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  6. ↑ "What is infrastructure (IT infrastructure)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". SearchDataCenter. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  7. ↑ "What is ITIL 4? ITIL 4 Framework & Processes Explained". BMC Blogs. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  8. ↑ Hardware, Marco Ceppi 2018-03-29T10:30:38 87Z. "The evolution of IT infrastructure – from mainframe to server-less". ITProPortal. Retrieved 2019-11-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ "What is IT Infrastructure?". www.ecpi.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  10. ↑ "What is infrastructure (IT infrastructure)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". SearchDataCenter. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  11. ↑ "What is the OSI Model?".
  12. ↑ Barbut, Cornel (June 2018). "Fiber Optic Deployments in Romania between Metropolitan Fiber Optic Networks and Indoor Fiber Optic Infrastructure". 2018 10th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI). IEEE. pp. 1–3. doi:10.1109/ECAI.2018.8679021. ISBN   978-1-5386-4901-5.
  13. ↑ "What is IT infrastructure?". www.redhat.com. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  14. ↑ "10 IT Infrastructure Skills You Should Master". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  15. ↑ "What is IT Infrastructure?". www.ecpi.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-28.
  16. ↑ "What is infrastructure (IT infrastructure)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". SearchDataCenter. Retrieved 2019-11-28.

Sources

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