What Is IT Infrastructure? Definition, Building Blocks, and Management Best Practices

IT infrastructure is defined as the collection of hardware, software, network systems, facilities, and frameworks that enable IT services delivery to different business units and help maintain its digital presence. This article explains the four key components of IT infrastructure, various types of IT infrastructure architectures, and some infrastructure management best practices. 

What Is IT Infrastructure?

IT infrastructure is the collection of hardware, software, network systems, facilities, and frameworks that enable IT services delivery to different business units and help maintain its digital presence.

As the pace of digital transformation accelerates, organizations are paying more attention to their IT infrastructure as one of the mission-critical drivers of a business. The global IT infrastructure market is growing exponentially, increasing by about $270.5 billionOpens a new window between 2020 and 2024. This indicates a strong CAGR of 18%, getting a partial leg-up due to COVID-19 and its implications on IT. 

From small businesses to governments, from independent professionals to entire countries – every organizational unit needs IT infrastructure to operate a digitally connected business. For example, it might be possible to run a Mom and Pop store with zero IT infrastructure, relying entirely on manual and paper processes. However, suppose you modernize the business to any extent (accepting card payments, offering online delivery, participating in ecommerce, sending customers updates via WhatsApp, etc.). In that case, you will need to invest in IT infrastructure. 

Today, a robust IT infrastructure can act as a significant competitive advantage for an organization. According to Wipro’s State of IT Infrastructure Report 2020, 75% of businesses are looking to upgrade the outdated infrastructure to leverage new technologies such as AI, ML, AR/VR, 5G, automation, and blockchain. 16% have IoT-based solutions owned by the IT infrastructure team and not the business unit team. 

As your IT infrastructure becomes more complex with time and new technology adoption, you need sophisticated IT infrastructure management tools to help you keep up. That’s why, for 6% of organizations, AIOps plays a central role in infrastructure management, with more organizations at the pilot stage. 

Another important concept related to IT infrastructure is the notion of in-house vs. managed operations. Small-to-mid-sized businesses (particularly if they are non-digital natives), like a retail chain or a hospitality group), can choose to partner with a third-party provider who can manage the IT infrastructure remotely, with the occasional site visit. Large organizations and digital-native companies typically choose to host and manage their IT operations via in-house teams and owned infrastructure instead of outsourcing. 

But no matter the scale or your strategy for infrastructure management, an organization’s IT infrastructure will necessarily comprise four components.  

Also Read: The Role Tech Infrastructure Will Play in Efficient Vaccine Distribution

Building Blocks of IT Infrastructure

As mentioned in the previous section, a modern organization of any size will rely on four crucial IT building blocks. These can be categorized into further sub-components, as discussed below: 

Building Blocks of IT Infrastructure

1. Hardware

Hardware refers to all the physical parts, components, and equipment that goes into maintaining an organization’s IT infrastructure. For a micro-business like a Mom and Pop store, this could be a single PC and a printer. Mid-sized businesses could use a set of PCs for their workforce, one or two servers for hosting their ecommerce/business portal, and perhaps an additional security appliance. 

Large organizations have extensive technology systems and large facilities like data centers to house them. When you opt for a managed IT services provider, you can rent the hardware components of your infrastructure instead of purchasing them outright. 

The sub-components of IT hardware include the following: 

• • Standalone servers 
  • Personal computers and workstations, such as laptops and points of sale 
  • Physical router equipment 
  • Headphones, printers, collaboration devices, and other peripherals 
  • Data centers or server rooms 

2. Software

Software is any infrastructure component that requires additional hardware as a host environment. Hardware and software work together to form a holistic IT setup. This includes a single PC that uses a software OS, a suite of productivity apps and security software, a large multi-ecosystem setup with different endpoints. It also includes Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, containerized environments to build applications, and cloud storage hosted on a remote server. 

Software components have increasingly become central to IT operations, replacing a lot of the traditional hardware components. For instance, it is now possible to have software-based network routers, OTT-deployed applications instead of physical drives or CDs, and next-generation firewalls (NGFW) rather than a hardware appliance. 

The sub-components of IT software include: 

• • Operating system (OS) variants and distributions 
  • Third-party apps for productivity, testing, security, etc. 
  • SaaS apps (desktop-based and web-based) and perpetual license software 
  • In-house built software applications, marketplaces, and services 
  • Application building, hosting, and production environments like the cloud or containers 
  • Software-based utilities such as NGFW, routers, ANC software, connectors, APIs, etc. 

3. Network

Technically, this is an optional component of IT infrastructure but has now become a must-have for any modern business environment. Without networking systems, you’d have standalone, local devices without access to public or private internet. The network component powers many other building blocks of IT operations today, including cloud-based processes, SaaS apps, and over-the-air delivery. 

Networks comprise both hardware and software components and the configurations you set up to control and manage network access for various users. Carrier licenses and partnerships with telecom providers can also be considered the networking aspect of IT infrastructure management. 

The sub-components of a network include: 

• • Different types of cables for private and public internet connectivity (CAT 5/6/7, fiber optics, etc.) 
  • Networking appliances like firewalls, routers, and switches 
  • Software components like software-based firewalls, SDN infrastructure, etc. 
  • Application interfaces to configure the network 
  • Application interfaces to manage user access, network security, bandwidth allocation, etc. 
  • Web servers to act as a connecting hub for networked IT activities 

At the end of the day, nearly all infrastructure components can be classified as either hardware or software. But understanding these deeper nuances and technology possibilities can help you achieve a more mature IT landscape. 

Also Read: Why Enterprises Are Shifting to Event-driven Architectures

Types of IT Infrastructure Architectures

An IT infrastructure architecture defines how you design and structure your IT components for better performance, simpler management, scalability, and cost-efficiency. There are several types of IT infrastructure architectures that you could choose from, depending on the size and nature of your organization. The various types of IT infrastructure architectures are listed below.

Common Types of Infrastructure Architectures

1. Traditional infrastructure 

In a traditional architecture design, IT components typically exist on-premises and in silos. The company purchases most IT equipment and software, relying primarily on an in-house team to keep the engines running. Different locations may have different IT teams heading them, and systems across business units, offices, and regions exist in silos. You will find this type of IT infrastructure architecture in small-to-mid-sized, non-digital native organizations. 

2. Converged architecture

This type of IT infrastructure architecture seeks to address the fragmentation found in traditional infrastructure. It groups related IT components into a single, optimized hub and sets up connected workflows for centralized visibility. Available resources are grouped into “resource pools” shared by different applications and processes depending on priority and business policies. The cloud has further enabled converged IT infrastructure architectures, making it easier to consolidate, centralize, and disburse resources. 

3. Composable disaggregated infrastructure

This is a sub-type of converged architecture but uses on-premise IT components. It is an emerging technology that allows physical data centers to behave like a virtual server so that resources can be allocated on-demand. Composable disaggregated infrastructure is powered by high-speed, low-latency networks that allow for speedy resource allocation and minimal downtimes. This type of IT infrastructure architecture is an emerging alternative for large, digital-native enterprises. 

4. Hyper-converged infrastructure 

Like a converged IT infrastructure architecture, hyper-converged infrastructure breaks down silos and enables centralized management – but it uses software components hosted on a hypervisor to achieve this. Its key components include software-defined storage, software-defined networking, and, of course, the hypervisor, enabling resource federation across processes. This type of IT infrastructure architecture usually operates using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers.

5. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Valued at just $31.61 billionOpens a new window in 2019, IaaS is expected to cross $202 billion by 2027, in line with the trend of moving away from hardware-heavy IT infrastructure architectures. IaaS uses online services to replace physical computing resources and components, running either on a public cloud or private hypervisors/virtual machines. It is similar to hyper-converged infrastructures, but the IT services are provided and maintained entirely by a third party as per an aaS, subscription-based licensing model. 

6. Infrastructure as code

This is a specific IT infrastructure management approach that lets you maintain and maneuver the architecture using software applications or lines of code instead of physical hardware configurations or UI settings. Infrastructure as a code applies to both hardware and software IT components, with strategically deployed code helping to monitor processes, provision resources, enforce security, and perform other activities. 

7. Cloud-based architecture

The cloud is rapidly becoming the default environment for hosting IT infrastructure components, with the option of migrating fully to a public cloud, dividing processes between on-premise and cloud environments, having your own private cloud, or implementing managed cloud services. Today, most organizations choose the hybrid cloud route, where there is a mix of on-premise and cloud resources and the co-existence of private and multiple cloud vendors. 

Some of the key types of cloud-based IT infrastructure architecture are: 

• • 100% public cloud using AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or any other public provider 
  • 100% private cloud, with applications, data, and processes hosted off-premise in remote servers 
  • Managed cloud, where an external IT partner manages the private/public/hybrid cloud 
  • Multi-cloud using a combination of multiple public cloud vendors 
  • Hybrid cloud, where public, private, and on-premise systems coexist 

The cloud is central to several tenets of IT architecture design – for example, it enables IaaS deployment and can simplify converged architectures. 

These IT infrastructure architectures vary in terms of the costs and efforts required and their functional capabilities. Typically, on-premise systems are more popular among mid-sized to large enterprises that can manage them in-house and invest in their growing maturity without a lot of external support. 

The cloud is popular among enterprises of every size, thanks to its incredible scalability from the smallest to large, distributed organizations. Converged, hyper-converged, code-enabled, IaaS, and composable disaggregated infrastructure are usually leveraged by digital-native businesses that leverage technology as a key part of their primary market offerings. 

Finally, traditional or primitive architectures are still common among micro and small businesses, which are just starting on their digital transformation journeys. 

Also Read: Why Businesses Need to Rethink Network Architecture and Privacy in 2021

Top 7 IT Infrastructure Management Best Practices for Enterprises in 2021

Given the numerous IT infrastructure components available today, and the various architectures you could choose from, managing the entire landscape can seem like a formidable task. To manage your IT infrastructure effectively and enable uninterrupted digital operations, here are the key best practices to remember. 

IT Infrastructure Management Best Practices 

1. Benchmark your current and projected level of digital maturity 

Your selection of IT infrastructure architecture will depend on your digital dependencies at the moment and the level of maturity you’re looking to achieve over the next few quarters. For example, if you have only two offices in a single region, traditional architecture might suffice. However, if you plan to scale – adding new offices, hiring a remote team, increasing throughput, etc. – you will need cloud-readiness at some point. In that case, it is best to start with a cloud-first vision in place rather than investing in expensive on-premise systems. 

2. Find labor arbitrage opportunities through managed IT services 

Managed services providers could dramatically transform your IT infrastructure management capabilities without adding to your labor costs or efforts. This is due to two reasons – first, the resources are shared across organizations, lowering the cost footprint for each tenant. Second, they typically leverage best-cost locations to reduce the expenses of hiring highly skilled IT professionals. A managed provider can remotely operate your IT infrastructure and maintain performance as per SLAs, with onsite intervention as necessary. 

3. Explore how AIOps could streamline IT infrastructure management 

As the name suggests, AIOps uses the power of artificial intelligence to monitor and manage IT environments. According to researchOpens a new window , only 6% of organizations have implemented AIOps in a meaningful way, with 94% either not implementing or stuck in limited pilot stages. There is a lot of potential in this space, as AIOps could automate tasks like simple IT ticket resolution, flagging anomalous activity, resource allocation based on application priority, IT log analysis, service provisioning, and more. 

4. Clarify ownership of resources, assets, and processes between the business and IT teams 

As digital technology becomes more intertwined with business processes, the question of ownership is inevitable. For example, information management systems could be owned by IT or by the HR department, which primarily leverages it for HRIS. It is vital to clarify ownership as part of your IT infrastructure management blueprint so that there is a clear line of accountability for issue resolution, performance, extensions, and budget management. You could even set up a center of excellence for specific components to drive collaboration between business and IT. 

5. Outline a cloud-first roadmap 

There are several benefits of migrating to the cloud – not only does it improve resiliency (as demonstrated last year, during the shift to remote work), but it could also reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 40%Opens a new window . The cloud enables ease of access from multiple locations and by off-premise users. It also paves the way for agile development using containers. If you haven’t migrated to the cloud already, this should be a top agenda item for the next few quarters, starting with a hybrid cloud strategy. 

6. Protect your IT supply chain from security vulnerabilities and attacks 

Supply chain attacks are an undeniable reality in today’s connected IT environments, heavily dependent on third-party providers and partners. Vulnerabilities at the time of device manufacturing, firmware setup, shipping, remote software upgrades, etc., can cause gaps in your security posture that are overlooked as they are not built or provisioned in-house. That’s why you need to conduct rigorous security assessments for third-party alliances and regularly audit your IT infrastructure for any gaps. 

7. Invest in backup and disaster recovery infrastructure 

The backup and disaster recovery (BDR) aspect of IT infrastructure management shouldn’t be overlooked because the company is focused only on business operations and performance. A strong BDR plan, backed by IT infrastructure components such as remote storage servers, alternate/backup networks, cloud data backups, and DLP software, can help you tide over unexpected periods of challenge and change. It is vital to protect against natural disasters and acts of God, as well as unforeseeable downtimes, cyberattacks, and workforce-related issues. 

These seven best practices can help you select the best-fit IT infrastructure for your organization, staying within your cost and roadmap estimates while driving performance and value generation. Remember to prioritize scalability when investing in any new IT infrastructure component, as the digital landscape is likely to continue evolving rapidly over time and influence nearly every business operation – from product development to supply chains, from facility management to HR. 

Finally, IT teams must maintain detailed documentation of infrastructure components, upgrades, and processes. This will prevent shadow IT components (i.e., parts of IT infrastructure that are invisible and outside your governance) from cropping up, maintaining security and sustainable growth.

Are you planning to invest in IT infrastructure this year? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you! 

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