Every organization, may it be small or large, business or government, is striving to adopt and implement the latest technologies to fulfill their need and that of their customers.

However, the use of technologies also presents them with distinct business challenges. IT infrastructure management is often confused with IT management which involves a broad spectrum of responsibilities.

Rather our concept here implicates the proactive use of data, technology, and effective management and administration of vital operational elements.

Servers, networks, storage, computers, data, physical and virtual facilities along with the cloud-based services, policies, mobile functionalities, software processes, security, staffing, and training are the vital operational elements that come together to form IT infrastructure.

This implies that IT infrastructure management is closely connected to corporate goals, strategies, and operations. Here, in this article, we will understand what is IT infrastructure, its types, who can manage it, IT infrastructure components, as well as best practices.

What Is IT Infrastructure? 

Many organizations house technology resources that would help them increase the value of their business, streamline information collection and reporting, offer agile and proactive responses, and quickly enhance the end-user experience.

A company will need certain resources that would help them make technology the organization's backbone and help them fulfil their goals. The IT infrastructure consists of these technological resources that would help manage and use information.

Automating various aspects and processes of IT, collectively called IT Infrastructure automation, is a relatively new trend that allows organizations to be more productive and generate better outcomes.

Information technology resources include software, legacy interfaces, networking systems, data storage and retrieval systems, and physical facilities like data centres. The hiring of tech staff, training, policy-making, development and testing processes, upgrades and maintenance are also involved in IT infrastructure

What is the role of IT infrastructure management?

IT infrastructure management operates at the crossroads of network infrastructure and an organization's business objectives. Its primary goal is to uphold structure and control over diverse technical operations spanning various network layers, aiming to minimize downtime and enhance business capabilities.

Due to the intricate nature of IT infrastructure management, it is commonly subdivided into three categories: network management, systems management, and storage management.

Within an organization, the IT infrastructure management team carries key responsibilities, including:

• Overseeing day-to-day IT operations to reduce infrastructure costs, enhance performance, and ensure high customer satisfaction. This involves monitoring market trends, assessing the impact of different technologies, and proactively developing long-term plans to stay ahead while managing costs.
• Ensuring optimal system performance is sustained, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are consistently met.
• Efficiently managing IT assets to maximize utilization and avoid unnecessary purchases by utilizing existing assets effectively.
• Implementing continuous improvement initiatives in IT and ensuring that the infrastructure scales according to the business's needs through capacity monitoring and planning.
• Supervising infrastructure risk management by monitoring, resolving, and managing all infrastructure-related risks effectively.
• Establishing strategic relationships and ensuring close cooperation with key service providers.

Types of IT Infrastructure 

​The resources we discussed above are standard elements of the IT infrastructure that you would find more or less in every organization from small businesses to large enterprises.

Some companies prefer to have in-house servers and data centers to which their devices and softwares will be connected. Such an approach allows them to have total control over their IT infrastructure. So they can manage it and improve it as they wish. Many people find this kind of structure convenient, for some, this is not a very suitable approach.

Some organizations adopt cloud infrastructure, a popular trend these days. It is argued to offer more benefits in comparison to the traditional setup of IT infrastructure. Let us discuss both structures in detail. 

Traditional Infrastructure 

 A traditional infrastructure consists of two main elements, hardware and software. In this type of IT infrastructure, all your computers, servers and other technological resources are held under one roof. This makes it easy to access required information along with the computing power.

To deploy this infrastructure, you will need a lot of equipment, utilities to keep them up and running and a large space to house them all, especially if your project is big. You can say that setting up traditional IT infrastructure would be costly.

On top of that, your system will need constant monitoring, regular maintenance and updates to meet the changing requirements of the market. So, you will also be spending money on a team that would manage your IT infrastructure.

Traditional IT infrastructure is the safest way for data storage. Because you will be completely in charge of your data and the software used in your organization.

Advantages of traditional infrastructure:

• You can work with different kinds of softwares
• When you update your infrastructure, you will have to update your software as well. This will allow you to keep up with the latest trends and technologies.
• Along with a dedicated IT infrastructure, you will also get to house a dedicated IT team that would function for the sole purpose of leveraging the technological solution to meet your business goals. 

Cloud-Based Infrastructure 

More and more businesses nowadays are shifting and migrating to the cloud. The major reason behind it is the flexibility. The main difference between traditional and cloud infrastructure is that you don't need to set up equipment to support the infrastructure at your site. All the servers, data storage, and software solutions are migrated to the cloud.

Not setting up IT infrastructure means not purchasing any hardware or building a data centre, this would definitely save a lot of your money. You can just find a cloud service provider and transfer all your internal pipeline like data, apps and everything else to it.

Opting for cloud infrastructure would provide a lot of benefits including:

• Your data will be stored safely on the cloud. But if you feel the need, you can always store it on your devices for offline access.
• The users can access the data and use software from anywhere in the world using any device with an internet connection.
• Cloud provides great scalability and flexibility
• Cloud renders certain automation capabilities
• Reduces the cost 

What Is IT Infrastructure Management?

The term infrastructure defines the structure needed to conduct business operations in a physical facility. And we already discussed how infrastructure management is crucial to all organizational operations.

Now, the term IT infrastructure management refers to managing a large range of technical operations that involve three major components; software, hardware and network in both virtual and physical environments.

The purpose behind IT infrastructure management is to increase business productivity and decrease downtime. However, because of its complexities, IT infrastructure management has to be broken into various sub-structures like storage management, network management, and systems management.

Moreover, IT infrastructure management includes managing a wide range of IT elements and services including:

• Software
• Hardware
• Network utilization
• Storage
• Maintenance and service updates
• Wireless and network operations
• Capacity monitoring and planning
• Mobile connectivity
• And more

The IT infrastructure management team has to deal with mostly back-end services. They also maintain the technological resources that keep your daily operations up and running. The team also has to focus on real-time management and monitoring solutions for the sake of productivity. 

Who manages IT Infrastructure?

Those who are tasked with the responsibilities of managing IT infrastructure must have a specific skill set. The technicians on the team must know how to deploy and set up all the infrastructure components.

The higher-level staff must know everything there is to know about the budgets, project specifications, architecture, and the strategic purpose of the infrastructure. The project manager of the team must direct all the advances and changes made to the infrastructure.

In general, the professional working in the IT infrastructure management team must be skilled in three areas. 

1.Hardware infrastructure management 

From picking the right hardware to installing, maintaining, and updating, every activity related to the system is included in this area. 

Some of the physical components of the infrastructure are as mentioned below:

• Firewalls
• HVAC systems
• Patch panels
• Cables
• UPS and power generation systems
• Routers
• Storage devices
• Wireless access points
• Telecommunication equipment
• Server racks and hardware.
• IDFs

In addition to all of that, managing cloud infrastructure services is also a part of the hardware system. 

Technical skills you will need for that include:

• Installation
• Operating system installs and updates
• Hardware upgrades
• Configurations
• Repair

Hardware infrastructure will be the building block you will need to build your IT infrastructure. 

2.Network infrastructure management

The network infrastructure system involves the space that connects the internet components with the hardware. 

This space is configured for data transportation and is used to access IT infrastructure. It's the network that organizes the hardware. It provides the network nodes with the convenience to communicate for locking bad guys out of the system.

You can set up your network infrastructure after setting up your hardware.

• Network and hardware are connected through cables and wireless access points.
• All the appliances, firewalls, routers, switches and patch panels are to be configured and cabled for access.
• TCP/IP services and networks are segmented using gateways, subnets and IP addresses. TCP/IP services like DNS and others enable the traffic to move in and out of these network segments.
• Internet and WAN are connected to your network infrastructure through security servers or devices like telecommunication lines, edge servers, and firewalls.

Network infrastructure can be referred to as the tools that send the traffic along your pathway. 

3.Software infrastructure management

Every app, and utility software that runs on your cloud or on-premise servers is included in the software infrastructure. 

The skills needed to manage it are:

• Security for apps, servers, and system accesses along with user provisioning.
• Setting up, maintaining, updating, and configuring backup cloud or on-premise servers.
• Installing, upgrading, and maintaining server operating systems.
• Installing, upgrading, and maintaining server utility softwares.

The skills listed above are implemented under any of the approaches including PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS you use either on-premise or on the cloud. 

What are the benefits of IT infrastructure management?

• Establishes a robust foundation for consistent and effective decision-making: Continuous monitoring and management of the network provide IT administrators with a comprehensive overview of its performance. Armed with this information, the IT operations team can strategically plan the timing of upgrades, prioritize risk mitigation, and make informed decisions.
• Keeps pace with ever-changing technology: Organizations that fall behind in technology adoption risk significant growth slowdowns. IT infrastructure management enables organizations to continuously evolve, implement crucial upgrades, and meet compliance requirements, ensuring they remain competitive.
• Ensures an outage-free network infrastructure for a positive user experience: Constant monitoring by IT operations teams significantly reduces downtime, allowing for planned downtime for upgrades or maintenance. Overall, IT infrastructure management provides greater control over network availability and services, positively impacting user experience.
• Facilitates a holistic approach to security: The rapid expansion of network systems has exposed new vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Security breaches can cripple a network and harm the business, leading to years of recovery from financial and reputational damage. Efficient IT infrastructure management proactively detects and resolves violations, implementing constant security measures to address weaknesses in the IT infrastructure.
• Minimizes costs: IT infrastructure management reduces unforeseen incidents, resulting in significant cost savings. Proactive measures, as opposed to reactive responses, can save organizations millions by optimizing infrastructure for potential network incidents ahead of time.

IT Infrastructure Management Best Practices

Organizations have to implement IT infrastructure management best practices to ensure their performance is enhanced.

1.Collecting information ​

The key to effective management lies in the discovery phase. Here, the organization will try to collect necessary information about their apps, IT systems and other processes and practices they would need to maintain and secure their resources. Such data would allow the organizations to create a detailed IT strategy. It helps make sure that no process or resources are overlooked.

2.Establish and implement management standards ​

fter gaining the information during the discovery phase, the organization must set administration standards that upon following them, your IT team could meet the needs of appropriate installation and use of the IT infrastructure.

These standards will involve data management practices, maintenance schedules and processes for operating systems, designing training, configuring systems, security protocols and more. Once you have set up these standards, you also have to ensure that they are enforced consistently and effectively. 

3.Monitor the environment and adapt the strategy

 Security and operations analysts must keep monitoring the environment including all the critical processes. The key metrics to keep an eye on are network performance, storage utilization, storage capacity, restoration speed, downtime frequency and so on. Assessing three metrics can enable organizations to enhance their strategy and adapt practices that can improve their effectiveness.

Continuous monitoring of the environment allows you to react quickly to the changes or issues occurring in the network or systems. 

4.Document everything

Everything in your project must be documented. Documenting IT infrastructure management is very critical. It could act as a guide for the IT team to understand the requirements of the projects and the nature of their work. Also, when a new member joins the team, they can be brought up to speed with the help of documentation.

Documentation also acts as a record of all the maintenance, security changes, and operational upgrades done on the system. This acts as a reference to what makes your system more effective.

Wrapping things up 

Regardless of the industry or size, IT infrastructures play a vital role in every modern business strategy. IT automation is the latest tool to leverage for significant business growth. It enables organizations to achieve new performance records, improve their external and internal pipelines, and automate their business processes when all necessary technological resources are brought together in a single system.

But you can't possibly fathom how to gain a competitive advantage if you don't have a fine-tuned IT infrastructure as well as a skilled staff to manage it. As a result, you will fall behind in the market.

That is why you need to work on your IT infrastructure and arm it with advanced solutions such as the cloud. It would boost your business and enhance its operations as well.