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What is the IT Infrastructure?

IT infrastructure encompasses all the hardware, software, networking, data, and services required to deliver IT capabilities to a business. The composition of that infrastructure — whether on-premises, cloud-based, or collocated — directly shapes how security is managed and who controls it.

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About this video

IT infrastructure is the foundation of everything an organization uses to deliver technology services — encompassing hardware, software, networks, data, and all supporting systems including power, cooling, and communications. This definition is intentionally broad, covering not only physical equipment and network devices but also the logical services that keep systems running, such as DNS, DHCP, and directory services. Together, these components form a unified environment whose purpose is to support and enable business operations. The boundaries of infrastructure extend into the cloud as well. Organizations today commonly rely on a combination of on-premises resources, collocated facilities, and cloud services spanning IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models. Each of these deployment options introduces a different set of trade-offs, and understanding those trade-offs is essential for anyone working in IT or cybersecurity. One of the most consequential trade-offs involves security. When infrastructure is hosted on-premises, the organization maintains full control over how it is secured — which carries both advantages and responsibilities. When services move to the cloud or a collocated facility, some or all of that control is transferred to a third-party provider. Evaluating these deployment models and their security implications is a core competency for IT professionals, and it begins with a clear understanding of what infrastructure actually includes.

What you'll learn

What's covered

IT Infrastructure

Key terms

Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS
A cloud service model that provides virtualized computing infrastructure over the internet.
Platform as a Service
PaaS
A cloud service model that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications without managing infrastructure.
Software as a Service
SaaS
A cloud service model that delivers software applications over the internet on a subscription basis.
Cloud Computing
The delivery of computing services including servers, storage, and software over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Server
A computer or program that provides services or resources to other devices, known as clients, over a network.
Domain Name System
DNS
A hierarchical naming system that translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHCP
A network protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses and other configuration parameters to devices on a network.
IT Infrastructure
The hardware, software, network, data, and all other resources required to deliver IT services to an organization.
Colocation
A data center model in which an organization rents physical space, power, cooling, and network connectivity from a third-party facility while retaining ownership of its own servers and equipment.
On-Premises
An infrastructure deployment model in which hardware and software are hosted locally within an organization's own facilities rather than in a cloud provider's data center. On-premises deployments give organizations full control over their security posture.

Topics

It Infrastructure Cloud Services On Premises Infrastructure Security Hardware Networking

Transcript

What Is an IT Infrastructure?

One term that I hear a lot and use a lot is this term "infrastructure." But what exactly is the infrastructure? What is an IT infrastructure?

The definition of IT infrastructure is the hardware, the software, the network, the data and all the other resources that are needed to deliver IT services. I look at it this way: it is designed to provide services for the business. We're there to deliver these services, and whatever it takes to deliver these services, that's what that underlying infrastructure is.

Everything That Delivers the Service

So you look at the IT infrastructure as being pretty much everything: the network, the cloud services, power, cooling, the internet, and anything else that provides these services.

Here's a network with some equipment on it. I would even include some of the services like directory services, DHCP, DNS, and maybe even some file services as part of this network. But we also have the network room, we have the racks, we have the power, cooling and communication lines. There's a bunch of stuff in the cloud. Maybe we have some sort of colocation. There are cloud services like IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. So really it's just all of these together that is the whole infrastructure — everything that is delivering these services.

How the Choice Affects Security

Now, depending on what we choose as being this underlying infrastructure — for instance, if we have colocation or some sort of cloud services — what we choose is really going to affect security and how much control over security we have.

For instance, if we have stuff up in the cloud, that gives us less control over security and puts it in the hands of somebody else. Also, if we have something local here, then we are fully in control of the security aspect, and that could be really good or it could have a negative impact as well.

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