Posted by Today’s leading IT organizations choose infrastructure management solutions that help automate and streamline processes, drive efficiency and reduce costs. Some of the most common software features include:
IT Infrastructure Management
The physical infrastructure of a country includes all of the physical structures and components necessary for maintaining its functions. There are highways that citizens use to transport goods between cities, or from rural to urban areas. There are streets and roads that commuters use to travel to work and school each day. There are bridges that help people cross rivers. Things like electrical and water utilities are also considered infrastructure, as they allow the municipality to deliver key services that residents need.
IT infrastructure is similar to building infrastructure in that it consists of physical components that support the activities and services that are required by users to support business functions. There are applications that support key functions, servers that host the applications and data centers that house the servers. There is also networking infrastructure that facilitates access to applications and servers for the business. The term IT infrastructure refers to all of the components and elements that support management and access functions for data and information, along with other services.
Three Categories of IT Infrastructure Management
Our understanding of IT infrastructure management depends on knowledge of the specific components of IT infrastructure and the most important tasks associated with managing each component. IT infrastructure management is sometimes divided into three sub-categories of management: systems management, network management and storage management.
Systems Management
Systems management covers a wide range of key activities within the overall context of IT infrastructure management, as it includes the administration of all IT assets normally found within a data center. A Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is typically responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the data center and managing the integration of new applications and third-party services into the organization’s hybrid cloud environment.
Systems management activities include security-focused initiatives such as intrusion detection and prevention, or security information and event management. Log management, workload automation, configuration management and the integration of cloud-based applications and services all fall under systems management.
Network Management
Network management is the discipline of managing security networks. IT security and operations analysts manage and configure networks to ensure that resources are properly allocated to applications and services where the are needed, and that the quality and availability of services are maintained. Network management also includes an element of security, as IT operators must maintain visibility and transparency into the network to control the organization’s security posture and protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.
Storage Management
Data storage space is a limited and valuable asset for IT and business organizations. Therefore, a critical aspect of IT infrastructure management is the oversight of data storage technologies and resources, such as virtualization, storage provisioning, data compression and data security. Data compression and automatic storage provisioning can reduce data processing times and improve the performance of the data center. Automation and virtualization techniques can enable businesses to quickly re-allocate storage resources where needed. Other management techniques like data replication, mirroring and security help to guard against data loss or theft.
7 Components of IT Infrastructure
IT infrastructure consists of a set of hardware and software tools that an organization leverages to deliver IT services. IT organizations that deploy and manage all of their IT infrastructures in-house must effectively manage these components to successfully ensure the ongoing availability of IT services.
Operating System Platforms – Computer hardware systems require an operating system to function. An operating system provides the basic graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it easier for users to communicate with the computer and leverage its full capabilities.
Enterprise Software Applications – Enterprise software applications include a variety of software programs used by the IT organization. Enterprise middleware products such as Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Microsoft, and BEA are the major players in the enterprise software space. Middleware products provide important services to the organization, including application servers, content management, identity management, business intelligence, and business process management.
Data Management and Storage – IT organizations that collect and aggregate large volumes of data require a robust data storage solution. Storage and database management tools such as IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and SQL Server are all used by organizations that wish to track and keep more information about their organization’s operational, security and business performance.
Networking and Telecommunications – Virtual network software products like Microsoft Windows Server and Cisco fall under networking and telecommunications, along with the physical networking infrastructure (telephones, in-office cabling, routers, additional wireless access points, etc. Managing networking infrastructure is a growing challenge that IT operators face each day.
Internet Platforms – Internet platforms include a range of infrastructure elements that are exclusively accessed via the world wide web. Platforms such as Apache, Java, UNIX, and .NET are common.
Consultants and System Integrators – IT infrastructure management isn’t always a straightforward process, and it can sometimes be worthwhile to hire an experienced consultant who can point you in the right direction with regard to managing your IT Infrastructure. The most popular consulting firms for IT issues include IBM/KPMG, EDS, and Accenture.
IT Infrastructure Management & Cloud Services
Cloud service providers have changed the way that IT organizations choose to manage the infrastructure elements that are crucial for their daily activities. In the past, organizations that wanted to undergo a digital transformation had no choice but to own and operate their own IT systems. Today, thanks to the introduction and proliferation of cloud computing, it has become easier than ever for organizations to outsource infrastructure management according to one of three common models:
Infrastructure-as-a-Service – In this model, an IT organization outsources its physical infrastructure and associated management needs to a third-party service provider. The provider will operate and manage networking, storage, servers and virtualization services for the IT organization.
Platform-as-a-Service – In this model, and IT organization outsources its physical infrastructure and development platform to a third-party service provider. This includes networking and storage infrastructure, servers, virtualization, operating systems, middleware, and runtime.
Software-as-a-Service – In the SaaS model, the IT organization accesses a finished software product through a web-based portal. On the other end, a third-party cloud service provider manages all of the IT infrastructures that are necessary to deliver the application. The SaaS model enables companies to access software applications that deliver business value without the added burden of managing and administering the software.
About the Contributors
Authors
Donald Coffelt serves as the Associate Vice President for Facilities Management and Campus Services at Carnegie Mellon University. His 350-member team provides facility services, infrastructure management, utility operations and auxiliary services required to support the university’s 150-acre Pittsburgh campus. Reporting to the Vice President for Operations, Coffelt is also responsible for coordinating university-wide sustainability practices.
Coffelt holds a concurrent appointment as an Adjunct Professor in Carnegie Mellon’s top ranked Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with an expertise in Infrastructure Management. He passionately promotes student and faculty access to university facilities for education and research – “The University as a Lab".
From 1995 to 2003, Coffelt was an executive for a Pittsburgh area facility services and technology firm with nation-wide program management responsibilities. From 1985 through 2013, he served in a variety of leadership assignments across the United States as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard before completing a 28-year career at the rank of Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
In addition to his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Coffelt is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT and the University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and licensed as a professional engineer in Alaska, and Pennsylvania. His published works include a graduate-level textbook, Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management. Active in community service, Dr. Coffelt also serves several boards including the Andrew Carnegie Society.
Chris Hendrickson is the Hamerschlag University Professor Emeritus, Director of the Traffic 21 Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, member of the National Academy of Engineering and Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering. His research, teaching and consulting are in the general area of engineering planning and management, including design for the environment, system performance, construction project management, finance and computer applications.
Hendrickson pioneered models of dynamic traffic equilibrium, including time-of-day departure demand models. He was an early contributor to the development of probabilistic network analysis for lifeline planning after seismic events. His work in construction project management emphasized the importance of the owner’s viewpoint throughout the project lifecycle. With others at Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering Design Research Center, he developed a pioneering, experimental building design system in the early 1990s that spanned initial concept through construction scheduling and animation
Since 1994, he has concentrated on green design, exploring the environmental life cycle consequences of alternative product and process designs. He has contributed software tools and methods for sustainable construction, pollution prevention and environmental management, including life cycle analysis software and a widely cited analysis of the life cycle consequences of lead acid battery powered vehicles.
Resources:
https://www.sumologic.com/glossary/it-infrastructure-management/
https://www.sumologic.com/glossary/infrastructure-management/
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/528
Infrastructure management
There are many technical and non-technical roles that make up an IT infrastructure management team. However, an Infrastructure Project Manager (IPM) has some unique responsibilities when it comes to managing infrastructure-specific projects, such as upgrades, integrations, and repairs. Infrastructure project management involves many of the general project management elements like planning, execution, monitoring, testing, and project closure. However, it is also highly technical: all projects are associated with maintaining the continual operation of the IT infrastructure. IPMs commonly have a variety of ongoing projects without defined end dates, whereas traditional PMs work on discrete projects with a final due date.
Infrastructure Management Automation Tools
Accelerate Your DevOps Journey
Change Safely
Run Everywhere
Scale Easily
Actionable Insights
With Chef Infrastructure management, define infrastructure as code (IAC), making the process of managing configurations and system state automated and testable. Unlike other configuration solutions, Chef takes a policy-based approach that builds upon the principles of test-driven development and idempotency. System configuration and application change testing can be done in parallel, so system states are easily enforced and monitored across all infrastructure and teams. With Chef, users define configurations once and then can apply them across mixed fleets of Linux, Mac and Windows systems, regardless of OS version and architecture.
A Single Agent for Configuration and Compliance
Security is at the heart of everything Chef does. Chef sees agent-less solutions as a major disadvantage for highly regulated organizations that have tight security requirements such as financial services (banks, insurance and wealth management), healthcare and government. This is why Chef leverages an agent to ensure it’s nodes are ‘Autonomous Actors’ and can be responsible for themselves unlike agent-less models.
The Chef Infra agent is self-updating, self-automating and works well in low bandwidth or remote environments. It also allows Chef to scale up and down as customers’ demands change. Chef Infra Compliance Phase simplifies the workflow needed to implement run compliance audits, view results and do analysis. It extends our policy-based approach to configuration enabling a single agent than can handle the end-to-end workflow from state enforcement to, data aggregation to validation.
History of Infrastructure
The term infrastructure has been used throughout history to describe the large and complex structures of military projects, civil projects, and public utilities. The word was first used in 1875 in France to describe railroad planning. However, prior to the 1700s, what later became known as infrastructure began with roads and canals for transportation and irrigation. The 1800s through the early 1900s added railroad, telegraph, electrical, water/sewer, subway, and telephone communication infrastructure. As technology evolved from basic computing to the Internet and beyond, business operations quickly became dependent on technology. Over time, the IT infrastructure became a backbone of business.
Today the term is used to encompass the ever-growing foundations, structural components, and relationships of today’s integrated business frameworks. The term, taken from the French infra, means under or below. This highlights that a firm foundation is needed to support a strong organizational framework.
Below is a list of areas that are commonly referred to as infrastructure:
Empower your teams to be productive while maintaining enterprise-grade security
Today’s CIOs are tasked with efficiently operating the technology infrastructure that supports overall enterprise or corporate goals. Part of this responsibility includes increasing business value by streamlining information retrieval and reporting, providing proactive and agile responses to leverage information and technology, and quickly adapting to allow enhanced end user experiences. In order to accomplish this enormous undertaking, IT leadership relies on the myriad of tangible and intangible elements that make up the technology backbone of an organization, the IT infrastructure.
The IT infrastructure consists of all elements that support the management and usability of data and information. These include the physical hardware and facilities (including data centers), data storage and retrieval, network systems, legacy interfaces, and software to support the business goals of an enterprise. The structure also includes hiring, training, policy, testing, process, upgrades, and repairs.
Everything starts from user adoption on site
From this corner, we have many times referred to the importance of digital adoption on site. The sector tends to focus a lot on the value that a 3D model or a digital twin can bring to the building process failing to consider the key component of it. That is data and, by extension, digital adoption.
A BIM model is only as precise and useful as the bits of information fed to it. In that aspect, on-site adoption should be perceived as one of the most decisive factors for your success when it comes to infrastructure project management. This is why the simplicity of the tools that your organisation uses matters so much.
People on site should be able to report progress and submit their latest updates from the field just by using their mobile or tablet device. The easier the data capturing progress is the simpler it will be for the on-site personnel to use the new technologies and join the digital revolution that you want to initiate.
Find out more: BIM software guide – 3D is nice but data is what you need
A BIM manager could use a well-visualised 3D model but the people on site they can go on with their tasks just fine by using an easy, yet intuitive, 2D version of the model. And that’s why simplicity for the user should be seen as a priority when we refer to digital adoption.
All in all, infrastructure projects are tough to manage but with the right tools and processes, the chances for a successful project are drastically increased. At the end of the day, it’s data that holds the true power and can transform the entire industry.
Resources:
https://www.chef.io/products/chef-infrastructure-management
https://www.smartsheet.com/it-infrastructure-management-services-guide
https://www.letsbuild.com/blog/infrastructure-project-management-in-construction
Infrastructure management
All topics and material included are very relevant to Infrastructure Management. Current concerns of our time such as performance, efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency are considered. Strategies and methods to manage each infrastructure system is discussed in relevance to these objectives. These emerging strategies ensure up-to-date management of infrastructure system, which is evolving.
What Is Infrastructure Management Software?
The last several years have seen an explosion of cloud and hybrid infrastructure deployments. From large enterprises with thousands of servers and petabytes (PB) of data to small operations with only five or 10 servers, the economics of easier management, elastic scalability, and low-cost data protection up to and including full-on disaster recovery (DR) can’t be ignored. But, along with a network that spans premises boundaries comes the need for a new breed of management tool. For the hybrid model, this revolves around tracking both on-premises and off-premises resources with equal ease and efficiency.
That means you’ll likely be looking for different capabilities out of a modern management tool. For one, it’ll need breadth. It should cover networking hardware, including routers and switches, firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and a variety of network appliances, preferably with support for both physical networking and software-defined network (SDN) infrastructure. Add to that the usual details you’ll need from your server systems, including health, CPU status, as well as memory and disk utilization. Software entries should include specific support for key services such as Microsoft Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Exchange (or whatever email server or service the organization employs), and it’ll need to at least recognize other key business applications, especially those running as web services, back-end application servers, and databases.
Finally, direct support for specific cloud-based services you’ve deployed will also be hugely important. This should include not only support for big-name vendors, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, but support for the development and management standards (like REST) observed by any cloud service providers on which you rely. Today’s businesses can literally employ dozens of such services, everything from Agiloft to Zoho Books, and if these apps represent critical production systems in your organization, your management tools need to be able to recognize them.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Infrastructure
- Chapter 2: Asset Management Process
- Chapter 3: Inventory, Inspection and Condition Assessment
- Chapter 4: Deterioration Modeling
- Chapter 5: Optimization and Decision Making
- Chapter 6: Performance, Usage, Budget and Cost Functions
- Chapter 7: Interdependence, Resiliency and Security
- Chapter 8: Contract and Workflow Management
- Chapter 9: Commissioning New Facilities
- Chapter 10: Benchmarking and Best Practices
- Chapter 11: Roadway Infrastructure
- Chapter 12: Building Infrastructure
- Chapter 13: Water Infrastructure
- Chapter 14: Telecommunications Infrastructure
- Chapter 15: Electricity Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure
- Chapter 16: Bases, Campuses, Parks and Port Infrastructure
The authors believe this free of charge book, Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management, will expand the impact of the material and help improve the practice of infrastructure management. By ‘free of charge,’ we mean that the material can be freely obtained, but readers should devote time and effort to mastering the material. We have provided problem assignments for various chapters, and we strongly urge readers to undertake the problems as a learning experience.
This book grew out of a decade of co-teaching a course entitled ‘Infrastructure Management’ at Carnegie Mellon University. Our teaching philosophy was to prepare students for work in the field of infrastructure management. We believe that infrastructure management is a professional endeavor and an attractive professional career. The book is co-authored by two accomplished engineers – each representing professional practice, academic research and theoretical evaluation. Their collective strengths are presented throughout the text and serve to support both the practice of infrastructure management and a role for infrastructure management inquiry and search. Importantly, both co-authors have academic research interests (and a number of research publications) on various topics of infrastructure management. That said, the primary audience for this book is expected to be professionals intending to practice infrastructure management, and only secondarily individuals who intend to pursue a career of research in the area.
The text draws examples and discusses a wide variety of infrastructure systems, including roadways, telecommunications, power generation, buildings and systems of infrastructure. We have found that some common fundamentals of asset management, analysis tools and informed decision-making are useful for a variety of such systems. Certainly, many infrastructure managers encounter a variety of infrastructure types during their professional careers. Moreover, due to the functional inter-dependencies of different infrastructure systems, it is certainly advantageous for managers of one infrastructure type to understand other types of infrastructure. For example, roadway managers rely upon the power grid for traffic signal operation.
About the Contributors
Authors
Donald Coffelt serves as the Associate Vice President for Facilities Management and Campus Services at Carnegie Mellon University. His 350-member team provides facility services, infrastructure management, utility operations and auxiliary services required to support the university’s 150-acre Pittsburgh campus. Reporting to the Vice President for Operations, Coffelt is also responsible for coordinating university-wide sustainability practices.
Coffelt holds a concurrent appointment as an Adjunct Professor in Carnegie Mellon’s top ranked Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with an expertise in Infrastructure Management. He passionately promotes student and faculty access to university facilities for education and research – “The University as a Lab".
From 1995 to 2003, Coffelt was an executive for a Pittsburgh area facility services and technology firm with nation-wide program management responsibilities. From 1985 through 2013, he served in a variety of leadership assignments across the United States as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard before completing a 28-year career at the rank of Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
In addition to his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, Coffelt is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT and the University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and licensed as a professional engineer in Alaska, and Pennsylvania. His published works include a graduate-level textbook, Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management. Active in community service, Dr. Coffelt also serves several boards including the Andrew Carnegie Society.
Chris Hendrickson is the Hamerschlag University Professor Emeritus, Director of the Traffic 21 Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, member of the National Academy of Engineering and Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering. His research, teaching and consulting are in the general area of engineering planning and management, including design for the environment, system performance, construction project management, finance and computer applications.
Hendrickson pioneered models of dynamic traffic equilibrium, including time-of-day departure demand models. He was an early contributor to the development of probabilistic network analysis for lifeline planning after seismic events. His work in construction project management emphasized the importance of the owner’s viewpoint throughout the project lifecycle. With others at Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering Design Research Center, he developed a pioneering, experimental building design system in the early 1990s that spanned initial concept through construction scheduling and animation
Since 1994, he has concentrated on green design, exploring the environmental life cycle consequences of alternative product and process designs. He has contributed software tools and methods for sustainable construction, pollution prevention and environmental management, including life cycle analysis software and a widely cited analysis of the life cycle consequences of lead acid battery powered vehicles.
How IT Infrastructure Management (ITIM) works?
IT infrastructure management tracks critical network endpoints such as routers, switches, firewall, servers etc for critical parameters that ensure proper performance, bandwidth usage, configuration management, IP & switch port management and firewall security, and manages them to ensure maximum ROI for organizations in their IT infrastructure.
Monitoring and managing every single device in an IT infrastructure is crucial as issues occurring in a single network device have the capability to affect the efficiency and performance of the entire IT infrastructure, thereby affecting the business. Hence IT infrastructure management is vital as it helps technicians in taking proactive measures to increase performance and uptime.
Resources:
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-infrastructure-management-services
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/528
https://www.manageengine.com/it-operations-management/it-infrastructure-management-itim.html