IT Infrastructure Management

IT infrastructure refers to the various hardware, software, network resources and services in any company, required for the existence, operation and management of an enterprise IT environment.

The information technology (IT) infrastructure of any company usually consists of various kinds of hardware. software, networks and services that the firm needs to function effectively. A firm builds its IT infrastructure based on its business needs and the kind of technology and expertise that is available.

• Hardware consists of computers of different kinds and the various devices that are attached to the computers, commonly known as peripherals.
• Software consists of systems software as well as application software. The systems software run the various hardware whereas the application software run the various applications needed by the organisation.
• Networks consist of the devices that connect the different computers of the organisation, and also connect the organisation to the Internet.

It’s common for organisations to have a mix of old as well as new IT systems, with the old ones often posing challenges to the management. As a result, several solutions such as enterprise systems, virtualization, newer forms of architecture, have emerged IT infrastructure domain.

Related: Information Systems for Managers

Related: Various IT Security Threats

Related: Use of IoT and digital technologies in Smart Cities

Academic Questions on IT Infrastructure Management

Questions/case studies on this topic:

Question: Farokh Motorwala is the CTO at D’Costa Spirits in Hyderabad, which has just celebrated its 30th Anniversary. The CEO has just announced an ambitious growth program for the firm. Farokh is therefore keen’to is keen to revamp the firm’s IT Infrastructure and align it to the Corporate Strategy. In this context. What are the questions re: IT Infra for Farokh — The Business Needs & The Tech Issues? 

Question: Jennifer Roberts has just been hired as the CIO at Hawthorne Investments. During her interview, Vijay Ananth, the CEO, had tasked Jennifer with the responsibility of revamping the firm’s IT Infrastructure. Now that Jennifer has come onboard, she is keen to get started on the Infra Revamp initiative and has targeted BYOD as her first initiative.
A: What is BYOD? Explain the three (3) levels of BYOD? 
B: What are the Pros & Cons (2 each) of BYOD? 

Q. Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other big organizations have large data centers which contain many server farms. Discuss the applications of server farms in various fields of your choice.

Q. In today’s context of large data processing needs, programming techniques require efficient and persistent data storage options. State the benefits and explain the applications of Amazon’s data storage solution for cloud computing.

Q. You are the IT Project Director at Specter Global Technologies. Your role is to mentor the project managers that report into you and guide them on major implementation projects to ensure a smooth go-live and client satisfaction. One of the project managers has informed you that they need to implement server virtualization.

a. What steps will you suggest for server virtualization implementation to the project manager?
b. To escape any privacy or security concern between servers, which categories can be we classify server roles into?

Q. The management and operation of technology driven management system is complex process and even becomes more complex when IT related problems occur in the organization. Due to the financial slowdown at DigiTech IT Company, it was facing great financial crisis and was therefore forced to cut down its IT costs and to simplify its IT processes. While cutting down on IT management costs, the DigiTech IT Company also needed to keep in mind that the services provided to customers must be of equal standard as earlier, if not higher. With the same perspective, discuss the principles followed by the Company to reduce the IT complexities and simplify the IT processes of the organization.

Q. In order to run an IT company smoothly, various management models are available in the market for the better utilization of resources and reduction of the cost of production for the company. INFOTECH, an IT company which has recently stepped into IT business also wanted to incorporate these management models for the same purpose. Discuss these various management models which can be used by INFOTECH Company to optimize different processes of production and also the performance of the employees. (