IT Infrastructure and emerging technologies

University of the Potomac

Course Name: Enterprise data management and administration/

Course  Number: CBSC520-18

IT Infrastructure and emerging technologies

Abstract

In this chapter we would discuss IT infrastructure and emerging challenges, the stages and drivers of IT infrastructure, current computer software platforms and trends, and challenges of managing IT infrastructure and management solutions.

The term IT infrastructure is defined in ITIL v3 as a combined set of hardware, software, networks, facilities, etc. used to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control, or support IT services. Associated people, processes, and documentation are not part of IT Infrastructure.

Routers: Routers move packets between networks. Routing allows devices separated on different LANs to talk to each other by determining the next “hop” that will allow the network packet to eventually get to its destination. If you have ever manually configured your IP address on a workstation, the default gateway value that you keyed in was the IP address of your router.

Firewalls: Firewalls are security devices at the edge of the network. The firewall can be thought of as the guardian or gatekeeper. A set of rules defines what types of network traffic will be allowed through the firewall and what will be blocked. The source is the originating device. In this case, any means ‘allow any computer to communicate’. Destination is the specific IP address of your internal web server. Port/Protocol defines what type of traffic is allowed from the source to the destination. Most firewall devices allow for a description for each rule that have no effect on the rule itself. It is used only for notes.

Servers: A network server is simply another computer, but usually larger in terms of resources than what most people think of. A server allows multiple users to access and share its resources.

Physical Plant: The physical plant is all of the network cabling in your office buildings and server room/data center. This all too often neglected part of your infrastructure usually is the weakest link and is the cause of most system outages when not managed properly. There are two main types of cabling in the infrastructure: CAT 5/6/7 and fiber optic. Each type of cabling has several different subtypes, depending on the speed and distance required to connect devices.

Server rooms: The server room, or data center (in large organizations), can be thought of as the central core of your network. It is the location in which you place all of your servers, and it usually acts as the center of most networks.

Challenges of managing IT infrastructure: Major challenges include dealing with platform and infrastructure change, handling infrastructure management and governance, and making wise infrastructure investments. Solution guidelines include using a competitive forces model to determine how much to spend on IT infrastructure and where to make strategic infrastructure investments and establishing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of information technology assets. The TCO of technology resources includes not only the original cost of computer hardware and software but also costs for hardware and software upgrades, maintenance, technical support, and training.