Get to Know Infrastructure Support

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Define infrastructure support terms.
Describe the goals, tasks, and benefits of infrastructure support.

Infrastructure Support Glossary

It’s important to have a functioning and reliable information technology (IT) infrastructure for business operations. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Risks Report 2021, the breakdown of IT infrastructure (deterioration, saturation, or shutdown of critical infrastructure or services) is among the highest impact risks of the next 3 to 5 years.

Cybersecurity threats exploit the increased complexity and connectivity of infrastructure systems, placing organizations’ security at risk. This is where you as an infrastructure support specialist play an important role. You help identify, assess, and manage cyber risks in a dynamic and challenging environment of new threats, risks, and solutions.

Infrastructure support is the administration and management of essential operational elements within an organization to effectively, efficiently, and proactively utilize technology, information, and data. These elements include the computers, servers, networking, data, storage, physical, and virtual facilities. These elements also include software, processes, policies, staffing, training, security, mobile and virtual functionality, and cloud-based services that make up the infrastructure.

As an infrastructure support analyst, you monitor and assess the health of systems; handle system or network outages, communication errors, and server degradation; and come up with solutions to resolve them.

IT and its underlying infrastructure power every aspect of modern businesses, governments, militaries, and economies. However, many organizations don't have enough employees on staff with the right experience and IT know-how to fully support their infrastructure. For these reasons, you as an infrastructure support specialist are in high demand, and can expect to enjoy a highly rewarding career. Let’s make sure you understand terminology before we dig deeper.

Term	Definition
Infrastructure	The composite hardware, software, network resources, and services required for the existence, operation, and management of an IT environment
Server	A computer or system that provides resources, data, services, or programs to other computers, known as clients, over a network
Hardware	The most visible part of any information system: the physical equipment such as computers, scanners, and printers that’s used to capture data, transform it, and present it to the user as output
Uptime	A measure of system reliability, expressed as the percentage of time a machine, typically a server, is available and operating as expected
Software	The programs, applications, and routines for a computer or the program material for an electronic device that make it run

Different types of infrastructure are shown including a network, servers, computers, hardware devices, and software programs.

Goals, Tasks, and Benefits of Infrastructure Support

Goals of Infrastructure Support

As an infrastructure support specialist you are tasked with operating technology infrastructure that enables overall organizational goals. The purpose of infrastructure support is to control hardware, software, and networking in both physical and virtual environments in order to minimize downtime and maintain business continuity.

You maintain server uptime consistent with the organization’s goals and metrics, also known as performance management. The goal is to prevent errors or outages from adversely impacting business operations and ensure smooth processes. For example, if an organization’s virtual private network (VPN) goes down, employees would not be able to access the resources they need to do their job remotely.

In addition to performance management, you carry out network management tasks, including network provisioning, fault analysis, and maintenance aimed at assuring the highest quality of service possible. Fault analysis determines which servers or devices will be affected by a failure in the power system and maps those impacted devices back to affected applications and critical business services.

Infrastructure Support Tasks

Here are some typical responsibilities that would be part of your day to day.

Replace hardware at a cadence that maintains high-quality standards and capabilities.
Upgrade or update software operating systems when new versions become available and usable.
Patch and test running operating systems with the latest available security patches.
Obtain contractual services that maintain and support hardware and software.
Integrate mobile devices, email, and other technologies into the organization’s communications systems.
Research new strategies aimed at reducing costs while improving operating efficiencies.
Maintain secure services as required by relevant laws, regulations, and policy requirements.

Let’s look at a more detailed example.

Carole manages a team of infrastructure support specialists at a cybersecurity company that develops and sells security appliances such as firewalls. Her team is tasked with administering the infrastructure of her company to manage its network defenses. One of their primary tasks in doing so is to build, install, configure, test, and secure server hardware.

Carole’s team also supports the company’s network operations team creating, editing, and administering network access control lists (NACLs) on specialized systems. Together, they partner to design and update rules and signatures for specialized applications, such as intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), antivirus (AV), and content block lists. The team also supports security authorization, and helps implement security controls and monitor system functionality.

As an infrastructure support specialist, Carole knows the intricate details of her company’s network and server platform. When incidents occur, her team is typically called upon to assess the impact to the company’s infrastructure, and coordinates with incident response teams to remediate any unauthorized activities.

Benefits of Infrastructure Support

A solid infrastructure is a necessary part of effective systems operations and management. Taking a proactive approach to infrastructure support will enable you to increase performance, decrease capital expenses, and increase security. A sophisticated, well-managed infrastructure provides reliable security, fast and dependable network connectivity, support and accessibility for your organization’s employees, and a satisfying user experience for your customers.

In Carole’s case, proper infrastructure management helps her to better manage performance and make strategic changes to proactively respond to issues and limitations in her network. Her goal is to anticipate and plan for future needs while maintaining predictability and minimizing system downtime.

An optimized infrastructure can help you maximize your business’s revenue because it eliminates silos and allows your technology to work more efficiently. A robust IT architecture plays a major role in connecting departments and streamlining processes, which are important steps to help stakeholders get a big picture of the operation, foster agility, and work toward best practices. Finally, an optimized infrastructure strengthens your network security and gives your business a competitive advantage.

Knowledge Check

Ready to review what you’ve learned? The following knowledge check isn’t scored—it’s just an easy way to quiz yourself. To get started, drag the description in the left column under the matching term on the right. When you finish matching all the items, click Submit to check your work. If you’d like to start over, click Reset.

Great work!

Sum It Up

Now you understand more about infrastructure support terms, goals, tasks, and benefits. In the next unit, you learn more about the responsibilities of an infrastructure support specialist and discover the skills that help infrastructure support specialists succeed.