What is IT infrastructure and how do you manage it? Gartner defines IT infrastructure this way:

IT infrastructure is the system of hardware, software, facilities, and service components that support the delivery of business systems and IT-enabled processes.

Let’s tackle the broad topic of what IT infrastructure is, what it includes, and who manages it. Then, stick around for the end. We’ll play a game that puts your IT infrastructure knowledge to the test!

(If you’re looking for how-to’s and tips, see IT Infrastructure Planning: How To Get Started.)

IT infrastructure is a road

The Gartner definition is good for dealing with IT people. However, when discussing IT infrastructure with organizational management, HR, or the C-suite, I generally use this road metaphor:

IT infrastructure is the digital road your information travels on.

Like building a physical road, infrastructure professionals plan, build, maintain, fix, and secure their own digital road, over which all organizational data travels. They do not load and unload the informational vehicles riding that road; they create the pathway the vehicles run on, maintain the road, and regulate access and behavior on their infrastructure road.

All of which ensures the requested information gets to its intended user or app—be it terminal screens, in-house applications, web sites, mobile apps, time punches, spreadsheets, documents, reports, emails, or anything else.

Like local authorities, IT infrastructure managers manage their own individual piece of the road and its access to the internet. Non-IT people may be fuzzy about hardware and IT-enabled processes, but they know exactly what a road is. That is why the road metaphor works.

What belongs to IT infrastructure?

Here is a picture of the components that (IMHO) make up an IT infrastructure.