Hardware includes servers, datacenters, personal computers, routers, switches, and other equipment. The facilities that house, cool, and power a datacenter could also be included as part of the infrastructure.
Software refers to applications such as web servers, content management systems, and the OS. The OS is responsible for managing system resources and hardware, and makes the connections between all of your software and the physical resources.
Interconnected network components enable network operations, management, and communication between internal and external systems. The network consists of internet connectivity, network enablement, firewalls and security, as well as hardware like routers, switches, and cables.
With a traditional infrastructure, the components—like datacenters, data storage, and other equipment—are all managed and owned by the business within their own facilities. Traditional infrastructure is often thought of as expensive to run and requires large amounts of hardware, like servers, as well as power and physical space.
Cloud infrastructure describes the components and resources needed for cloud computing. You can create a private cloud by building it yourself using resources dedicated solely to you. Or you can use a public cloud by renting cloud infrastructure from a cloud provider like Alibaba, Amazon, Google, IBM, or Microsoft. And by incorporating some degree of workload portability, orchestration, and management across multiple clouds you can create a hybrid cloud.
Hyperconverged infrastructure allows you to manage your compute, network, and data storage resources from a single interface. With software-defined compute and data storage bundled together, you can support more modern workloads with scalable architectures on industry-standard hardware.
Gives cloud admins control over everything running in a cloud—end users, data, applications, and services—by managing resource deployments, use, integration, and disaster recovery.
Interfaces with virtual environments and the underlying physical hardware to simplify resource administration, enhance data analyses, and streamline operations.
Also known as business process management, this is the practice of modeling, analyzing, and optimizing business processes that are often repeated, ongoing, or predictable.
Maintains computer systems, servers, and software in a desired, consistent state.
Distributes, controls, and analyzes the APIs that connect apps and data across enterprises and clouds.
Gathers, stores, and uses data, allowing organizations to know what data they have, where it is located, who owns it, who can see it, and how it is accessed.
