Infrastructure

Go to Terms and Definitions

Infrastructure comprises the physical, virtual, software-defined, and supporting technical resources required to host, connect, operate, secure, and manage systems, applications, and services.

Infrastructure includes resources such as:

• Compute resources
• Storage resources
• Network resources
• Physical servers
• Virtual machines
• Containers
• Operating systems
• Runtime platforms
• Load balancers
• Firewalls
• Identity and access services
• Monitoring services
• Management services
• Supporting facilities and devices

Infrastructure differs from an Infrastructure Resource:

• Infrastructure identifies the collective technical foundation
• An Infrastructure Resource identifies an individual resource within that foundation

Infrastructure also differs from an Infrastructure Environment:

• Infrastructure identifies the technical resources and supporting capabilities
• An Infrastructure Environment organizes selected Infrastructure Resources, configurations, relationships, and controls into an operational context

Infrastructure can exist as:

• Physical infrastructure
• Virtual infrastructure
• Cloud infrastructure
• On-premises infrastructure
• Edge infrastructure
• Software-defined infrastructure
• Hybrid infrastructure

The governing architecture determines which resources and supporting capabilities form the Infrastructure for a particular system or environment.

collective physical, virtual, software-defined, and supporting technical resources used to host, connect, operate, secure, and manage systems, applications, or services

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

Infrastructure does not include the business functions, mission objectives, or application-specific behavior that the Infrastructure supports.

Infrastructure does not require a particular:

• Deployment platform
• Cloud provider
• Operating system
• Virtualization technology
• Container technology
• Network architecture
• Management tool
• Security product

A specification should use the more precise term Infrastructure Resource when referring to an individually identifiable resource.

A specification should use Infrastructure Environment when referring to an operationally organized collection of Infrastructure Resources, configurations, relationships, and controls.

The Infrastructure for a deployed service consists of compute nodes, network segments, encrypted storage, an operating system, a container runtime, identity services, monitoring services, and supporting management components.

A Declarative Configuration defines the Infrastructure required for the service without prescribing the procedural sequence used to create it.