The Infrastructure Model

IT Building Blocks
• A model is always a simplified version of reality, useful to explain
a certain point; not covering all details.
• Therefore, the infrastructure model is not perfect. Remember, as
George E. P. Box stated: “Essentially, all models are wrong, but
some are usedful”
• The following sections provide a high-level description of the
building blocks in the infrastructure model.
The Infrastructure Model
Processes/Information Building
Block
• Organization implement business processes to fulfil their mission
and vision. These processes are organization specific; they are the
main differentiators between organizations. As an Example, some
business processes in an insurance company could be: claim
registration, claim payment, and create invoice.
• Business processes create and use information. In example,
information could be the claim’s date or the number of dollars on
an invoice. Information is typically entered, stored and processed
using applications.
• Functional management is the category of systems management
that ensures the system is configured to perform the needed
business functions.
Processes/Information Building
Block
Applications Building Block
• The applications building block includes three types of
applications:
• Client applications typically run on end user devices like PCs and
laptops. Examples of client applications are web browsers, word
processors, and email clients.
• Office applications provide standard server based applications most
organizations use. Examples are mail servers, portals, collaboration tools,
and instant messaging servers. Most organizations run these office
applications more or less out of the box.
• Business specific applications are applications that are typically highly
customized or custom built. Some examples are Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supervisory
Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, and applications that are
created for a specific business process (like an insurance management
system).
• Applications management is responsible for the configuration and
technical operations of the applications.
Applications Building Block
Application Platform Building
Block
• Most applications need some additional services, known as
application platforms, that enable them to work. We can identify
the following services as part of the application platform building
block:
• Front-end servers are typically web servers (like Apache HTTP Server
and Microsoft Internet Information Services – IIS) that provide end users
with interactions to applications by presenting application screens in web
browsers.
• Application servers act as containers running the actual application.
Examples are Java or .Net application servers and frameworks (like IBM
WebSphere, Apache Tomcat, Red Hat JBoss, and Windows .Net).
• Connectivity entails FTP servers, Extraction, Transformation and Load
(ETL) servers, and Enterprise Service Buses (ESBs) like Microsoft BizTalk,
the TIBCO Service Bus, IBM MQ, and SAP NetWeaver PI.
Application Platform Building
Block
• Databases, also known as database management systems (DBMSs),
provide a way to store and retrieve structured data. Examples are Oracle
RDBMS, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
• Application platforms are typically managed by systems managers
specialized in the specific technology.
Application Platform Building
Block
Infrastructure Building Blocks
• The following infrastructure building blocks can be depicted:
• End User Devices are the devices used by end users to work with
applications, like PCs, laptops, thin clients, mobile devices, and printers.
• Operating Systems are collections of programs that manage a
computer’s internal workings: its memory, processors, devices, and file
system.
• Compute are the physical and virtual computers in the datacenter, also
known as servers.
• Storage are systems that store data. They include hard disks, tapes,
Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS), and
Storage Area Networks (SANs).
• Networking connects all components. This building block includes
routers, switches, firewalls, WANs (wide area networks), LAN, dial-in,
internet access, and VPNs (Virtual Private Network), and (on the network
application level) relatively simple services like DNS, DHCP, and time
services, necessary for the infrastructure to work properly.
Infrastructure Building Blocks
• Datacenters are locations that host most IT infrastructure hardware.
They include facilities like uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs),
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), computer racks, and
physical security measures.
• Please note that these building blocks are not per definition
hierarchically related. For instance, servers need both networking
and storage, and both are equally important.
• Infrastructure management includes processes like ITIL and
DevOps, and tools like monitoring, backup, and logging.
Infrastructure Building Blocks
Non-Functional Attributes
• An IT system does not only provide functionality to users;
functionality is supported by non-functional attributes. Non-
functional attributes are the effect of the configuration of each IT
system component, both on the infrastructure level and above.
• Although many other non-functional attributes are defined,
availability, performance, and security are almost always the
essential ones in IT infrastructure architectures.
Non-Functional Attributes