1.7 Infrastructure Building Blocks

This book uses the selection of building blocks as depicted in Figure 1.6 to describe the infrastructure building blocks and concepts—the scope of this book.

The following infrastructure building blocks are in scope:

• 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 Networks), and (on the network application level) relatively simple services like DNS, DHCP, and time services, necessary for the infrastructure to work properly.

• 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.