Uptime.com Blog

3 Essential Tips for Infrastructure Management

Nearly every company today depends on IT for its critical business processes. However, few people outside of the IT department ever think about the systems that keep business running—until something goes wrong. Then, everyone is glaring at IT, waiting impatiently for them to fix the problem.

IT infrastructure is the framework that supports your company’s digital operations. It includes the servers where you store business data, the networks that enable servers and employees to communicate, and the software your staff uses to perform their tasks. You can think of IT infrastructure as the engine that powers your organization’s digital activities.

Like a car engine, IT infrastructure requires regular maintenance to stay running in top condition. Infrastructure maintenance involves keeping all that hardware and software up to date and properly configured. Infrastructure maintenance does more than enable your digital processes; it contributes directly to your company’s business success.

Raises Profits and Saves Costs

Infrastructure management increases efficiency and productivity. It enables your staff to share data, collaborate on projects, and automate routine tasks so employees can focus on their primary duties. Regular infrastructure maintenance minimizes downtime and lost productivity. A 2024 Deloitte survey found that 82% of organizations had missed their cost reduction targets, and technology infrastructure challenges were the biggest reason.

Supports Business Planning

Well-running IT infrastructure helps support data-driven decision-making by senior leadership and management. It enables organizations to take advantage of new opportunities and quickly adapt to market changes. For example, Tesla has integrated infrastructure management into its manufacturing processes, enabling it to maintain its lead in the electric vehicle market.

Improves Customer Service

Infrastructure management helps the organization respond timely to customer needs and requests. This improves the quality of service provided to customers. Dell Technologies has invested in infrastructure upgrades to provide effective customer support, resulting in greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Enhances Security

Security protocols, continuous monitoring, upgraded servers and software, and active threat detection and mitigation help your company safeguard its critical data and protect proprietary information and intellectual property. They also ensure compliance with industry regulations, which promotes trust among clients and stakeholders.

Types of Infrastructure Management and Essential Tips

Infrastructure management is a vast undertaking because your IT infrastructure is vast. It covers multiple areas that, together, ensure your digital framework is working in peak condition. Major aspects of infrastructure management include hardware, network, and software management.

DevOps streamlines infrastructure management with the use of tools to automate many infrastructure management tasks. The use of code-based tools helps ensure resources are properly configured, secured, monitored, and backed up.

1. Essential Tips for Hardware Infrastructure Management

Hardware management involves selecting, installing, configuring, and maintaining the infrastructure hardware, including:

• Cabling
• Server racks and server hardware
• Power systems (generators and UPS)
• Routers and switches
• Wireless access points
• Physical security for hardware, such as electronic locks and mantraps
• HVAC systems and fire suppression systems
• Telecommunications equipment
• Storage devices

Here are some best practices for hardware management:

1. Update devices and reboot regularly
2. Use quality cables and terminations, label every cable, and follow industry standards for cabling
3. Regularly inspect emergency equipment, maintain fire extinguishers, check fire alarms, and obtain professional HVAC maintenance
4. Periodically clean and dust hardware, update firmware and drivers, and replace hardware boards and components that are reaching end-of-life
5. Use tools and metrics to compare the availability and efficiency of telecom and other services against baseline and expected levels and address any user complaints

Keep in mind that availability is just one aspect of IT services. Servers and storage devices could be running and responding to pings, but the applications and services they host could be down or experiencing delays.

Server monitoring helps you keep track of the status of your servers, meet your Service Level Agreements (SLA), and provide better customer and user experiences. It also helps you identify and resolve any problems with your devices. If incidents or downtime should occur, monitoring can help you determine the root cause and prevent failures from happening again.

Private location monitoring enables you to monitor and manage your infrastructure’s private locations from a single interface. You can set up private monitoring tests in advance and receive real-time statuses of your internal servers and systems to detect anomalies. You can also see how internal and external users are consuming your resources and compare performance with your SLA.

DevOps facilitates hardware management by automating configuration management. Automation helps you standardize and document your infrastructure.

2. Essential Tips for Network Infrastructure Management

Network management consists of selecting, installing, and maintaining the devices that transport data across your organization. The network infrastructure keeps your hardware organized so devices can talk to each other, and cyberintruders cannot get in. After your hardware is installed, you can set up and configure patch panels, routers, switches, and appliances, assign IP addresses, subnets, and gateways, and connect your network to the Internet.

Here are some best practices for network management:

1. Maintain an accurate and up-to-date inventory of all devices and applications in the network
2. Put routers and access points in central locations to ensure optimum coverage and speed
3. Establish a network usage policy to limit the number of connections and user privileges to those needed
4. Maintain network security by using strong passwords, encryption, and access control measures
5. Keep network firmware up to date against current threats
6. Continually monitor your network status and usage, including bandwidth use, throughput, latency, and user activity, and compare these with expected levels
7. Install and maintain an intrusion prevention system to identify known threats and abnormal activity
8. Use automated tools to expedite network management tasks like inventorying devices, identifying connections, and monitoring network devices and traffic
9. Keep thorough documentation on your network’s configuration and updates

You may have to make frequent changes to your network. Each change can affect many devices and users. This is why documentation is crucial: it lets you understand your network and helps with troubleshooting any problems. Evaluating the scope and risks of any proposed change can minimize the chance of problems down the road. DevOps automates network management by enabling the operations and development team to monitor and manage resources automatically.

3. Essential Tips for Software Infrastructure Management

Infrastructure software includes server and network software that keeps your infrastructure running. These might include:

• Server operating systems
• Virtual server software such as hypervisor
• Server utility software like email, monitoring, and job scheduling software
• Local and cloud backup software
• Provisioning and security for user access and services

Here are some best practices for software management:

1. Keep up with operating system updates and patches
2. Keep track of what software is installed and in use to prevent duplication and overlaps
3. Carefully manage subscriptions and renewals
4. Follow vendor best practices for virtualization to ensure hardware performance is not degraded

A software management plan can help you organize the tools you need, the budget you have, and implementation and maintenance strategy. A detailed software management plan will enable you to manage the evolution of your software infrastructure to keep up with changes in demand while staying within your budget. DevOps automates the deployment process to improve efficiency and reduce errors. It also reduces the failure of new software installations by testing products at the initial stage.

Infrastructure management can be a complex and time-consuming job. But by following best practices, and with the right tools and processes, you can readily achieve efficiency and scalability.

Admin