What is IT Infrastructure and How to Extend Its Lifespan?

IT infrastructure is the digital ecosystem of your organization, whether it's a large corporation, SME, or mid-sized enterprise. It consists of several heterogeneous components that interact to operate the various IT environments of the company and ensure the quality of information systems (IS) service for clients, internal users, partners, and prospects. Driven by digital transformation and the digitization of business processes, IT infrastructure plays a crucial role.

A vector of performance and agility for the organization, it must also align with new eco-friendly uses driven by the objectives of IT frugality and a more circular economy. After identifying the different components of IT infrastructure, we will determine the areas where you can act to extend its lifespan while ensuring its efficiency.

What are the components of IT infrastructure?

Presented as a whole, IT infrastructure is, however, composed of several interdependent elements. Its main components are hardware and software. But limiting to this distinction would only give a partial view of the infrastructures deployed in businesses and the services they offer.

Hardware equipment

This generic category includes servers, terminals such as desktops and laptops, tablets, smartphones, and external peripherals like multifunction printers and scanners.

Software equipment

An enterprise's software architecture revolves around operating systems installed on servers and connected terminals. The software part also includes all office and business applications installed on computer terminals. Software (OS and business applications) enables connections to available resources and peripherals.

Network equipment

IT infrastructure also includes network equipment that ensures wired and wireless connectivity of infrastructure equipment, servers, client stations, storage printing peripherals, etc. They ensure access to resources and data under optimal security and speed conditions. Network equipment includes smart switches (core network, distribution, access), Wi-Fi access points, IP telephony equipment, routers.

Security equipment

Security combines hardware and software to secure all components of your infrastructure. The security setup includes an 'appliance' part, a box equipped with a software to protect information systems against cyberattacks, and software such as VPN, Proxy, VLAN, antivirus, antispam, authentication system, etc. Backup equipment falls within the security domain as they allow restoring altered data following an attack.

Data storage equipment

The volume of data generated or transiting through the company continues to grow, and their exploitation is essential to the company's performance. To ensure data availability and continuity of information flows within organizations, companies deploy specific storage infrastructures composed of high-performance connected hardware solutions and software administration solutions ensuring the security of records, speed of access, and their availability 24/7.    

The different types of infrastructures

The development of new information technologies and uses contributes to the evolution of infrastructures. Alongside traditional architectures based on local infrastructures, virtual infrastructures on the cloud are developing, using IaaS (Infrastructure As a Service) and PaaS (Platform As a Service) technologies, and hybrid infrastructures. These allow IT managers to distribute their services and resource management across both environments (on-demand and on-premise). 

Extend the lifespan of your IT infrastructure with second-hand on-premise licenses

IT managers must manage their IT infrastructures considering performance constraints, security, and the business requirements of users. They must also sustain their investments by extending the lifespan of their hardware and software equipment. The choice of IT infrastructure type is crucial.

While a full cloud solution makes you entirely dependent on the policy of publishers, hybrid and traditional solutions allow you to retain control of your IT infrastructure. You can simply optimize your software assets through a Software Asset Management strategy and maintain control over the lifecycle of your software licenses and update frequencies according to your employees' needs. By limiting the update pace imposed by publishers, you mechanically extend the lifespan of your IT equipment.

The Softcorner marketplace, number one in the second-hand software market, is the ideal tool to extend your infrastructure's lifespan. Thanks to this intuitive and ergonomic platform, you can buy second-hand licenses at a lower cost that meet your users' functional needs and comply with your hardware configurations. This marketplace allows you to decommission your unused software licenses to sell them on the secondary license market and thus fund your other IT projects.