For all businesses, technology is an important part of its integrity. You probably rely on the internet almost exclusively for all of your communication, documentation, and production needs. Now that the world is entirely digital, we need to make sure we’re keeping track of the infrastructure of this electronic world. Just as we must care for our physical world, we must care for our technological one. But, what is infrastructure management, especially when applied to business? Read on to find out.
What is Infrastructure Management?
Infrastructure refers to the set of structures that are required for the operation of a location, physical facility or business operation. On a national or municipal level, the term infrastructure refers to things like roads, sewers and drainage systems, water treatment facilities, bridges, tunnels, public transportation systems, airports, storage facilities, and other components. In a physical facility like an office building, physical infrastructure consists of lighting, electricity, plumbing, alarm systems, electronic access, and other features. The commonality here is that both physical and virtual infrastructure components are used by the people who manage them to deliver services that are crucial to the overall function and operations that characterize each location.
Infrastructure solves problems - for example, plumbing infrastructure solves the problem of needing to get rid of human waste and electrical systems solve the problem of needing to power machines, electronics or appliances. A bridge solves the problem of needing to cross a river. The purpose of infrastructure management is to maintain infrastructure elements in acceptable working condition so they can be leveraged to solve the problem for which they were designed and implemented.
The term infrastructure describes the structures required for the operation of a physical facility or business operation. As mentioned earlier, infrastructure management has evolved to include the true backbone of business, technology. This is referred to as infrastructure management. The purpose of infrastructure management is to provide structure and control of the functions responsible for diverse technical operations which generally involve hardware, software, and networking in both physical and virtual environments. The main goal is to minimize downtime and maintain business productivity. Because of the complexity of infrastructure, it is not uncommon for IT infrastructure management to be broken into substructures, such as systems management, network management, and storage management.
Usually, IM is divided into separate categories, as technology covers a vast array of services. These categories are network management, systems management and storage management. Network management deals with the structure of the software and communications systems that allow for a business to connect to a network. For example, equipment could include a router, cabling, or a communications bridge. Systems management is how businesses keep track of how communication changes, and notes the necessary IT changes that happen over time. This makes it much easier for a business to follow IT updates and more recent technology. Finally, storage management has to do with the electronic storage of information. The cloud is an excellent example of storage management. A carefully organized cloud program, usually a third party host, can help all kinds of businesses keep track of their info and sensitive documents. It also allows all employees to access information anywhere, at any time, even if they aren’t in the office. The advantage of this is a greatly increased productivity rate.
Some of the greatest benefits of IM are increased flow of information, and a facilitated change in technology when necessary. There is less chance that actions will be duplicated as communication increases. It allows for a comprehensive, sectioned path that is clear and simple for everyone to understand. Precise categories of IM allow for a type of technological management not seen ever before. As the times change, so should the emphasis on technology and infrastructure.
For the company, the Infrastructure Management’s main function is to see to it there the operations regarding physical repairs, or anything that involves basic office facilities like electricity, plumbing, alarm systems, electronic access, and such go as smoothly as possible and there is no down time with said operations. They also promote safety through their safekeeping practices and security measures they undertake. Furthermore, the IM department caters the overall maintenance of any physical attribute of the company and the processes behind it.
The IM department works hand in hand with the IT department to perfectly demonstrate and implement how alarm systems and anything involving the internet and electrical properties work. Without the IM department, almost everything and every process in the IT department cannot be managed and done for they rely on electricity for these.
The IM department’s members are divided into roles; each has a certain task to adhere to. Here are the roles of the members of the IM department:
IM Manager/Senior Project Manager
BST Supervisor
Fiber Technician Lead
Fiber Technician
Lead Project Manager
Electrical Quantity Surveyor
Administrative Assistant