What is IT infrastructure? Optimize IT infrastructures with Axiom

Axiom empowers businesses to build more scalable IT infrastructures

 

Jun 17, 2025

 

Hardware

The term “IT infrastructure” frequently comes up in conversations, but it is a concept that can lack a concrete definition with the way information technology and its applications have been constantly evolving. The type of IT assets that a business owns varies from business to business, which can muddy the standards for what makes a quintessential IT infrastructure.

Let’s take a look at how the modern infrastructure has evolved, the types of IT infrastructures that make up today’s tech landscape, and how Axiom optimizes these infrastructures to tackle data center and HPC related tasks.

For many IT infrastructures, the hardware serves as the physical foundation. This is hardware equipment that is typically housed in an on-premises server room/data center, a colocation facility, or even extending out to edge servers.

Typically, the hardware foundation and components of IT infrastructure consists of the following:

Servers:

Servers serve as the backbone of most IT infrastructures. They process and store data, so that businesses can manage resources and provide IT services to employees and customers alike. Hardware components such as DRAM memory and storage hard drives play a huge role in dictating server performance.

Computing devices:

Desktops, laptops, tablets, etc. are the end user devices in an IT infrastructure and facilitate daily business operations both on premises and off the premises.

Peripherals:

These secondary assets in an IT infrastructure support miscellaneous IT tasks and business needs. For example, if you needed printing, you would install a printer, a keyboard for typing, sound systems for audio experiences, and more.

 

Networking Connectivity

A networking connectivity infrastructure is essential to keeping the IT infrastructure on the grid. The infrastructure enables hardware devices to communicate with each other, enables users to connect to the internet, and manages data flow to optimize net traffic.

Networking infrastructures also connect hardware devices and networking components to Cloud or software-based platforms and allows software applications to share resources with each other.

Switches

Switches are responsible for connecting multiple devices together and managing the data flow between them. Every network utilizes different types of switches and network devices, which may require interfacing between the switches and cables. This is most apparent when you look at a network switch and notice the assortment of ports on the switches.

Network transceivers solve this issue by converting signals between electrical and optical formats. This enables the switches to move data between point A and point B. Many businesses are starting to gravitate towards optical transceivers as they tend to move data more efficiently, even in long distance transmissions.

Routers

Routers connect multiple switches and networks together, while also directing traffic between different networks.

Network cables

Network cables are the physical medium that links two or more points in a network together. Cabling dimensions such as the type of cable, cable length, and connector types vary based on the type of network, switches deployed, and network requirements.

 

Software and services

Traditionally speaking, when IT decision makers referred to IT infrastructures, they were strictly referring to the collection of physical IT assets that are housed on premises. Over time, however, this has gradually transitioned to a more diverse setup. What we refer to as the IT infrastructure has evolved from strictly on-premises set-ups to mixed infrastructures that include a mesh of hardware and software combinations, a stark difference between that and the traditional infrastructure.

As such, not every infrastructure solely utilizes physical equipment in this day and age. The increasing popularity of cloud has seen many businesses migrate their data center operations into various cloud deployments.

Operating systems

For both on-premises and cloud deployments, operating systems are the software backbone of the infrastructure. The OS is responsible for managing the hardware and software resources, while enabling the user to interact with the IT system and manipulate files/manage resources.

Cloud

Cloud computing has risen to popularity because it allows businesses to leverage third party provider services to lower the IT workload and spending on on-prem data centers. You may notice that many businesses nowadays have taken on some level of cloud-based migration as they work with cloud providers, with some companies even moving to full cloud. There continues to be major deterrents to full cloud deployments, however, namely its high costs, complexity of migration, and a level of discretion that's required in data-sensitive industries.

This is why hybrid cloud infrastructures (a mixture of on-prem and public cloud services) continue to be the pre-dominant deployment as it provides the best balance of IT management and flexibility.

Enterprise applications/databases

Most businesses have an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software platform to manage business functions in their technology infrastructures. This can vary from native platforms that are built into the business' technology stack or a third-party SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, both of which help the business stay on top of tasks.

Databases are also a necessary component of the software foundation, as businesses store, organize, and manage data in their IT systems much more efficiently. 

 

Data management

Data is one of the most important assets for any business and as such, businesses will typically have storage systems in place that store and protect data while facilitating safe data access.

Storage drives

Storage systems are built off the foundation of storage drives such as HDDs and SSDs. These storage devices function differently with HDDs prioritizing capacity and SSDs specializing in speed and performance. A proper IT infrastructure will have the appropriate storage drives in use for the different types of data storage needed.

Backups

Most businesses back up data in a variety of ways, from on-site backups and Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems to cloud backups such as AWS and Google Cloud, for multiple redundancies and disaster recovery solutions to protect their data.

Encryption

Data drives are protected by sound encryption to limit cybersecurity threats, such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), TDE (Transparent Data Encryption), etc.

 

Infrastructure management

An IT infrastructure is only as robust as the level of devotion and attention to detail that goes into IT infrastructure and service management. With sound management, businesses can ensure that their data centers are running around the clock to facilitate business operations.

Hardware maintenance

Upkeep is important to maintaining the integrity of an IT infrastructure. IT hardware needs to be up to date, monitored frequently, and protected by a warranty to sustain consistent performance.

Technical services

IT infrastructure management can be complex and require specialized IT teams. With so many new computing requirements and different types of technologies available, it can be an arduous task to keep up with the game. Utilizing technical services with data center architecture and implementation for virtualization, hyperconverged platforms can help optimize IT infrastructures. Specialized IT services and IT resources can help businesses get their foot on the ground or give them a running start, especially with L2/L3 field engineer support to streamline IT operations.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is one of the growing concerns for many IT systems. Firewalls, encryption, MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) are ways to ramp up cybersecurity. Complex as they may be at times, these security measures improve the security of the IT infrastructure and allow businesses to focus on the key tasks.

 

Axiom can help your business build and fine-tune scalable IT infrastructures

Axiom is your OEM alternative for building scalable IT infrastructures with our networking, services, storage, and memory solutions. We deliver high-quality enterprise grade solutions and upgrades to power IT environments for data center and HPC environments as well as single rack servers.

Building IT infrastructures with higher budget constraints can be a challenge to many businesses. Axiom addresses this with our cost-effective OEM-quality solutions that solve the vendor lock-in and provide businesses with greater flexibility in building hyper scaling data centers. Our products are fully compatible, never void warranties or SLAs, and are supported by a team with extensive industry experience. Our specialized IT services help ensure smooth data center operations and boost automation at scale, while minimizing downtime.

Optimize computing resources with Axiom enterprise-grade solutions. Build a more powerful IT infrastructure today with Axiom, OEM-quality solutions with a personal touch. For more information, email: sales@axiomupgrades.com