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What is IT infrastructure?

10 July 2025

8 minutes

Authors

Mesh Flinders

Author, IBM Think

Ian Smalley

Senior Editorial Strategist

What is IT infrastructure?

Information technology infrastructure (IT infrastructure) refers to hardware, software and networking components enterprises rely on to manage and run their IT environments effectively.

IT infrastructure is a broad term that encompasses various technologies and devices, including servers, data storage systems, networking devices, operating systems (OS) and more.

Today, IT infrastructure underpins the core business operations of many worldwide successful companies, enabling business functions that allow them to flourish, like process automation, cloud computing and the deployment of software applications. It has also become a key enabler of transformative technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (gen AI), providing the robust network infrastructure and IT services they require to flourish.

Globally, the demand for IT infrastructure, IT systems and IT infrastructure security is growing rapidly, driven in part by the growth of cloud computing and the specific infrastructure needed to support it, known as cloud infrastructure. Over the next seven years, the market for IT infrastructure is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5%, from USD 120 billion to USD 241 billion.1

The largest providers of IT infrastructure solutions are, understandably, some of the most recognizable names in tech, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and IBM.

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How does IT infrastructure work?

IT infrastructure is composed of hardware components, like computers and servers, that rely on software components, like operating systems, to function. Working together, these components enable a wide range of IT services and capabilities.

Key components of IT infrastructure

IT resources are typically categorized in two groups: Hardware and software. Here’s a closer look at the characteristics of each.

  • Hardware components: Hardware components form the bedrock of most IT infrastructure environments. Examples include simple network devices, like servers and routers, as well as more complex tools like data storage, firewalls and routers. End-user hardware components like computers and mobile devices allow employees to exchange data and services and share resources to meet an organization’s business needs.

Traditional IT infrastructure versus cloud infrastructure

Today, businesses primarily rely on two types of IT infrastructure: traditional and cloud. Traditional IT infrastructure is made up of hardware and software components that are kept on-premises, usually in an office building or data center, and reserved for private or company-only use.

However, cloud infrastructure is composed of compute resources that are delivered over the internet.

Until the early 2000s, traditional IT infrastructure environments dominated the tech landscape. However, as companies like AWS started to offer software solutions over the internet, cloud computing and cloud infrastructure became more popular. Cloud architectures offer far greater scalability and flexibility than traditional IT infrastructure, being a key enabler of newer technologies like AI, gen AI, machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

While cloud infrastructure includes many of the same components as traditional IT infrastructures do, it relies heavily on a newer technology known as virtualization that traditional IT environments don’t support.

Virtualization

Virtualization is a technology that enables the creation of virtual environments from a single physical machine. Using software, virtualization builds an abstraction layer over hardware, dividing resources like processors, memory, networks and storage into multiple virtual machines (VMs). Each VM then runs its own operating system (OS) and behaves like a separate physical computer.

Key to cloud computing and cloud infrastructure, virtualization became popular in the 2000s as enterprises sought new ways to leverage technology and solve business problems at scale.

Virtualization plays a pivotal role in the deployment of cloud environments, allowing resources to be shared more efficiently. It was critical in the development of many new, cloud-based services that are now foundational to IT environments. Some examples include infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and hybrid cloud.

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The rise of hybrid cloud

Introduced in 2011, a hybrid approach to cloud infrastructure sought to unify the various approaches companies had taken up to that point into a single, flexible, cost-optimal IT infrastructure. Hybrid cloud approaches prioritize agility, allowing companies to respond to changes in conditions instantly by using virtualization to rapidly provision compute resources as needed.

Hybrid cloud architectures divide infrastructure resources into three categories: on-premises, public cloud and private cloud.

  • On-premises: Traditional IT infrastructure resources like hardware, software, data storage and other computing resources that are kept on site, typically in an office building or on-premises data center.
  • Public cloud: Resources that are hosted by third-party cloud service providers (CSPs) and provided over the internet, such as servers, network devices and data storage.
  • Private cloud: Virtualized infrastructure resources like PaaS and IaaS that are kept isolated and only available to a single customer.

According to a recent survey, the global hybrid cloud market is growing rapidly. It reached USD 125 billion in 2023 and is projected to expand to USD 558.6 billion by 2032.2 Accelerated digital transformation and broad adoption of cloud services are driving this growth, providing businesses with enhanced scalability, cost reduction and operational flexibility.

Benefits of modern IT infrastructure

Today, digital technologies that rely on IT infrastructure power nearly every aspect of business. From an individual employee’s work on a laptop or mobile device, to a networked manufacturing plant that relies on AI and IoT for automation, modern infrastructure improves communication, creates new efficiencies and helps drive innovation. Here are some of its most popular benefits.

Increased innovation

Modern IT infrastructure helps organizations speed innovation in several important ways. DevOps teams working with flexible IT architectures, like microservices, can shorten development cycles and reduce time-to-market for business applications. Modern IT systems also allow organizations to gather and process data faster so they can see—often in real-time—how customers are responding to new products or features.

Real-time decision-making

Markets can change in an instant and today’s most successful businesses need to be able to respond in real time. Modern IT infrastructure tools enable continuous data ingestion and analysis from applications, systems and business processes by using data streaming—instead of the traditional batch processing used in the past.

Greater security

Modern IT infrastructure is equipped with a robust set of systems to secure data and other valuable assets from complex problems like cyberattacks, breaches and more. High-performance storage systems back up data and strong disaster recovery options provide fallbacks when unexpected events happen. From firewalls and next-generation antivirus (NGAV) software to intrusion detection solutions (IDS) and quantum-safe encryption, today’s IT infrastructure solutions help companies stay secure.

Faster networks

From productivity and collaboration apps like Slack and Zoom, to the analysis of confidential, time-sensitive data for critical insights, modern businesses depend on the speed and security of their networks. Modern IT infrastructure components are engineered to reduce network latency and automate load balancing. This way, network traffic is prioritized for critical applications and users have a faster, more seamless experience, regardless of workload.

Reduced downtime

IT infrastructure, especially public, private and hybrid cloud architectures, help speed server provisioning and reduce downtime for mission-critical applications. Enterprises that operate in areas where zero downtime is critical, like medical and transportation, rely on modern IT infrastructure components to minimize disruptions to business operations and eliminate downtime.

IT infrastructure use cases

Modern enterprises depend on IT infrastructure for most of their core business processes. From the manufacturing, storing and delivery of goods and services to securing data and resolving customer support issues, here are some of the most popular use cases.

Cloud computing

For the last two decades, cloud computing—the delivery of compute resources and services over the internet—has become fundamental to many businesses. IT infrastructure plays a pivotal role in cloud computing, from network components that enable fast, secure internet connections to data storage solutions that allow applications to access critical data, and more.

Disaster recovery

IT infrastructure plays an important role in disaster recovery, helping enterprises restore business operations after an unexpected event. Cloud-based data storage, for example, can help restore sensitive data after a cyberattack or natural disaster, helping minimize downtime and get crucial systems back up and running.

Big data analytics

Big data analytics, the processing and analysis of large amounts of data to extract insights, depends on specialized IT infrastructure components like Hadoop and Apache Spark to function. Advanced solutions even use AI and ML to automate tasks and speed insights when dealing with large datasets.

For example, AI-enhanced process mining—a data analysis technique that looks at event data from different systems to find new efficiencies—is dramatically improving IT operations, employee engagement and even customer satisfaction, according to a recent report by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV).

DevOps

DevOps teams have constantly relied on the newest, most advanced IT infrastructure solutions to shorten software development cycles and deliver cutting-edge applications. Today, cloud-enabled infrastructure helps improve real-time collaboration between developers, enhances processes, and can even automate certain aspects of the development process with the help of gen AI.

Operations

By using AI and ML, some IT infrastructure operations teams are developing new ways to automate tasks and streamline outdated processes. AI operations (AIOps), for example, uses natural language processing (NLP) along with ML models to analyze massive volumes of data generated by IT components and find opportunities for resource optimization.

Related solutions

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Footnotes

1. IT infrastructure market share and size analysis, Coherent Market Insights, April 2025

2. Hybrid Cloud Market Report, IMARC Group, 2024