University of Science and Technology Chittagong

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Assignment
on
The challenges of managing IT infrastructure
and management solutions by the firms.
PREPARED BY
Kaiser Md. Chowdhury
ID : 1043
MBA Evening
Major : HRM
Batch : 31
Subject : Management Information System
Faculty of Business Administration
University of Science and Technology Chittagong. (USTC)

Date of Submission: 12-02-2021

History of Infrastructure
The term  infrastructure has been used throughout history to describe the large and complex
structures of military projects, civil projects, and public utilities. The word was first used in 1875
in France to describe railroad planning. However, prior to the 1700s, what later became known
as infrastructure began with roads and canals for transportation and irrigation. The 1800s
through the early 1900s added railroad, telegraph, electrical, water/sewer, subway, and telephone
communication infrastructure. As technology evolved from basic computing to the Internet and
beyond, business operations quickly became dependent on technology. Over time, the IT
infrastructure became a backbone of business.
Today the term is used to encompass the ever-growing foundations, structural components, and
relationships of today’s integrated business frameworks. The term, taken from the French infra,
means under or below. This highlights that a firm foundation is needed to support a strong
organizational framework.
Below is a list of areas that are commonly referred to as infrastructure:
 Highways
 Streets/roads
 Bridges
 Airports
 Railroads
 Water utilities
 Electrical utilities
 Energy utilities
 Telecommunications
 Waste utilities
 Technology hardware, software, networks, facilities

What Is IT Infrastructure?
Today’s CIOs are tasked with efficiently operating the technology infrastructure that supports
overall enterprise or corporate goals. Part of this responsibility includes increasing business
value by streamlining information retrieval and reporting, providing proactive and agile
responses to leverage information and technology, and quickly adapting to allow enhanced end
user experiences. In order to accomplish this enormous undertaking, IT leadership relies on the
myriad of tangible and intangible elements that make up the technology backbone of an
organization, the IT infrastructure. 
The IT infrastructure consists of all elements that support the management and usability of data
and information. These include the physical hardware and facilities (including data centers), data
storage and retrieval, network systems, legacy interfaces, and software to support the business
goals of an enterprise. The structure also includes hiring, training, policy, testing, process,
upgrades, and repairs.

What Is Infrastructure Management?

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 IT infrastructure management. The
purpose of IT 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 IT infrastructure, it is not
uncommon for IT infrastructure management to be broken into substructures, such as systems
management, network management, and storage management. 
Additionally, an enterprise IT infrastructure management team is typically responsible for the
following essential IT elements and services:
 Asset lifecycle
 Capacity monitoring/planning
 Storage
 Network utilization
 Availability
 Energy consumption
 Environmental issues
 Facilities
 Physical and virtual assets
  Wireless and wired network operations
 Hardware
 Software
 Security (malware/virus protection)
 Mobile connectivity
 Maintenance/service updates

Price Determination
Pricing is the most crucial factor in IT infrastructure management services. In today’s dynamic
business environment, organizations often face the pressure to reduce the cost of IT
infrastructure. As a result of which they seek for budget-friendly solutions without
compromising quality. However, by removing never used applications and unnecessary hardware
devices, enterprises can reduce their cost.
Complex UIs
One of the biggest challenges is to create a user-friendly interface that can be easily used by end
users. Often, embedding too many features in a single interface makes it full of surprises for its
users. Therefore, the infrastructure application should have simple UI.

Uninterrupted Workflow: Reliability

IT infrastructure needs to be available and performing 24X7 round the clock. Any unexpected
downtime or disruption in performance can lead organizations to face the loss of revenue.
Therefore, while handing over the IT infrastructure management services to technology
experts, enterprises implement service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure high standards for
uninterrupted workflow.
Efficiency
A robust IT infrastructure management solution is one that improves the overall effectiveness
and productivity of the existing number of resources. Therefore, an organization should have to
match its IT support to its business needs.
Contemporary Technologies
Stiff competition throws the need for organizations to stay updated with new and emerging
technologies. Therefore, it is the responsibility of third-party technology partners to provide the
latest technology to help enterprises keep up with the ongoing market standards. Moreover, it
reduces the upgrading cost for companies.

Unique Customer Experience

For surviving in today challenging environment, companies have to set high standards when it
comes to offering customer experience through customer services. Therefore, it is important for
businesses to implement an excellent IT infrastructure management that enables them to provide
swift and smooth customer services. It will give a competition edge to the companies over
competitors.
Crucial Operating Models
Dynamic business environment demands adequate IT infrastructure. When it comes to managing
IT infrastructure, operating models are pretty important. Thus, for companies, it is mandatory to
choose their models cautiously to ensure high profit and exceptional ROI.
Powerful Reporting
An IT infrastructure management must provide accurate and authoritative reporting to help
organizations to make specific business decisions. With the aid of monthly reports, enterprises
identify the activities and performance of present IT infrastructure. Additionally, these reports
help organizations to decide and allocate the budget for IT infrastructure management.
Tailor-Made Solution
Though, several options are available in the market, but they have limitations and may not align
with the demands of the organizations. Therefore, it is better to outsource IT infrastructure
management services to get a tailor-made solution that best suits business needs. Further,
organizations must have to create a balance between human aspects, IT infrastructure, and
security to ensure high performance and low maintenance.
Over to the Organization
The post discussed the challenges that make IT infrastructure management services an uphill
task. However, these challenges should not deter the companies from trying out these services.
Instead, they should invest in these services to enhance the functionality of the business.