What is cloud infrastructure?

Cloud infrastructure is the collection of hardware and software components — such as servers, storage, network resources and virtualization software — that enable cloud computing and the delivery of cloud services to end users. An organization’s cloud infrastructure contains all the tools that enable hosting services and applications in the cloud.

Cloud infrastructure is similar to a traditional data center infrastructure, but with one fundamental distinction: It relies heavily on virtualization. To this end, organizations frequently rely on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to rent virtualized IT infrastructure resources. Since IaaS providers only charge for what an organization uses, the pay-as-you-go model eliminates the expense of purchasing and maintaining in-house resources.

There are four components that form any cloud infrastructure, regardless of the type of cloud environment (private, public, hybrid or community):

• Hardware: Even in virtual environments, physical devices are needed. This hardware — located at various geographical locations — can include servers, switches, routers, firewalls, backup devices, load balancers, networking equipment and storage arrays.
• Virtualization: Virtualization is software that powers the creation of an abstraction (virtual version) of computer resources. Software (known as a hypervisor) sits on top of the hardware and allows its elements — like memory, processors and storage — to be divided into virtual machines (VMs). 
• Storage: Cloud computing utilizes distributed file systems that provide scalable storage and keep data and backups secure. Using cloud storage services allows companies to store and manage data without having to build their own physical data centers.
• Network: Networking enables the cloud resources users need to travel across the internet, from back end cloud systems to end user devices. Composed of equipment like physical wires, switches, routers and high-speed cable, the network enables users to access cloud applications and services anytime, anywhere.

The main benefits of cloud infrastructure compared to an on-premises data center include efficiency, scalability and reduced costs. 

Utilizing cloud infrastructure enables organizations to have on-demand access to computing resources — without the burden of procuring and maintaining an on-premises infrastructure. It also allows DevOps teams to deploy Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to improve consistency, streamline workflows and enhance cloud security.

Ideal for enterprise computing, leveraging a cloud computing infrastructure allows organizations to achieve:

• Cost savings: Eliminate capital expenses associated with purchasing hardware and software needed for a physical IT infrastructure.
• Scalability: Quickly increase or decrease IT resources to meet changing usage demands — without service disruptions. 
• Reliability: Ensure high availability by using cloud providers’ redundant “availability zones”— data centers located across multiple regions — to deliver a seamless end user experience.
• Security: Leverage the security capabilities of third-party cloud providers — whose security investments far exceed what a typical organization can make — to improve cloud security through economies of scale.
• Disaster recovery: Minimize downtime and maintain business continuity during a wide range of disaster scenarios — from natural disasters to power outages — that could threaten the operations of a physical data center.

The shift away from on-premises cloud infrastructure toward cloud native technologies brings many benefits — but also new challenges. 

Using a cloud native observability platform can help organizations monitor and manage complex cloud environments at each stage of the cloud migration journey:

Pre-migration

Before a cloud infrastructure migration, full-stack observability can help organizations right-size their cloud infrastructure. It does this by identifying baseline application workloads and throughputs based on the environment. 

During migration

During migration, an observability platform can collect data on resource utilization, end user experience and throughputs to match the cloud provider’s infrastructure requirements. 

Post-migration

After migration, observability delivers information and insights across the entire application delivery chain to optimize usage, ensure security and mitigate issues in real time. 

A cloud native observability platform offers a dynamic view of all an organization’s cloud native environments — from the cloud infrastructure to the Kubernetes® orchestration layers and applications. It also provides greater insight into how the cloud infrastructure impacts application workloads, leveraging AI-assisted correlations and root cause analysis to accelerate detection and resolution of performance issues.