Infrastructure

Network infrastructure is a category of information technology that is used to provide network services that allow devices to connect and communicate. This includes foundational networking hardware, software, services, and facilities. The following are common examples of network infrastructure.

Routers connect devices and networks together by forwarding traffic. This is how traffic gets from one place to another on a network such as an internet.

Switches connect devices to a network by forwarding traffic. For example, the computers in an office might be connected to switches as a means of creating a local area network.

Hubs A simple type of switch that forwards all traffic to every connected device.

Bridges Network bridges create a single network from multiple networks.

Gateways Devices that provide an interface between different types of networks. Essentially translates between different types of signal and/or protocol.

Proxies Devices that make requests on behalf of clients. Often used to monitor, filter and log the traffic on a corporate network.

Servers A server is a computer that provides a service to other computers. For example, a web server that provides web pages to client devices.
Load Balancers Devices that distribute work to servers to allow services to horizontally scale.

Reverse Proxy A service that appears to clients to be a server that is really forwarding requests to servers. A reverse proxy may perform services such as load balancing, encryption, and security.

Ethernet A family of standards for networking that includes various cable technologies and compatible computing devices, switches, hubs, and routers.

Wireless Access Points Hardware that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network. Typically provides a wifi service.

Optical Fiber High capacity cables that are used to create large networks including internet backbones, global area networks, wide area networks, metropolitan area networks, and campus area networks. It is also common for network endpoints to be connected with optical fiber.

Repeaters A device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Often required to transmit data great distances.

Optical Amplifier A device that is similar to a repeater for fiber optics. Increases the strength of an optical signal directly without converting to an electrical signal.

Interconnects Facilities where networks connect to each other to exchange traffic.

Firewalls A firewall controls network traffic based on a set of rules. A basic tool for network security.

Intrusion Detection Systems Services that monitor network traffic for malicious activity or policy violations.

Intrusion Prevention Systems Ident Platforms for managing & Access Management authorization and authentication.

Key Management Tools for managing encryption keys.Certificate

Authority Services that publish certificates that describe organizations and their public encryption keys. Basic infrastructure for encryption on the internet such as SSL and TLS.

DNS The domain name system, or DNS, is a globally distributed system for translating domain names to IP addresses.

DHCP Dynamic host configuration protocol, or DHCP, is a service that automatically assigns IP addresses to devices.

SMTP Simple mail transfer protocol, or SMTP, is a type of service that delivers email.

VoIP Technologies for voice communications over internet protocol. For example, software that allows you to make long distance phone calls using an internet connection.

VPN Virtual private network, or VPN, is services for securely connecting to a private network over an untrusted network such as the internet. For example, VPN software that allows an employee to connect to an office local area network from home.

Content Delivery Network Services that allow publishers to serve content such as images and videos from a data center that is close to each user to reduce latency.

Edge Computing Services that allow you to compute in different geographical locations to achieve scale and to compute more efficiently by processing data geographically close to clients and/or data sources.
Services that monitor network traffic to detect and prevent vulnerability exploits.