Is Infrastructure Management (Cmgt445, Week 2 Individual)

Introduction

We are living in an ever-changing and evolving world of technological marvels. Seemingly every day, there is a new ‘this’ or a better ‘that’ in regards to technological advancements. Each new advancement brings new challenges to the management of the IS infrastructures present in the technological world. Areas such as configuration management, preventative maintenance, compliance to industry standards, training personnel for adaptive maintenance, and the effects of globalization are constant considerations of the information system (IS) infrastructure management.

Configuration Management

The goal of effective configuration management is to keep a system’s performance and functionality, whether it be physical attributes or functional attributes, at a consistent level and at optimal performance throughout the system’s design life cycle (SDLC). The most comprehensive configuration management will incorporate a configuration management database (CMDB), (Kadar, 2013). This is a centralized database that includes all pertinent information to an IS system such as maintenance records, incident logs, update logs, and IS documentation relative to the system. The benefits of such a design include a log of all assets and an increased visibility of these assets allowing for greater tracking and in maintaining these assets. Additionally, this type of design allows for faster identification of incorrect configurations that could cause damage to the system; this allows for system maintenance personnel to act quickly to remedy configuration problems. Furthermore, due to the higher visibility of assets, maintenance and management of these assets is much more efficient and simpler.

Preventive Maintenance

As Benjamin Franklin once said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This can’t be truer than in the preventive maintenance of an IS infrastructure. The hardware and software of an IS infrastructure is the lifeblood of the system. If the...