IT security Archive | OTRS

IT Infrastructure: Definition, Best Practices, Solutions

Tobias Kortas — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:13:50 +0000

IT Infrastructure: Definition, Best Practices, Solutions

2025-06-11
Tobias Kortas

Digital Transformation

A reliable IT infrastructure is essential for protecting against cyber threats and securing sensitive data. IT environments must be as secure, stable, and resilient as possible. Regular system checks, timely updates and patches, and the use of modern software solutions are all crucial.

This post delivers a well-rounded look at what teams should consider with regard to the IT environment entails. It also highlights security considerations.

What Is IT Infrastructure?

People often call the IT infrastructure a tech stack. It includes all the technical components needed to provide and run IT services. It’s essential for securely storing and processing information, defending against cyber threats, and scaling business operations.

IT infrastructure can be viewed from several perspectives:

● End-user perspective: focuses on technical equipment.

● Technical user perspective: includes design and configuration activities performed by specialized staff.

● Provider perspective: considers applicable laws and regulations.

Components of the IT Infrastructure

Many components make up the infrastructure, including:

● Hardware, such as servers, computers, networks, and data storage devices

● Software, including operating systems, databases, and applications

● Network components, like routers, wide area network, switches, and firewalls

● Data centers or cloud services, for data processing and storage

It includes all the hardware and software networks needed for the business to operate productively.

Types of IT Infrastructure

Teams can structure the IT infrastructure in several ways. However, many evolve organically and lack the benefits of a structured setup.

The way in which data is hosted typically defines the type of infrastructure. For instance:

● Hybrid Cloud: A mix of on-premises systems and cloud services. While many companies rely increasingly on cloud resources, they often still use local infrastructure components as well.

● Cloud Infrastructure: A service model with self-service, scalability, and resource sharing. Though not IT infrastructure in the strictest sense, it includes both public and private cloud environments. The model is often referred to as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).

● Traditional Data Center: A classic approach with server, storage, and network systems managed on-site by specialized teams. These are typically on-premises solutions.

● Local Infrastructure: Many businesses still use local IT systems. This includes desktop PCs and software, all hosted on their own servers.

● Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI): A single software interface provides all compute, processing and networking resources. People often call it a “datacenter in a box.” These setups are easy to deploy and manage.

Tip: When using external data centers, ask if they support data regulation requirements for your industry or local area. For example, a location in Germany will support GDPR compliance.

Core Business Topics for IT Leaders

Technology impacts many areas and has numerous interdependencies. However, it can be broken down into several core aspects:

● Performance: The infrastructure should be scalable with low latency, allowing businesses to stay agile and responsive.

● Availability: Redundancy, load balancing, virtualization, and solid recovery strategies help minimize downtime.

● Security: Patch management, secure configurations, and incident response (especially for vulnerabilities) significantly enhance security.

● Cost Control: Using resources wisely and managing licenses well helps keep costs down. Key performance indicators, like IT cost per user or IT budget ratio, can help track expenses.

Management Matters

Modern infrastructures are increasingly complex and mission-critical. To ensure they remain stable, resilient, and cost-efficient, organizations need powerful infrastructure management.

IT infrastructures must evolve with changing business and technology requirements. Agility, responsiveness, and scalability – along with ease of use – are now key success factors.

Also important is building a secure IT infrastructure. This protects sensitive data, maintains system integrity and availability, and ensure the business complies with data protection laws.

The Role of Future-Proofing

Modern technology and a strong IT setup help businesses improve processes, lower costs, and use new technologies. These include cloud computing, virtual machines, software-defined networking (SDN), and the Internet of Things (IoT). These innovations improve resource usage and enable automation.

Emerging trends like AI applications, edge computing, and rising security demands continue to reshape IT infrastructures. To stay competitive and secure in the long term, companies must adapt.

While AI offers clear benefits, evolving threat scenarios require continuous technical adjustments to environment.

Best Practices for Building a Robust IT Infrastructure

To ensure a resilient infrastructure, businesses must assess risks, develop a comprehensive security plan, implement necessary measures, and monitor and update systems. A competitive, goal-driven, and sustainable infrastructure provides long-term value.
Here are some best practices:

#1: Assess Your IT Maturity

Establishing a baseline is essential. Overeager actions can derail optimization and improvement efforts.

Identify all existing hardware, software, network devices and services – including any shadow IT. Define strategic goals based on the size and capabilities of your IT department.

#2: Plan Strategically

Poor planning can lead to data protection issues, unnecessary complexity, high costs, and additional management effort.

Building a new data center can take years. However, getting and setting up servers, storage, and network solutions usually takes 6 to 12 months.

Cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service can speed things up, but rushed decisions here may lead to compliance or cost issues.

Plan with realistic timelines and clear objectives.

#3: Focus on Security from the Start

Build your infrastructure with security as a core principle—not as an afterthought.

“Security by design” includes network security, access controls, encryption, and zero-trust approaches. Regular vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and backups are essential.

#4: Monitor and Document

Monitor all components centrally to detect attacks, outages, and bottlenecks early. Use AI to enable proactive analytics and use automation tools for quick responses.

Keep detailed documentation that is transparent and accessible for all stakeholders. This includes clear change processes and rollback options—vital for rapid, logical decision-making during crises.

A solid IT Asset Management (ITAM) strategy is also essential. Ideally, a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) documents all IT assets and their relationships.

#5: Think Long-Term and Future-Forward

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is important. Don’t only think about initial investment costs when choosing infrastructure components. Factor in the full lifecycle of hardware and software.

Remain open to technologies like containerization, AI, or edge computing. The latter enables devices to process data and trigger actions in real-time from remote locations.

Ensure your IT team fully understands and can work with new technologies. Since tools and platforms evolve rapidly, ongoing training is essential for long-term resilience.

IT Infrastructure: Powerful Software Solutions

Modern IT infrastructure solutions unify systems into a cohesive architecture that helps achieve business goals. They’re not just about technology—they also reduce costs and streamline operations.
There are many tools available to manage business needs intelligently. Here are some effective examples:

1. Configuration Management

As a core part of the IT infrastructure, a CMDB allows for systematic tracking and management of IT assets. It stores all configuration data and relationships.

2. Risk Management

The IT environment must be secure from the start. Waiting for an incident before taking action can be costly. Companies should assess risks, implement structured workflows, and use reporting and analytics to manage them.

3. IT Automation

Automate recurring tasks and processes to save time, reduce errors, and improve efficiency. Examples include automated server setups, network configurations, and Infrastructure as Code deployments.

4. Containerization

This modern tech has transformed how software is built and deployed. Applications run in isolated, portable containers—providing consistent environments regardless of infrastructure.

5. Device Management

Integrating IT infrastructure with device management enables secure, efficient, and compliant operations. Automated device management helps keep environments up-to-date and protected.

Conclusion: IT Infrastructure as a Strategic Asset

IT’s role has evolved. Today, it must also contribute directly to business goals. The infrastructure is a strategic framework that helps companies remain competitive and future-ready.

The type of infrastructure an organization uses – and how it manages it – affects performance, security, and costs. Building it is about more than just technology; it’s about reliability and risk prevention.

Following best practices and implementing the right solutions can make a real difference. Once the infrastructure is strong, companies benefit for years. They are also better prepared to defend against threats like cyberattacks.

Learn how OTRS can support your IT infrastructure operations.

Tobias Kortas

Digital Transformation

Best practices for incident response management

Tobias Kortas — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:15:16 +0000

Best practices for incident response management

2025-06-02
Tobias Kortas

Best Practices

Sophisticated incident response management makes it possible to respond well to incidents, contain their consequences and routinely increase security. As the stakes are high, this is a critical area that requires a highly organized, orchestrated approach. These best practices help you manage incidents successfully.

What is Incident Response Management?

Incident response management is a structured process for identifying, analyzing, containing, resolving and following up on IT security incidents. The aim is to reduce potential damage and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

Incident response is an important part of information security and risk management. You can use it during malware infections, phishing attacks, security events, data breaches, or physical security issues.

Who is responsible for incident response management?

The incident handler is generally the responsible person. They contain and mitigate security incidents.

An incident handler coordinates the work of cyber security experts. They define and document roles. They are also responsible for communication channels. Follow best practices, standards, and legal requirements when you do this.

There are other important roles when managing an incident including:

● the Incident Response Team (IRT) or Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) has operational responsibility
● the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with strategic responsibility
● the ITSM team members support with handling of non-security-related incidents (e.g. system failures); typically under the leadership of the Incident Manager
● SOCs (Security Operations Centers), if applicable
● If necessary, specialized companies for forensic analysis and incident response

What phases are there in security incident response management?

Incident response should not be a spontaneous, unstructured crisis response. It should follow a clear and standard process. This process covers all necessary steps and reduces risks effectively.

Phases of the incident response process cover:

1. Preparation: The necessary tools and processes must be in place. Incident scenario training should prepare the employees.

2. Detection and Analysis: The extent to which an event is an incident is assessed, communicated and documented.

3. Containment: Those responsible isolate the malware and prevent it from spreading. They also analyze the causes of the incident.

4. Eradication: The incident response team removes the threat, cleans up the affected systems and eliminates the cause.

5. Recovery: Patched and trustworthy again, the systems return to regular operation.

6. Lessons learned (follow-up): The team analyzes the entire process, documents it and initiates improvement measures.

Best practices

To respond to incidents effectively and reduce damage, we must use the right practices in an organized way.
Here is an overview of the most important best practices. Experience shows that these can significantly improve security incident management.

#1 Create an Incident Response Plan (IRP)

A good incident response plan helps teams respond to problems effectively. It also prevents serious negative outcomes. People who have one already have a big advantage. Many companies do not have set procedures for incidents.
Such a plan should be mandatory, especially for critical infrastructures or when handling sensitive data.

An incident response plan should clearly define how to handle different types of incidents. You should base this on guidelines and processes. This includes roles and responsibilities, including escalation paths that regulate who takes on which tasks in an emergency.

#2 Use tools in an orchestrated way

In fact, many security teams feel overwhelmed by the lack of communication between an increasing variety of cybersecurity tools. This results in network traffic disruptions, friction and delayed response times. A lack of integration and interoperability are proving to be particularly critical.

One possible solution is SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) software, like STORM. This software connects different tools through interfaces. It enables you to collect data in near real time. It also helps establish process automation.

Using SOAR software is an extremely professional and effective way to gain a well-rounded overview and act efficiently. In addition to SOAR software, the following systems are also used for incident response management:

● Ticketing and incident response management systems
● SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems
● EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) systems
● Colloboration tools
● Network Detection and Response (NDR) systems
● Forensic tools
● Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs)
● Backup and recovery solutions

#3: Thoughtful use of AI

AI-powered security systems can detect anomalies faster, proactively achieve promising responses and predict potential security incidents.

Unfortunately, cyber criminals also use AI to find new ways to attack. Attacks using AI technologies lead to considerable costs for affected organizations. They must constantly combat the risks and rectify incidents. When organizations fail to use AI, they risk being left behind and becoming an easy target.

AI should not replace basic automation, good tool integration, or teamwork within the organization. After all, even these seemingly simple means can achieve significant time savings.

One point is certain: Before using AI across the board, companies should first automate time-consuming routine tasks, as this can already significantly reduce the workload of their security teams.

#4 Putting teams/employees at the center

The best IT solutions and tools – on their own – do not lead to a successful incident response. In addition to orchestrating their use and establishing clear, targeted processes, organizations must also build competent teams.

Organizations are therefore well advised to set up their teams strongly and prepare them for emergencies. This includes regular training, like simulation exercises or awareness training. Training helps people quickly and accurately spot and report suspicious activity.

Organizations should also develop effective strategies to deal with blackmail from attackers. Legal factors and clear rules of conduct are very important in this situation.

#5 Combining cybersecurity with ITSM

Incident management is an ITSM discipline. There are often cybersecurity teams that work independently of ITSM teams.

If both teams work closely together, like when securing IT services, they can improve security awareness. This leads to better threat prevention. Both of these are important for effective incident response management.

In practice, however, cybersecurity experts rarely work together with ITSM teams. This is where companies need to establish a more active exchange and joint projects to create real competence within teams.

#6 Engage in clear crisis communication

Communication creates transparency and trust, avoids rumors and is also extremely important due to legal and regulatory requirements. On the one hand, it must enable functional incident response. On the other, it provides information to those directly and indirectly affected.

Predefined and standardized processes for reporting are recommended to speed up communication. The processes outline which groups of people to inform, when to inform them, and to what extent. There is also a plan for follow up status reports and subsequent resolved incident logs.

#7 Documentation / protocol

After completing the hard and sometimes stressful work on a security incident, one important task remains: documenting it. All steps and decisions taken in connection with an incident must be recorded in full.

Documenting the incident makes it possible to apply what has been learned to future incidents, optimize procedures, and install better protection. Legal factors can also play a role, especially in the event of serious damage.

In general, a post-incident review proves to be extremely important in order to improve the corresponding processes.

#8 Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement not only plays an important role in ITIL® processes, but also makes sense in many respects. Those in charge should review the incident response plan at least once a year. They should also update it after a major incident if needed.

Feedback, reviews and logs generated during incident management prove to be particularly valuable. By integrating findings into the right processes and systems, response becomes increasingly faster and more effective.

Conclusion: Incident response management requires continuity

The right incident response activities protect companies from serious damage in an emergency. Successful security management involves defining and practicing the right activities, steps, and practices in advance.

Incident response should be an ongoing process. It should not only happen in a chaotic way during a crisis. A good plan is essential for effective response.

Since important assets and reputations are often at risk, those in charge should focus on incident response. They should also use the best practices that fit their needs. For example, software solutions for orchestration, employee awareness and mature processes offer long term value.

Learn how OTRS can help you with incident response management.

Tobias Kortas

Best Practices

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