What is an Infrastructure Engineer?
Before you can understand what infrastructure technology is, you need to understand what the term “infrastructure” means. This term refers to any existing systems that support a community of any size, be it a home, a shared flat, a city, or even a nation.
The infrastructure includes:
1. Road, motorway and rail networks for traffic within and outside a municipality.
2. Water and sewage systems ensuring an adequate supply of clean water and waste disposal.
3. Electricity and gas networks that meet the needs of the entire community.
An Infrastructure Engineer is a unique position that has evolved as the Internet spreads. An Infrastructure Engineer is responsible for planning, coordinating and maintaining the infrastructure of a residential complex, public facilities, or entire cities. Infrastructure talks about the systems that support a community. These include road and motorway networks, water and sewerage, electricity, rail, telecommunications and gas pipelines. In today’s digital world, an infrastructure engineer occupies a prominent place in information technology. Instead of road networks, today’s infrastructure engineer builds and maintains the digital network of his employer or customer.
Infrastructure engineers use their experience to make sure that all these systems work in harmony within a community. Infrastructure engineers can hire in public institutions such as hospitals, schools and libraries. They also are used by the government at the city, county, state, or national level.
The role of the infrastructure engineer is an administrative position, and most have a degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field. Your typical work environment is the office or field where you analyze or manipulate the infrastructure of a system
Do you want to be an infrastructure engineer?
The infrastructure engineer (IE) is an IT professional who:
I don’t know everything about everything
DOES NOT KNOW EVERY AREA OF THE DATA CENTER SO GOOD THAT YOU DO NOT NEED ANYONE TO RESERVE
DOES has an average understanding of each part of the IT infrastructure
He knows the administration and configuration of end-user applications, Windows Server, Linux, VMware, Cisco network devices, servers, and storage.
Understand how all these things work together so that end-user applications work and work well.
DOES knows how to solve problems in all infrastructure areas
DOES is open and ready to do anything (within IT standards) to make customers happy and successful
YES communicates with business people, users, and clients in simple English, taking into account their needs and IT needs
and probably has multiple certifications for different brands and parts that make up the infrastructure (MCITP, VCP, CCNP and more)
Most importantly, this person is the contact person (or one of them) in IT that makes the company what it is. Keep in mind that I did not say that this person needs a bachelor’s degree from a university. They don’t need this to do their job, but they may need it to do their job. Besides, this bachelor’s degree may have taught the person their communication skills and understanding of various aspects of the business, such as marketing, accounting, finance, human resources, manufacturing, etc.
Become an Infrastructure Engineer by Learning Four Topics
Above, I provided a list of things a Network Infrastructure Engineer should and should not do. It’s a good start, but for those new to IT, such as Windows Server or Desktop Admin, the frequently asked question is, “Where do I start?”. I’m trying to explain that they should not work to move from a Windows desktop administrator to a server administrator to become an advanced Windows administrator. Instead, they should focus on gaining a moderate level of knowledge and experience in four key areas:
1. Windows Server Infrastructure: Most current servers run Windows Server 2008, and most companies use Active Directory. Even a majority of enterprise network infrastructure runs with the Windows Server DHCP server, the DNS server, the VPN, and the Remote Desktop. The Windows Server training can find here.
2. Network infrastructure (Cisco): Everything runs over the network. Whether or not you know Cisco-specific systems, understanding the IP networks, subnets, gateways, switches, routers, ACLs, wireless connections, and content of a package gives you a solid foundation. Here you can find the Cisco router and change the training.
3. Memory: What is the difference between a SAN and a NAS? Should I use NFS or iSCSI? Why should I use RAID 1 vs. 5 use? How do I measure memory latency? Being able to answer queries like these will give you an idea of the types of things you need to know about memory. For storage training, I recommend this EMC Press Book: Storage and Information Management.
4. Virtualization and Cloud Computing: If your infrastructure today does not use virtualization and cloud computing, you need to learn and implement it yourself. It makes IT managers more productive and the IT infrastructure more efficient. Find VMware virtualization training here.
BONUS: Your company’s applications: The entire infrastructure is designed to support the applications of your business. Understand what they do, why they are important, what they earn money, and how they work together. Talk to the owners of the applications and use the applications themselves.
How much does an Infrastructure Engineer make in the United States?
The average salary for a Software Infrastructure Engineer Salary is $112,584 per year in the United States. Salary estimates are based on 921 salaries submitted anonymously to Indeed by Infrastructure Engineer employees, users, and collected from past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months. The typical tenure for an Infrastructure Engineer is 1-3 years.
