What is cloud infrastructure?

What is cloud infrastructure?

Cloud infrastructure is a crucial component of cloud computing, providing essential technologies such as virtualization, servers, storage, and networking, to create, deploy and manage cloud-based services and applications. Cloud infrastructure improves scalability, flexibility, and affordability by providing on-demand computing resources and charging per usage. It also improves reliability, performance, and security through redundant architecture, resource allocation, and data protection. Cloud infrastructure allows organizations and people to use scalable, dependable, and accessible computer resources without investing in hardware and infrastructure.

Cloud infrastructure can be delivered through several service models, each offering a different balance of control, responsibility, and convenience. The three primary models are:

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). IaaS is a cloud computing model where providers deliver virtualized computing resources—such as servers, storage, and networking—over the Internet. In IaaS, users manage their own operating systems, applications, and middleware, while the cloud provider is responsible for maintaining the underlying hardware, virtualization, and network infrastructure. This allows businesses to deploy and manage IT infrastructure flexibly and at scale, without needing to buy or maintain physical hardware.
• Platform as a service (PaaS). PaaS builds on cloud infrastructure by adding development tools, middleware, databases, and operating systems as managed services. Developers can focus on coding and deploying applications, while the PaaS provider takes care of provisioning, scaling, and maintaining the underlying infrastructure and software layers.
• Software as a service (SaaS). SaaS sits at the highest level, providing complete software solutions that are hosted and maintained by the cloud provider. Users access applications—such as email, collaboration tools, office suites, CRM, HR, or ERP—via web browsers or APIs, eliminating the need for installation, updates, or local management. SaaS leverages all layers of cloud infrastructure, making software accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.

Cloud infrastructure comes in several types, each designed for specific ownership models, deployment locations, and business needs:

• Public cloud infrastructure. Owned and operated by third-party providers (like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), public cloud infrastructure runs on provider-managed data centers and is accessible via the Internet. Resources are shared among multiple users, making it highly scalable and cost-effective. Typical use cases include startups, businesses needing rapid scaling, and organizations wanting to offload IT operations.
• Private cloud infrastructure. Private cloud infrastructure is dedicated to one organization and can be managed internally or by a third party. It runs on-premises or within a company's firewall, offering enhanced control, customization, and security. Ideal for organizations with strict compliance requirements, sensitive data, or specialized workloads needing confidentiality.
• Hybrid cloud infrastructure. Hybrid cloud infrastructure combines public and private clouds, integrating both environments for greater flexibility. It allows organizations to keep critical data and workloads on-premises while using public cloud resources for less sensitive needs or to handle peak demand. Commonly used by businesses seeking to optimize resources, improve resilience, and respond quickly to changing needs.
• Multicloud infrastructure. Multicloud infrastructure uses multiple public cloud providers simultaneously, often to avoid vendor lock-in or leverage the unique strengths of different platforms. It is owned by the organization but runs on various external data centers. Common use cases include risk management, redundancy, and access to specialized cloud services.
• Edge cloud infrastructure. Edge cloud infrastructure distributes computing resources to locations closer to where data is generated or consumed (such as IoT devices, remote sites, or local data centers). Owned by service providers or enterprises, it runs outside central cloud data centers. It's ideal for low-latency applications, real-time data processing, and supporting remote operations.
• Sovereign cloud infrastructure. Sovereign cloud infrastructure is designed to meet local data residency, privacy, and regulatory requirements. Owned and operated by national or regional entities, it runs within the country’s borders. It's typically used by governments, public sector organizations, and regulated industries needing strict control over data location and access.

Choosing the right cloud infrastructure model depends on your organization's technical needs, regulatory requirements, and growth plans. Evaluating a few key factors can help you determine which approach best supports your workloads, budget, and long-term strategy:

• Assess security and compliance needs. Determine your regulatory requirements, data privacy concerns, and the sensitivity of your data. Private or sovereign clouds may suit strict compliance needs.
• Define workload requirements. Identify if your workloads need high customization, performance, or low latency. Edge and private clouds are preferable for specialized or mission-critical workloads.
• Estimate scalability demands. Consider how quickly you need to scale resources up or down. Public and hybrid cloud models excel at rapid, flexible scaling.
• Evaluate cost structure. Compare upfront investment versus pay-as-you-go pricing and ongoing operational costs. Public cloud offers cost-effectiveness while private cloud may have higher initial costs.
• Measure IT management capabilities. Assess your team's ability to manage and maintain infrastructure. Public cloud reduces management overhead, while private cloud requires more in-house expertise.
• Review data residency and sovereignty requirements. Check if you are required to keep data within specific geographic boundaries. Sovereign and local clouds help meet these mandates.
• Analyze disaster recovery and business continuity. Ensure the model supports backup, replication, and failover strategies. Hybrid and public clouds often have built-in DR options.
• Plan for future growth and flexibility. Choose a model that can adapt to your changing business needs and workloads. Hybrid and multicloud offer long-term flexibility.
• Consult stakeholders and experts. Involve IT, security, finance, and business leaders in the decision to ensure alignment with business goals.

Switching to cloud infrastructure can significantly affect a business’s costs and operations. Cloud adoption enables organizations to move from large upfront capital expenses to flexible, usage-based costs. Through FinOps practices, companies can optimize spending with strategies like rightsizing resources, autoscaling, and reserved instances. Enhanced monitoring, AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations), and SRE (site reliability engineering) help reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and automate routine tasks, leading to operational savings.

Cloud providers also offer disaster recovery (DR) solutions with different tiers for recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO), allowing businesses to select suitable protection levels without maintaining costly duplicate infrastructure.

Securing cloud infrastructure requires a deep understanding of the shared responsibility model and focusing on controls across data, identity, and network layers. The shift from a defined perimeter to a distributed environment necessitates a zero-trust approach.

The shared responsibility model

• The foundation of trust. Security is a split effort where the provider (AWS, Azure, GCP) secures the physical infrastructure and hypervisor, while the customer is responsible for everything "in" the cloud, including data, OS, and network configurations.

Identity and access management (IAM)

• Principle of least privilege (PoLP). Policy strictly limits permissions to the bare minimum required for a task to prevent over-privileged accounts from becoming major attack vectors.
• Strong authentication. Enforces MFA for all human users and transition programmatic access to temporary security credentials, such as IAM Roles or short-lived tokens, to eliminate long-term access keys.
• Service-to-service authorization. Uses managed identities or roles for cloud services to interact, removing the "anti-pattern" of storing static credentials within application code.
• Identity federation. Centralizes user management by integrating cloud IAM with enterprise providers (Okta, AD) using standards like SAML 2.0 or OIDC.

Data protection and encryption

• Encryption at rest. Secures sensitive data in object or block storage using AES-256, managed via key management services (KMS) or hardware security modules (HSM).
• Encryption in transit. Protects data integrity by ensuring all communications—both internal and external—utilize TLS 1.2 or higher.
• Data loss prevention (DLP). Deploys automated tools to scan, classify, and protect PII or sensitive data from accidental exposure within cloud services.

Network and perimeter security

• VPC configuration and segmentation. Isolates applications into specific subnets based on trust levels, ensuring public-facing assets are logically separated from private databases.
• Security groups and NACLs. Implements stateful and stateless virtual firewalls to strictly govern inbound and outbound traffic based on specific protocols and ports.
• WAF and perimeter defense. Uses web application firewalls to mitigate common threats like SQL injection and XSS at the edge.
• IDS/IPS monitoring. Deploys cloud-native intrusion detection and prevention systems to monitor traffic for malicious patterns and anomalies.

Configuration and vulnerability management

• Configuration drift management. Uses governance tools (like AWS Config or Azure Policy) to audit resources against CIS benchmarks and trigger automated remediation for non-compliant assets.
• Image hardening. Standardizes deployment by using "golden images" that are pre-patched and stripped of unnecessary services to reduce the attack surface.
• Automated vulnerability scanning. Continuously scans OS images, application code, and containers to identify and remediate known CVEs before they can be exploited.

HPE provides a wide range of cloud infrastructure solutions for varied business needs:

• HPE Aruba Networking Central: Centralize network administration for efficiency and security throughout your enterprise.
• Data Services Cloud Console (DSCC): Centralize cloud resource management and optimization. DSCC works smoothly with GreenLake services, including Backup and recovery, File Storage, and Block Storage, to provide a consistent user experience.
• GreenLake for Private Cloud Enterprise: Combine cloud computing's agility and scalability with an enterprise-specific on-premises infrastructure.
• GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition: Accelerate innovation and growth with an agile, cost-effective, and reliable private cloud solution.
• GreenLake: Accelerate digital transformation with a consumption-based IT strategy that scales without losing performance or control.
• HPE Hybrid Cloud: Meet modern enterprises' dynamic demands with a hybrid cloud architecture that mixes on-premises infrastructure and cloud services. Unify and optimize IT with seamless on-premises infrastructure and cloud services.
• HPE Application Modernization Services: Modernize old applications into cloud-native solutions to boost innovation, efficiency, and user experience.

HPE Transformation Services—Edge-to-Cloud Modernization Program: Get strategic advice and assistance for updating your IT infrastructure from edge to cloud for seamless integration and optimization across your IT environment.