Best Application Infrastructure Systems (AIS)

Application infrastructure includes all the components that are required to deliver an application and its services to customers. The most common components include:

• Intrusion detection systems: IDS systems are used for monitoring network traffic to detect any suspicious activities. The system is set to alert application managers and developers when a cyber attack on an application is taking place, or if a user is attempting to access an unauthorized application.

• Firewalls: It is essential that users have access only to authorized assets and services. Firewalls ensure that users interact with authorized applications exclusively via a web portal and are prevented from accessing other application infrastructure components.

• Application servers: An application server hosts applications and code. The application server is generally hidden behind a firewall and is accessed through its presentation layer. Application servers provide the mechanisms that are necessary to fulfill requests and deliver requested services to users.

• Web servers: Web-based applications are delivered by a web server using the HTTP communication protocol to send HTML and script files.

• File storage and database servers: Organizations that store data in their applications incorporate file storage and SQL servers as part of their application infrastructure.
  
• Streaming platforms: Development teams use streaming platforms to allow consumer software programs to send data via messages for the producing software. The data being transferred can include user activity monitoring, notifications, and financial transactions.

Some of the challenges facing application infrastructure management include:

• Increased security and availability demands: Modern day ever-growing networks require fast deployments and constant protection from cyber threats.
  
• Lack of integration: Most IT infrastructure is a combination of various tools and services provided by multiple vendors, each of which has its own management system. This requires effective integration options in order to prevent loss of features and security or inflated infrastructure.
  
• Poor network performance: Network efficiency can be decreased when server resources are directed to carry out other networking tasks such as SSL encryption or authorization.
  
• Multiple devices: Enterprise networks work with a large amount of equipment to get their networks to function properly. Each of these devices has to be tracked and properly managed.
  
• Outdated equipment: Outdated legacy devices cannot always integrate with modern software and networks. This can cause security risks and slower workflows.

Application infrastructure systems enable the management of application infrastructure by providing the software that is required to support all of the infrastructure’s features, functions, and services. These systems can be deployed on premises or in the cloud and are designed to accommodate multi-vendor environments by offering multiple unique customization options.

Application infrastructure systems are designed to support multi-layered application architectures, including logic layers, presentation layers, and data layers, and provide enterprises with the flexibility they need to adopt a network infrastructure that can accommodate their needs and easily adapt when their needs change.

Some of the main benefits of using application infrastructure systems include:

• Availability: Application infrastructure systems offer constant virtual network functionalities, including routers, firewalls, switches, and backup and restorations.
  
• Visibility: Complete visibility into all endpoints and infrastructure resources via a single pane of glass.
  
• Optimized performance: AIS tools include a broad range of load balancing algorithms and HTTP compression features to maximize network performance.

• Unified endpoint management: Consolidate all devices together under a single management interface to keep your network functioning efficiently and unify the data logging process.

• Support for legacy devices: Application infrastructure software makes it possible to use specialized equipment to merge legacy devices into the IT network. IT administrators are able to monitor and secure legacy devices using the software’s centralized user interface.

Application infrastructure systems generally offer the following features:

• Anomaly notification: IT admins are notified when misconfigurations or faulty application code that can cause infrastructure resources to fail or perform poorly are detected.
  
• Automatic discovery: AIS systems proactively scan infrastructure to discover new services, resources, and infrastructure as soon as they are deployed. These endpoints are then displayed in the dashboards for monitoring and logging.
  
• Load balancing: Client and network requests across multiple servers are distributed evenly to online working servers in order to ensure high availability and reliability. Load balancing provides flexibility by adding and removing servers on demand.
  
• Secure remote access: AIS features include authentication tools that allow users to remotely access resources in a secure manner.
  
• Visualizations: Clear visualizations of all services and endpoints that allow IT admins to diagnose application errors faster by highlighting the associated traces and infrastructure of the issue.
  
• Real-time monitoring: Constant monitoring of users to track application and resource usage.