Infrastructure refers to the operational framework used by an entity or institution in order to work. Infrastructure contains the detail of how an organization will operate in an efficient manner.

In order to achieve maximum output, an organization must reach its best productivity level.

Infrastructure is a complicated term, and it can be classified into two ways—hard and soft.

What is hard infrastructure?

Hard infrastructure pertains to the physical or tangible resources that allow a nation or a private entity to be highly functional.

Capital assets fall under the classification of hard infrastructure. For example, a government has capital assets in the form of government buildings, roads, subways, watersheds and dams, flood management controls, airports, ports, bus terminals, telecommunication systems, highways, power plants and traffic lights.

The hard infrastructure that the governments provide allows a nation to run efficiently. Just imagine a country without roads or power plants? If there is no power plant that supplies electricity and no roads, then the country will not prosper.

Hard infrastructure provided by governments allows a country to develop and as such, the absence of hard infrastructure could deter any country from achieving economic growth.

In the case of private entities, hard infrastructure may refer to buildings, land, storage facilities, vehicles and warehouses to name a few.

A big corporation, for example, will need to build an office building to house its employees. Or a firm may need a warehouse to store their manufactured goods.

What is soft infrastructure?

Soft infrastructure, on the other hand, pertains to the framework needed to maintain an organization that can either be in physical and non-physical assets.

Non-physical assets can pertain to the network infrastructure technology needed to run the business entity or institution. The physical asset can be the structure needed to house the network infrastructure technology.