Infrastructure consists of the basic organizational structures that are required for society or a business to function. The word traces its roots to the beginning of the 1900s and may be a shortened version of installations that form structure. In the example of general society, roads, bridges and subways are a prime example of infrastructure. Each road or bridge is a physical structure that works to facilitate the overall function of society. Bridges and roads enable commerce around the nation and ensure optimal productivity. There is also a kind of intellectual infrastructure that can be seen, with the Internet as an example. The world has an extensive network of different computers and data centers that store large amounts of information. The different computers, servers, data centers and Internet service providers are all infrastructure. Generally, infrastructure can be seen as the rough framework of multiple systems that ensure society runs at maximum efficiency.
