infrastructure

The underlying base for a system, supporting the flow and processing of information.

In IT, this term is widely used to mean the internal setup of a particular system, especially of the hardware used to connect computers and users. On the Internet, the infrastructure also includes software programs that are designed to leverage the protocols of the new technology, primarily for transmitting information.

Historical perspective: It's been said that the investment craze behind the Internet boom drew untold billions of dollars into building the Internet infrastructure. This accelerated its deployment and in the long run will be a good thing. This term was originally coined by Robert E. Kahn. It has morphed into business slang and can also refer to "overhead."