What is the difference between architecture and infrastructure in software?

Question

I just posted a question asking the difference between MapR and Cloudera's architecture and used "architecture" and "infrastructure" interchangeably. Is this appropriate?

To put this in context, MapR and Cloudera are distributions of Hadoop. They each contain various daemons that interact with each other in various ways. When I refer to infrastructure/architecture, I am referring to the daemons, their actions, and the relationships between the daemons.

What is the correct word I am looking for - architecture or infrastructure?

What is the difference between the two?

https://simplicable.com/new/infrastructure-vs-architecture – Ray Sep 25 '18 at 06:57 — Ray, Sep 25 '18 at 06:57

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '14 at 23:52

26

Infrastructure describes the actual set of components that make up a system, while architecture describes the design of the components and their relationships. In a nutshell, a system is built on an infrastructure that has a particular architecture.

For example:

Many multiplayer game backends provide a client-server infrastructure.

Many multiplayer game backends use a client-server architecture.

answered Mar 25 '14 at 23:52

MooseBoys

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We can say that infrastructure is the assets and architecture is the design to use those assets. – Imam Bux Jun 20 '18 at 12:45

What is the difference between architecture and infrastructure in software?

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