Components in modern IT infrastructure are becoming more and more interleaved and dependent on each other. Complexity of IT infrastructure and data centres is on the rise, but on the other hand they have increasing influence on business. IT departments abroad often give input on future business plans, while in Slovenia they are usually just executors of demands made by the management. Both abroad and at home new trends are appearing that either lower IT infrastructure operating costs or increase the added value of the business itself. The fact that there are over 7500 data centres in the world means they are key for the future. Annual growth of new data centres is estimated to be 21% in 2018 (CIENA). NRDC data indicates that data centres consume up to 3% of global electricity production.
The crucial points I discussed in my (Bachelor's) thesis were the technological parts of data centres, along with the economic perspective on purchasing new IT equipment. IT is becoming a much wider field that no longer only catches attention from engineers but by managers, financiers and other people on the corporate ladder. Less reckless investments regarding immense sums of financial sources are being made for upgrading IT equipment taking into account the further consequences of making such decisions. The first part of the paper consists of the historical review for the better understanding of IT development and progress, following the second part which explains technical characteristics, pointing to elements that are often a subject of changes and upgrades. The third part focuses on the economic aspects of data centres which explains in further detail the role of financial instruments when investing in new network equipment. This follows the practical demonstration using one of the developers tools and personal opinion substituted with the interview I had with a company prospering in the field.
I closed the paper with the debate.
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