Stories by Matthew Oostveen

The Australian data centre landscape

Data centre infrastructure has changed dramatically over the past few years. While there are still many firms that use large-scale servers, the movement has been toward a scale-out deployment of servers using hundreds, if not thousands, of blades and racks. Additional equipment such as storage systems, network devices, and power and cooling equipment add to the complexity and cost of the growing size of data centre infrastructure. Data centre managers and chief financial officers are facing highly increased complex IT environments. Issues of power and cooling and how costs can be reduced are the ‘hot’ topics of the day. Coupled with this is the increased importance of sporting a ‘green” corporate image. Aging data centres are structurally outdated and inefficient, costing thousands — if not millions — of dollars extra to maintain each year.