Why in news?

The government has accorded infrastructure status to data centres with more than 5-megawatt capacity of IT load

Highlights :

• The move helps data centre companies to get easier access to institutional credit at lower rates, attract foreign investments
• Data Centre is included in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of ‘Communication‘
• Indian corporates such as the Hiranandani Group, Adani Group, and foreign investors including Amazon, EdgeConnex, Microsoft, CapitaLand and Mantra Group have started investing in Indian data centres.

How is capacity of data centres measured?

• The capacity of data centres is measured in terms of power they consume which reflects on the scale of the server they are hosting in their facilities.

Eligibility for infrastructure status

• Data centres that are “housed in a dedicated/centralized building for storage and processing of digital data applications with a minimum capacity of 5 MW of IT load” will be considered eligible for infrastructure status

What Is a Data Center?

• At its simplest, a data center is a physical facility that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. A data center’s design is based on a network of computing and storage resources that enable the delivery of shared applications and data.
• The key components of a data center design include routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application-delivery controllers.