Opinion: IT Should Be Seen as Core Infrastructure, Not a Cost Center

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A perspective piece by Serguey Shinder, published on DEV Community, argues that IT departments are widely and harmfully misclassified as cost centers in modern organizations. Shinder contends that IT is better understood as the foundational layer on which all business operations depend, from payment processing to internal communications. He warns that underinvesting in IT leads to fragile infrastructure, overstretched staff, and neglected security that can result in costly outages or breaches. The author urges business leaders to shift their framing from minimizing IT spend to evaluating how critical IT excellence is to overall operations. He also encourages IT professionals to recognize and communicate their own strategic value within their organizations.

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