Thinking of Building a Data Center?

I read a thread a while back on a forum from an OP who wondered how much it would cost to build his own data center. A lot of variables come into play determining those costs. Certainly, just gaining approval to build a data center is one of those variables. How much expertise does your staff possess in the area of conceptualizing design and build-out? Is there a hard and fast template for architects? Are the people who are going to manage the new data center the same as those who will be building it? I’d heard it said that building a data center is a once in a lifetime undertaking. I suspect that’s generally true across the board.

How do you know what to ask or who to turn to for guidance?

How far out should you plan? When you figure that most data centers end-of-life cycle is 15-20 years, should you build out to year seven and continue building out as you grow? Or do you build out to year 15 to begin? Unfortunately, that question is normally answered by the amount of funding available.

Tier Level?

Most data centers are generally defined by their Tier Level, so much of the estimation of funds is directly tied to which Tier Level to build out to. Tier 4 data centers will cost significantly more than Tier 1 data centers. Tier 1 is the lowest rated Tier and is prone to downtime - and Tier 4 is the most robust, redundant, and functional.

Tier I: A single path for power and cooling distribution, without redundant components, providing 99.671% availability

Tier II: A single path for power and cooling distribution, with redundant components, providing 99.741% availability

Tier III: Multiple active power and cooling distribution paths but only one path active, redundant components, concurrently maintainable, providing 99.982% availability

Tier IV: Multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, redundant components, fault-tolerant, providing 99.995% availability

Energy Costs?

Consider how far we’ve come in the last 5 years with regard to energy footprints. How can anyone possibly predict the state of this industry in another 15 years? Thus, energy needs to be scalable. Will our racks become more dense? Will new processors and RAM modules consume massive energy, or just the opposite? What is today’s trend, and what looms on the horizon? Part of your business plan must be trend analysis.

Green Technologies?

What is Green? Does Green relate to carbon footprints? Would it pay to design Green, both in energy savings and marketability? A recent Google search for Green Data Centers turned up 288,000,000 results. Some green data centers are powered entirely through renewable wind energy - and designed to operate at approximately 60% lower energy utilization per square foot than comparable data centers of the same size. This translates directly into more computing power using less energy in a given building.

Who will actually build the data center?

Determining the engineering firm, construction company, their sub-contractors, etc. and working through the build out is a monumental undertaking. Murphy’s Law still prevails. What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Millions of dollars are at risk

A couple of years ago, a study determined the cost to build a 150,000 square foot data center with 150 employees averaged from $16-$17 million on the low end to $19-$22 million on the high end. The most expensive were obviously on the East and West coasts. The Midwest and Southeast came in on the low end.

$16-17 million sounds about right, but that's on a higher scale. I've toyed around with the idea/figures(my idea of fun, lol), and what it would cost me in my area.. $7 million was a reasonable figure to start out with. Let me know if you need the address to send the check to

7 million buys you what Tier, how much space and how many employees?

The check is in the mail

Costs can vary widely. I build data centers for a living and hate to quote costs per square foot because cost can vary based on tier level, power consumption, whether you're discussing square footage of white space vs. building square footage, redundancy, etc. I've built 20,000 sq. ft. (sq. ft. of computer floor) data centers for $11M and have built 100,000 sq. ft. (sq. ft. of computer floor) data centers for $200M - it really depends on what the design intent is. If you're considering, I'd recommend finding someone who specializes in designing and/or building data centers and have them analyze your needs and schematically design and budget to your needs. It will probably save you 100x their fee for a little bit of upfront work.

Good to hear from someone with experience. Thanks for your input.

Thank you guys for this nice info

Location will make a big difference as well. Some places have very cheap power but the cost of real estate is higher. Some places you can get many cheaper providers and transit options than other places. Like said in other posts its hard to really quote a price without having all the details.

Steve thank you I ask about that some time ago. This info will come in handy in 10+ years lol

Thanks for sharing steve.

Would this apply for DC2? now that you've moved in all costs will go up, you are sucking all the power and resources in that area, expansion close by or another state?

*drool*

I love this post! Seriously my mate has toyed around with the idea for a ton of years, I am all for it myself, but that is a long dream away right now. The ideas on how to cut the cost are good too (thanks from the person that chimed in), I never really thought about getting input from those who build DC's (I thought you were all in hiding).

I wouldn't mind building a datacent, as shockym said it's quite a ways off for me as well. It's a matter of seriously researching costs and making the most cost-efficient plan without reducing the quality.

I've never had any ideas about building a data centre nor would I, yet this post has been a real eye opener. I had not previously considered all the work that goes into the services that my centre provides, nor had I considered the cost risks. Really it just goes to show what a marvelous job they are doing.

Wow never knew if would cost so much. Thanks for the insight.

Certainly, the cost of building and maintaining a successful data center can be staggering, but it is doable - given adequate funding and good management. I'm still amazed how far technology has advanced in the last 3 decades.