5 Key Elements for Locating a Data Center

In developing a data center, your organization must consider and evaluate a multiple variables, from uncovering desirable physical characteristics and avoiding potential hazards to locating in an environment conducive to business growth and development. By fully assessing a potential property for its advantages and disadvantages, you can determine which factors are most important and move ahead with confidence.

Site selection criteria

Data center site location experts across the U.S. have identified site selection criteria key to any data center project:

1. Availability, cost and redundancy of electric power. A viable site must have power redundancy, excellent power quality and scalable power.
2. Cost of construction. Geographic locations that have unduly high costs associated with weather, materials, labor and transportation are less attractive for data center development.
3. Telecommunications infrastructure. Sites that don’t possess adequate telecommunication infrastructure including the presence of multiple carriers should be eliminated from the selection process.
4. Cooling technology/equipment. Temperate climates allow data center developers to use economizers that greatly reduce cooling costs and increase the operational return on investment of your center.
5. Quality of life. Data centers require highly educated and skilled professionals to run them; attracting these professionals may depend on the quality of life offered by the area where your center is located.

Site access is also important, especially when building on a vacant lot. Property located near a major highway is attractive for bringing in building materials. And when multiple roads access a site, this alleviates any concerns over possible man-made or natural disasters unexpectedly blocking access.

Next, a secure environment is necessary to minimize risk. The risk for activity that might interfere with data center operations is relatively low in non-urban areas. This not only includes natural disasters, but also neighboring hazardous locations, such as airports, oil and/or natural gas pipelines and freight rail lines.

Modeling a site for success

You can determine a site’s capacity to accommodate a prototypical data center using sophisticated modeling of the building site. Inputs such as building spatial characteristics, power density levels, cabinet power load, equipment placement and expected IT load populate and drive the model. Outputs include the essential mechanical load required to support the IT load and the raised floor (white space) yield. By using different input variables, the model can calculate the parameters for optimal data center design.

Partnering up

As with any business venture, key business and government partnerships often increase efficiencies, reduce costs and streamline approvals. For example, as part of their economic development program, some utilities may provide services such as researching sites and market demographics, as well as turnkey engineering, construction and maintenance. They may also connect you with local economic development experts and provide important information on tax credits and other incentive opportunities.

Economic development incentives that reward companies for capital expenditures can be enormously beneficial. This could include everything from sales tax exemptions and energy rebates to property tax abatements.

For any entity, building a data center in the U.S. is a mission-critical endeavor. From articulating the business drivers behind developing such an asset to defining the key elements of an appropriate site, it’s necessary to create a detailed picture of the crucial and complex requirements to successfully execute on your vision.

Powering Data Center Success

Selecting the right site is foundational to the performance, reliability, and long-term success of any data center project. From power availability to environmental stability, every element plays a role in achieving operational excellence.