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7X24 MAGAZINE FALL 2015
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
VISIONING YOUR DATA CENTER
the construction industry is littered
with projects that have failed to meet
the owner’s expectations. the reasons
for the missed expectations range
from the failure to meet the
construction budget requirements,
schedule requirements, space needs,
capacity needs – and the list goes on.
based on years of experience and
research, it is apparent one of the
primary reasons cited for these
failures is poor early planning. proper
early planning can limit rework in
future phases, the need to ask for
additional capital, and wasted time.
like most other construction projects,
data center projects often fail because
of poor planning. too often the owner
falls short of budget because they
used old rules of thumb or an online
tool to project the cost of
construction. at other times data
centers are over/under built due to
failure to project business needs or
operational requirements. and at still
other times a proper understanding of
construction sequencing, equipment
lead times, regulatory action or utility
acquisition can result in scheduling
delays. Most of these issues can be
mitigated through proper planning.
PLANTHE PLAN
Most owners starting the process of
constructing a data center are literally
starting from scratch. once the
business need is established, the
owner quickly finds that in addition to
the normal building construction
challenges, there are numerous
additional technical and logistical
issues that need to be overcome in a
data center project. the construction
of a data center is significantly more
challenging today than it was just a
few years ago. there are many system
and technology options to choose
by
Raymond Johnson, ii, Pe