Basic data center design5/27/2023 Like many data center providers, STACK has fully embraced a modular design approach, pre-fabricating both our powered shells and virtually all of our electric rooms. STACK INFRASTRUCTURE is leading the charge among colocation and hyperscale data center developers to streamline data center development and accelerate delivery of move-in and pad-ready sites. Today’s technologies for tomorrow’s business Essential steps like feasibility and environmental impact studies can drastically extend build-out times and slow time-to-market.Īs a result, data center developers must either look for sites with some or most of the studies complete and utilities ready to go or have a step-by-step plan for reaching “pad-ready” status (complete with dry utility and power in the ground at the finished elevation) quickly. More importantly, the steps that come after land acquisition like permitting, entitlements, and utility setup tend to be the longest phases and contribute significantly to delivery timelines. Finding suitable parcels of land in desirable or strategic locations demands full-time attention from land acquisition teams, especially in the current environment where prices in higher-demand locations continue to rise rapidly. These massive facilities - often complete campuses spanning hundreds of acres and multiple building sites - require exponentially more planning and strategy than their smaller colocation counterparts. The tremendous growth in cloud computing in recent years and what’s projected for years to come makes it increasingly difficult for hyperscalers to adequately plan future capacity demands, resulting in them scrambling to find the land, space, and partners to bring new data centers online faster. This is especially the case for single-tenant enterprise or hyperscale facilities. While pre-building and storing data center components is a huge part of accelerating time-to-market, none of it can be done without extensive planning. Tenants only have to select the final details - the metaphorical fixtures and finishings - which can greatly reduce time-to-value for customers by weeks or, in some cases, months. Like a manufactured home or spec homes in new subdivisions, powered shells offer virtually everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. Specifically, developers can start with a powered shell - buildings with completed exterior construction and available power and connectivity - and avoid costly and time-consuming build-out by leaving the interior as raw space to be finished by the tenant with their own components and equipment, or owner-furnished contractor-installed (OFCI). Much like the modular design strategies used in homebuilding and common manufacturing operations, many foundational elements of a data center can be pre-manufactured for simpler, just-in-time delivery. One of the primary strategies data center developers can use to accelerate time-to-market is pre-building the core infrastructure of the facility ahead of time. A century later, the data center industry has gone back to basics - and back in time - to find ways of accelerating data center delivery, while managing costs and quality. When Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line in the early 1900s, he did so with the intention of leveraging economies of scale and standardized processes to deliver new cars to the market faster and more cost-effectively. Prefab and pre-planned are keys to success In response, data center developers are increasingly looking for new strategies for delivering bigger and more powerful data centers, faster, and at lower overall costs. The continued rapid growth of the data center industry - at least 6% increased spending in 2021 and hundreds of new projects in the pipeline - has only intensified the focus on and expectations of how quickly new facilities can be brought online. And while standardized designs and advances in capacity planning strategies have helped data center developers bring new facilities online in approximately 12-18 months, future operators and customers will expect move-in ready facilities in as few as six months. Like most people in the Digital Age, data center tenants and operators want the capacity, compute, and floorspace to operate and expand their businesses - and they want it faster than ever.Īs recently as a decade ago, data center design and construction processes took an average of 18-24 months. But in the data center space patience isn’t a virtue, it’s lost money. They say good things come to those who wait.
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