Data centres are big, expensive buildings.

Data centres are big, expensive buildings.

Why is that?

𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁! 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁…

The power and cooling requirements in a data centre is extremely high and there is built in redundancy to keep the power and cooling on 24/7/365.

This large requirement for power and cooling is driven by the demand in the data hall (whitespace), i.e. the more servers we put in racks, the higher the heat output of these racks and the more cooling and power is required to keep the building running.

Additionally, data centres build redundancy into various systems, such that if a system fails, another is there to operate while the first on is being repaired. This invariably is done at:

🔹 2N – e.g. 2 Generators sized at 100% of the load, if one fails, the other starts.

🔹 N+1 – e.g. 3 Generators sized at 50% of the load, with 2 running at all times. If one fails, the third one comes on.

This leads to buildings that have relatively small useable areas (data halls) and lots of plant area that houses generators, chillers, Uninterrupted Power Systems (UPSs), etc.

𝗔 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻

In order to conceptualize this lets compare a building type most people are familiar with, an office, versus a data centre, to see how plant area, capacity and construction cost percentages compare.

In this example we will compare a 1,000m2 office v a 1,000m2 data hall.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴.

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆

A typical office will provide light, power, ventilation and air conditioning for the occupants. In this example mechanical and electrical plant will take up 6-10% of the building area, so for our 1,000m2 office, plant will take up 100m2 of space.

In our typical colocation data centre, with a data hall of 1,000m2 this plant area would be around 1,000m2-1,500m2.

Hence, the plant requirements in a data centre are ~10-15 times that of an office!

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻

Not surprisingly, as the plant requirements in a data centre are so big, they are major drivers in construction cost allocations.

So much so that 𝟴𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁, as opposed to an office which is more like 20-25%.

This dominance of the plant means:

🔹 This equipment is the major influence when costing data centres.

🔹 As this plant is invariably procured on the global market, data centre construction costs are heavily influenced by global costs and trends.

How does this measure up to data centre construction costs you are seeing?