Data centres are big, expensive buildings.
Why is that?
๐ฃ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฒ๐พ๐๐ถ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐! ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ถ๐…
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:
๐น 2N – e.g. 2 Generators sized at 100% of the load, if one fails, the other starts.
๐น 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.
๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ป
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.
๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐น๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ด.
๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐
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!
๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ป
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 ๐ด๐ฌ% ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐, as opposed to an office which is more like 20-25%.
This dominance of the plant means:
๐น This equipment is the major influence when costing data centres.
๐น 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?