Three common mistakes in data center design planning

MaintenanceIn your data center design planning, not only do you have to make correct decisions, but you have to make them in the proper order. Leveraging platforms like Entangl, which use AI to identify potential design issues early on, can significantly reduce these risks and streamline the process.

The repercussions of poor design planning can include not only wasted time and effort and costly re-design work but, worse, they can cause you to be late to market if you’re a service provider and/or end up with a facility that isn’t competitive or doesn’t meet your business needs. If you’re an enterprise, this might force you to re-evaluate your outsourcing strategy in terms of having to find more colocation and cloud services that do meet your needs.

To help you successfully navigate the design process, here are three common mistakes that companies make in the data center planning and design stages and how you can avoid them:

Mistake #1: Improperly setting design criteria and performance characteristics

It’s only natural to want the best performance, but unless you have the resources of an Amazon or Microsoft, you probably don’t need a Tier IV data center; in other words, don’t overbuild. It ends up costing more upfront, reduces electrical efficiency, and will be more expensive to maintain and operate the facility over the long run. Non-technical project stakeholders, in particular, might ask for the best without fully understanding the consequences on things like cost and time to market. Fully realizing the impact of these early decisions might come too late in the design or build phase, long after a lot of investment has already been made.

Another mistake companies make is getting too hung up on the minutiae of technical specs, the ‘speeds and feeds’ that don’t necessarily align with the company’s business goals and risk profile. Keep your eye on the big picture. It is critical to focus on the big, key project parameters of criticality (ie, Tier level), efficiency, budget, capacity, power density, and the future growth plan. These parameters pretty much drive everything else about the design.

Planning failures, wasted design work, and schedule slips are often traceable to not gathering all the input with key stakeholders on the front end. Data center project managers need to forge a shared understanding and agreement about these key project parameters.

Don’t forget to include leaders from finance, IT, and business at this early stage in the process. Conduct workshops in which those tradeoffs can be discussed and agreed upon.

Mistake #2: Site selection before confirming data center design criteria

A common “cart before the horse” mistake is to waste time and energy searching for a site location before the data center design criteria have been nailed down. Deciding on a location or specific geographic area without understanding and agreeing to the full scope for the data center can lead to problems.

When selecting a site prematurely or based on narrow geography, you could jeopardize what site design requirements are even possible. For instance, you could find limitations with things like availability, reliability, and costs associated with the electrical power grid, the water supply, and fiberoptic cable. Other site criteria include proximity to emergency services like fire stations or to transportation features like major highways.

Data centers should also be located with disaster avoidance and preparedness in mind – companies should be aware of the potential risks associated with flash floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or other natural disasters.

On the flip side, building a new data center can also provide an opportunity to create a green, sustainable, environmentally friendly facility. Therefore, the design criteria and site selection should also take into consideration opportunities for generating energy onsite from renewable sources, such as solar or wind power, either by yourself or through an independent power producer (IPP). Utility providers, power purchase agreement terms, and the existence (and cost) of renewable energy credits and/or carbon offsets are other key site considerations when energy and sustainability goals are important.

Mistake #3: Space planning before design criteria is firmed up

Some organizations base their site search criteria on the amount of raised floor required to house their critical IT infrastructure, which can be significant. In the most robust of systems, the ratio of IT floor space to support gear could be as high as 1 to 1. But this can lead to a major mistake.

Mechanical and electrical equipment require a significant amount of space. In addition, many organizations overlook the square footage required to house office space, equipment yards, and IT equipment staging areas. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to determine your design criteria before you develop your space plan. Without it, there is no way to conceptualize the total space required to meet your overall needs.

It’s important to create a detailed data center floor plan early in the design process. Floor plans should be considered part of the preliminary specification process and should be determined before detailed design begins.

Getting your data center ducks in a row

The process of designing and building a new data center is complicated enough without making mistakes that can cost time and money. If the right issues are resolved in the right order by the right people, vague requirements can be translated into detailed design plans that meet the needs of the business. In the all-important planning phase, companies need to establish key project parameters, develop a system concept, incorporate user preferences and constraints, and determine implementation requirements. Platforms like Entangl can play a key role in identifying design issues early and ensuring these parameters are met, ultimately helping reduce costly mistakes and ensuring a more efficient and resilient data center.