Hello all, I've spent a lot of time lurking here while trying to educate myself on the art and science of building and running a DC and I am currently in need of some assistance.
My situation is this: I have an opportunity to get a good deal on a good amount of space in what I believe is an underserved area. There's a lot of technology in the area but, as far as I've been able to determine (and I have done a good bit of searching), no datacenters of any substance.
Sometime in the coming weeks I will be meeting with the building owners/management and taking a tour of the building. I would like to bring along a list of questions to ask to help me determine whether or not this particular building would be suited to hosting a datacenter.
I already have a few things I'll be investigating: the presence of fiber, the amount of power available, and how much load the floors can take, but I'd like to make sure I have all the bases covered.
If anyone can suggest some questions that I should ask on my visit to the building I would greatly appreciate it. I still have a great deal to learn, but it has long been an aspiration of mine to run a datacenter and I think that this opportunity might be just what I need.
Will they allow YOUR contractors to do the work, or do they have their own list of 'allowed' contractors
Insurance requirements, for construction and for operating the center
Multiple conduit from the street vault, to ALL floors in the building (not just your floor) and the roof
24 x 7 power with generator backup, with proper switch gear, proper scheduled maintenance, and air quality permits, and plenty of diesel fuel present and on standby delivery
UPS location, weight considerations
24 x 7 HVAC including access to the cooling tower water loop (dont get sucked into connecting to the fire sprinkler system for water)
24 x 7 male and female bathrooms. (Believe it or not, one data center was built with only male bathrooms 24x7 access)
Noise issues. If your hvac systems start making a lot of noise, or if the generators are running, will there be complaints?
Fire suppression -- you will want a dry pipe system in your space, will they allow you to retrofit existing fire suppression?
Parking, security for the delivery dock, security from the delivery dock to your space.
Janitorial, including access and restrictions, and disposal of trash and shipping containers
Roof access for satellite dishes and wifi antennas
Hazards and how they are alleviated (if you are in Calif, how to handle earthquaakes, if you are in New Orleans, how to handle hurricanes, etc)
Political / business environment. Are there any low cost loans, tax free benefits, SBA opportunities, etc.
Permit restrictions, cost to obtain permits, etc.
What will they give you for free (extra room during construction for storage of racks, hvac equipment, etc) discounts on rental for long-term leases, tenant improvement credits, etc.
Will they provide free adjoining office space for staff?
Be fully prepared to document how you are going to pay for all of this up front. If you have stellar credit, point that out to them in the beginning
the list of questions is long... also depends on the size of the project (is this 20,000 or 200,000 sq ft)
and how your are going to fund it
It seems that many buildings could make adequate datacenters with the proper cooling and power. You can add your own fan/coil units and UPSes (and NOC, walls, fire supression, security, etc), but you may not be able to afford building the cooling towers, generators, diesel tanks, etc.
Having your center on-net with many fiber carriers is important (and hard to quantify). Similarly, having a building with multiple 480 volt feeds, and even grids, is important.
With N+1 designs, bigger is cheaper (at least per unit). A few years back, smaller companies could build small datacenters and succeed. That is more difficult now.
I would recommend that new entrants research what locations in their market straddle two power grids, two LEC territories, are on several fiber paths, and have enough room to build big? It may be necessary to purchase a decent parcel or campus to get service from multiple LECs and multiple power companies.
Thanks for the replies Dennis and Zitibake, you both pointed out some things I've already got on my list but also many that are not. As far as size goes, the amount of available space has not been nailed down yet, but I am definitely looking at under 10k sqft.
I have done some looking around to find out where fiber runs and who runs what but thus far I haven't found any really helpful info. Can you guys recommend any resources that might provide something like a fiber map for the area aside from the local telco? (The area is serviced by SBC)
Fiber providers vary by city. Some cities (New York) have so many fiber providers it is ridiculous, some have only one (such as Reno) Post the city, I will try to assist with the fiber providers. Once you know the providers it is easy to get the maps. Apparently I am not supposed to suggest that you Email me the city
Questions to ask?
