How to cost-effectively manage evolving data centre design demands

Data centres – the physical buildings underpinning our digital activities – have become vital infrastructure, but as their importance has grown, so too have their size, security threats and carbon output. AECOM’s Will Cagney explores how to cost-effectively manage their rapidly-evolving design demands.

With 4.66 billion active internet users globally, data centres are one of the fastest growing and most important components of the global economy. By 2025 data usage is projected to have increased tenfold on 2018 levels. To cope, more data storage space is needed. This is leading to a boom in data centre new-build schemes, with construction set to expand by nearly 10 per cent per annum between 2018 and 2025 – creating major opportunities for investors in this alternative, rapidly expanding asset class.

Demand for new data centre construction is primarily being driven by the global move to cloud computing and storage. This has created a need for the hyperscale data centre as owned and developed by the likes of AWS, Microsoft and Google. Co-location facilities continue to provide variable amounts of data centre white space to other client tenants, as well as providing these cloud giants with facilities on a wholesale basis. Enterprise (owner-operated) data centres still exist, but a high proportion of development is within the hyperscale market as most companies and individuals use this for computing and storage.

Although essentially industrial buildings, data centres are highly functional, and their design requirements are changing quickly – not least when it comes to meeting strict carbon reduction requirements and providing adequate cybersecurity. In this article – an abridged version of one that first appeared in Building magazine – we focus on three evolving areas of data centre design.

Design considerations

The data centre industry is under pressure to bring resilient, efficient and secure projects to market quickly. In addition, clients are increasingly asking to complete site selection, acquisition, design and construction work as energy-efficiently and innovatively as possible. When designing a data centre, it is critical that the following three elements are considered from the outset for successful delivery.

1. Scalability: The flexibility to accommodate change without major works to the physical or IT infrastructure is key to strong data centre design. The need to refresh IT servers, often on a three-year cycle, introduces a design requirement for high-frequency equipment change. As a data centre site tends to operate for at least two decades, it must be designed to handle the significant technology upgrades and updates that will occur many times throughout its operational life.

In addition, potential future load requirements are unknown, which adds further demand for adaptability. It makes sense, therefore, to design in a modular UPS system, so that as a data centre’s load grows, additional power modules can easily be added. In turn, as power consumption increases, the design should offer accommodation for swift upgrades to the cooling systems that support it. This means carefully balancing current requirements against future demand.

2. Resilience: A data centre’s critical load comprises all the hardware components that make up the IT business architecture. Any new design must build in sufficient resilience to ensure any component failure or required maintenance activities does not compromise the critical load.

Typically, resilience is measured and defined by the data centre’s tier rating, a standardised, industry-accepted mechanism devised by the Uptime Institute. The system ranges from tier 1 to tier 4 – a tier 1 project will have a simple design with minimal backup equipment and a single path for power and cooling, whereas a tier 4 data centre will be designed to be fully fault-tolerant and with redundancy for every single component.

3. Connectivity: Selecting systems that use cloud-based, mobile-friendly data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software, which can be shared and managed remotely, allows users to leverage information beyond that of their data centre, enabling benefits such as predictive maintenance. This helps to maximise the life of components while ensuring data centre availability and performance, as components such as batteries can be replaced before they fail.

In addition, there has been a significant increase in the use of AI to monitor and manage power and cooling at data centre sites. This information can be used for detailed reporting and analysis and to improve energy efficiency. However, depending on the level of integration and the extent of the information that is being generated and managed, incorporating this kind of software can come at a significant cost.

The question of cooling

Keeping data centres cool is one of the most critical elements of their design. There are many factors that drive the selection of any cooling option, not least capital and lifecycle costs, but also the location of the data centre and the feasibility of incorporating innovations. Understanding the cost drivers and benefits of each are crucial to advising clients effectively.

Solutions include passive cooling, which uses natural ventilation to remove heat from the building, and immersive liquid cooling, where servers are immersed in a rack filled with coolant that can have more than 1,000 times the heat capacity of air. Many operators are now integrating AI and machine learning into their cooling systems. The AI learns to apply the optimum amount of cooling at any given time, driving up efficiency and reducing energy use.

Location helps, too. Data centres can also simply be built in colder climates – such as Iceland, where BMW’s data is stored – or the Baltic region, which hosts a number of the world’s global hyperscale data centre facilities. Another approach, which is generally required by local authorities in the Baltic region, is to recycle waste heat and use it for district heating schemes.

As data centre growth continues, finding innovative ways to use heat for nearby homes and businesses is an important way that data centres can be better integrated into communities and contribute to wider decarbonisation efforts.

Upgrading existing data centres

As data centres near the end of their planned operational life, they can suffer from an increased risk of failure and reduced efficiency. Yet they can also represent an excellent opportunity. An upgrade or refurbishment of an existing facility can cost significantly less than a new-build, and can be achieved in a far shorter time frame, since there is no need for planning approvals or additional utility connections. Upgrade schemes also have significantly reduced embodied carbon compared with a new-build project.

Upgrading legacy installations is an effective way to increase capacity without space and carbon footprint increases. It also offers the opportunity to design in crucial long-term benefits, such as strengthening competitiveness, reliability, safety, flexibility and environmental integration, as well as security and monitoring.

A key component of redesigning the centre will be studying and analysing factors such as air flow, heat propagation, audible noise, and electromagnetic compatibility. Other areas to consider in extending the life of an ageing facility include the need to elevate the data centre operating temperature, upgrade servers and systems, improve the system layout and rack layout for power and cooling efficiency, consider supplemental or alternative cooling schemes, the availability and reliability issues in power distribution and finally the availability of data centre power, including the potential for alternative power sources.

Current challenges and trends – and the road ahead

As the data centre sector has matured, its needs and demands have become clearer. End users are now better placed to choose between construction of their own data centre or engaging with a third-party provider, whether through co-location, managed or cloud services, or engaging with the upgrade of an existing centre.

These decisions are underpinned by a better understanding of the total cost and time frame of ownership, which typically covers a period of five to 10 years. Institutions and funds are therefore now able to invest with greater certainty, as unknown costs can be minimised with the right level of management capability. However, this also means that data centres are becoming more commoditised. Competition is fierce as third-party and outsourcing organisations strive to lower costs and differentiate themselves from the competition.

Europe is attracting strong data centre investment as data creation continues to grow. More capital is available, and competition for deals is increasing. But the availability of power from renewable sources is constraining growth in Europe. In less mature markets, creating and accessing sufficient fibre connectivity is also a key consideration. In the Middle East alone, rapid digitisation of “smart cities” is spurring the data centre market, which is expected to grow annually by seven per cent between 2018 and 2024.

There are many hurdles for data centres to overcome in the coming decades, not least meeting the net-zero carbon challenge, protecting data from malicious attacks and preventable leaks, and addressing geographical and geopolitical challenges. The challenges facing the wider technology industry are also complex: maintaining talent, minimising supply chain disruption, and implementing sustainable, environmentally-sound solutions.

For those designing data centres, security, decarbonisation and innovation are the watchwords to ensure that projects are fit for purpose in this extremely fast-moving sector.

This is an abridged version of an article that first appeared in Building magazine.