De-Constructed: Building and Maintaining World-Class Data Centers

Rob Dean, VP of Design and Construction, CoreSite

The demand for data center facilities has been high over the last several years. That demand, and continued growth in the industry, by all indications, will continue for some time. As a result, third-party data center solutions providers and individual companies alike are investing heavily in new facilities, as well as expanding within existing facilities.

Building high-quality and highly technical data center facilities at an aggressive pace to meet demand is no easy task. It takes careful thought and planning, collaboration with the right partners, disciplined focus, patience and a whole lot more.

In my nearly 15 years in the construction industry I have seen many aspects of capital expansion projects of various scale. Some of these projects were successful, while others were plagued with challenges. During my time in the industry, I have had various roles with national General Contracting firms and managed projects for a public University. Having involvement with multiple types of projects, including but not limited to data center projects, as both a builder and an Owner has been a great benefit in my current role as Vice President of Design and Construction at CoreSite.

In every role and with every project, I have learned that all construction projects have a lot of similarities. However, each project has its own specific nuances and risks that must be identified, understood and managed. The most challenging part of developing projects well is in finding the balance between focusing on standard aspects of a project (design, permitting, etc.), while understanding the unique aspects, and their impacts, to your project (existing site conditions and constraints, etc.), all in a condensed time frame with a large group of stakeholders, both internal and external.

Against that backdrop, here’s a look at some of the steps and considerations we take when evaluating our next data center project.

What, Where and Why

CoreSite is a customer-driven organization operating in 8 different markets within the U.S. The first step when evaluating the need for a potential expansion project is to carefully consider the current and potential future demand in a given market. Additionally, we put a lot of thought into what our customers want and need. The customer-facing input is sought out very early in the idea stage of a potential expansion project. By engaging the appropriate subject matter experts early and having an open and honest dialogue, we are able to get well aligned on important aspects of the project. The General Manager and the sales team in the market are vital to this analysis.

Anytime we evaluate the potential need, we must perform an evaluation of our current footprint in a given market. That means understanding how much capacity we may already have, if any, within existing buildings and comparing that with the projected demand. We also evaluate our current land inventory and any potential land acquisition prospects when considering a new building. We evaluate these potential building sites for proximity to needed utility services, such as power, water and fiber. We consider the complexities associated with building on a specific site or within an existing facility. We evaluate the risks associated with working in a given market as it relates to available construction resources, the city, county and state agencies that administer development projects, and many other factors.

As the project progresses from the planning and design phases to the build and turnover phases, it is important to stay focused on providing high-level service to our customers and continuing to improve our product and processes.

Who and How

Once CoreSite makes a decision to pursue a project, the next step is to assemble a team to plan and execute our vision. This team ultimately consists of both internal and external stakeholders. Internally, the Construction team is primarily responsible for steering the ship with critical involvement required by the general manager in the market, input from the Data Center Operations team, design guidance from our Engineering team, and many others. Externally, a team of design and engineering professionals is a must, a trusted and qualified construction partner, equipment partners, and other service providers are all critical. Identifying these stakeholders early, integrating them into the process early, and clarifying expectations and roles/responsibilities is critical to making the project a success.

In order to select the best vendor partners and manage multiple stakeholders well, it requires good processes and good people. Our construction team is comprised of well-rounded industry professionals who strive hard to be good communicators, dynamic problem solvers, and trusted collaborators who steer everyone towards the same goal: delivering a high-quality well-executed data center project.

CoreSite has built a reputation for high-quality facilities and people. CoreSite’s focus on exceptional customer experiences influences the way we evaluate and select design partners, general contractors, trade contractors, commissioning agents and several other vendors. The selection process begins with drafting an extensive request for proposal (RFP) document that defines CoreSite’s expectations. The vendors must validate their teams experience, demonstrate their competency, and explain their plan for delivering a high quality project. By clearly defining the scope of services that we require and asking for both qualitative and quantitative information, we are better able to select partners that are a good fit.

As the project progresses from the planning and design phases to the build and turnover phases, it is important to stay focused on providing high-level service to our customers and continuing to improve our product and processes.

Starting at the beginning of a project we implement a process called Data Center Readiness. The focus of this process is to provide a way to continually communicate with our internal stakeholders and collectively prepare to support customers as soon as the project is complete. Not only does this help create a smooth transition to operations and the sales teams, but it is also a vital learning opportunity for identifying scope gaps, design concerns, and budget or delivery challenges that could impact future projects.

After a project is done, we conduct a lessons learned meeting with all of our vendor partners and internal stakeholders. This meeting is conducted in an open and honest manner with the sole focus being continual improvement. By creating a trusting environment and openly discussing things that went well and areas for improvement, we are able to apply new strategies to future projects.

Rob Dean is the VP of Design and Construction at CoreSite.