Chasing The Perfect Data Center

As data center capacity continues to grow rapidly, data center clients are still expecting their buildings to be customized to their unique needs and, increasingly, sustainability goals. This means that facility owners still need to procure sustainable equipment and materials even in the face of supply chain challenges.

With all this in mind, the biggest challenge in data center design today is how to take all these tenant requirements and integrate them into a single cohesive design concept that can be replicated over again as demand grows, said Bruce Baxter, Jacobs' data center design principal.

“The data center design must meet our clients’ needs, be site-specific and repeatable anywhere in the world with as few modifications as possible,” he said. 

Jacobs, a global professional services company, has been developing solutions to help create the ideal data center for its clients and continues to evolve with each new data center request for proposals that comes in. 

Baxter said Jacobs strives to help its clients attain their goal of creating the data center that best suits their needs and the needs of their tenants.

“At Jacobs, our strength is our ability to take all the different, and sometimes opposing, criteria involved in data center design and integrate it into a cohesive concept, leading to a coordinated facility when constructed,” he said. 

Ken Kutsmeda, global technologist at Jacobs, said that the company has increasingly been working sustainable features into its data center designs, intending to create better zero-carbon power. He said the need for this technology is driven by the rise in greenhouse gases, a main contributor to global warming.

“We need to create higher standards to push zero-carbon power to the forefront to reduce the effects of climate change,” he said.

Kutsmeda added that Jacobs is already integrating zero-carbon alternatives to diesel fuel backups in its data center design.

“Jacobs is integrating renewable energy directly into microgrid distribution solutions,” Kutsmeda said. “We have decades of experience and fully integrated hydrogen groups to develop designs for hydrogen fuel cells and battery energy storage systems as a direct replacement for the diesel generator.”

Like many other asset classes, data centers are still experiencing the impact of supply chain disruptions brought on by the pandemic. This has made it difficult to not only locate materials but also standardize the equipment for specific sites, Baxter said. Jacobs has come up with two approaches, called the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach, to help mitigate these issues based on its design expertise and relationships with equipment manufacturers.

The top-down approach is where Jacobs works with specific equipment from its clients, based on their internal supply chain management practices. With this approach, the company integrates and optimizes these specific pieces of equipment the client requires into the rest of the design. 

In the bottom-up approach, Jacobs is more hands-on and takes a more holistic approach to optimize the equipment for each client based on the company’s multidisciplinary data center design expertise. Baxter said that in this case, the company works with equipment manufacturers to optimize all the equipment selections on other design parameters and coordination of multiple pieces of equipment into integrated systems.  

Baxter said that Jacobs recognizes equipment lead times affect the schedule of data center construction. This is why, today, the speed of the design has taken a back seat to reprioritizing materials that are impacted by supply chain delays.

“We’re addressing the lead time with our designs by having multiple bid packages scheduled ahead of time for steel and other items to help prevent long lead times,” he said. “It’s better to find what items have the least procurement time to help us better anticipate what can be on-site for build-outs and then plan accordingly.”

Ultimately, the perfect data center design comes down to adaptability. Paul D’Onofrio, Jacobs’ global director for architectural services, said that each client has standards and accommodations for its data centers not just for its needs today, but for its company’s future for years to come.

“We need to design buildings with the ideal space and conditions to meet our client’s expectations at least 10 years from now,” he said. “The challenge in designing the perfect data center is the build-out of the facility. You want to have a space that can accommodate each rack not just presently but in the future.”

Baxter added that finding the right balance between structure, land and sustainability can further help data centers prosper.

“We have to look deeper into the building codes, the location of the data center and the climate surrounding it,” he said. “Having a facility that can be arranged harmoniously can help us stay flexible for the future.”

Kutsmeda said that Jacobs is perfecting the art of sustainable data center design by using its high-level industry experience to not only help reduce clients’ carbon footprints, but help future-proof their facilities as well.

“We have years of experience and a fully integrated design team to handle everything from optimizing our carbon footprint and having the right architectural elements to optimize facilities,” Kutsmeda said. “Our engineering team has tested and analyzed different cycles of the data center to make sure the systems are fit for any modifications we make.”

Baxter added that Jacobs has a global outlook that is helping the company better prepare for what the future of the industry may look like.

“Our worldwide reach in different continents and types of clients allows us to meet the needs of data centers in different markets,” Baxter said. “It helps us better plan for the future to allow us to chase the perfect data center.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Jacobs. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to [email protected].