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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Data Centre Essentials Understand the design, construction and operation of data centres with this easy-to-use reference Data centres are spaces where computer systems, physical network technology and associated components are housed, operated and monitored, and any industry or business that employs computer systems or networked systems at any scale will interact with data centres. Data centres are complex and expensive to build and operate, and successful project delivery requires a wide range of specialised knowledge and skills. This accessible reference lays out the requirements for creating these essential facilities. Data Centre Essentials is a comprehensive survey of the essential principles of data centre design, construction and operation. It is designed to provide those involved in a data centre project or providing professional service deliverables to the data centre industry but do not have a technical background or deep sector experience with the understanding required to participate in such projects. The non-technical language and thorough engagement with key considerations make it ideal for anyone looking to understand one of the pillars of a digital society. Data Centre Essentials readers will also find: * An authorial team with decades of combined experience in engineering and construction consultancy * Detailed information about every stage in the process, including securing investment and the building process * Working lexicon of key data centre terminology Data Centre Essentials is a must-own for contractors, engineers and construction project managers involved in data centre projects and will be invaluable for professionals such as lawyers, financial and insurance advisors, surveyors, engineers and architects who do not necessarily have deep domain experience but find themselves involved in or are interested in engaging in, data centre projects.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acronyms & Symbols
Foreword by Tom Glover
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
1 Introduction
2 What Drives the Need and the Various Types of Data Centres
Data Demand versus Compute Efficiency
Workload Placement
The Core Components of a Data Centre
Types of Data Centres
Colocation
Public Cloud
Urban or Edge
3 Site Selection
Climate
Access Roads and Airports
Air Quality
Likelihood of Natural Disasters
Ground Conditions
Communications Infrastructure
Latency
Proximity to Subsea Cable Landing Sites
Density of Fibre Telecommunication Networks Near the Data Centre
Geopolitical Risks, Laws, and Regulations
Availability and Cost of Electrical Power
Natural Resources
Airport Flight Paths
Electromagnetic Interference
Taxes, Regulations, and Incentives
Incentives
Know the Stakeholders
Expect the Unexpected
Traditional Due Diligence
Retrofitting Commercial Buildings for Data Centres
Clusters
Qualitative Analysis
Quantitative Analysis
4 IT Operations and the Evolution of the Data Centre
Beginning of IT Infrastructure
Bringing Enterprise IT to Maturity
IT Applications as Standalone Products – The Digital Economy
Commoditisation of IT Infrastructure
Great Outsourcing of Enterprise IT and the Growth of the Colocation Model
When Digital Products Scale – or the Invention of Hyperscale
Problem of an Old IT Philosophy
5 Overview of Infrastructure
Power
Cooling
BMS
Fire
Security
6 Building a Data Centre
Stakeholders and Project Stages
Pre‐project
Pre‐design
Classifications, Standards, and Certifications
Design
Bricks and Mortar versus Modular Build
Procurement
Construction
Construction Design and Management 2015 (United Kingdom)
Commissioning
Handover (see also Chapter 7)
Operation
7 Operational Issues
Handover
Legacy Facilities
Operations Team
Uptime and Failures
Maintenance Processes and Procedures
Managing Change
Capacity Management
Training
Performance Optimisation – Beyond Reactive Maintenance
8 Economics, Investment, and Procurement of Data Centres
Enterprise
Colocation
Retail Colocation
Wholesale Colocation
Retail versus Hyper‐scale Data Centres
Investment and Procurement
Investment in Colocation Facilities
Power Supply Arrangements
Other Complexities
Valuation
Colocation Leases
Wholesale Colocation
Retail Colocation
Service‐Level Agreements (SLAs)
Managed Hosting and Cloud Services
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Merger and Acquisition
9 Sustainability
Corporate Sustainability
Energy Consumption and Energy Efficiency
Renewable Energy
Generators
Water Usage
Heat Recovery
Life Cycle Impacts
Green Building Certifications
Policy and Regulation
Conclusion
10 The Importance of Planning to Avoid Things Going Wrong
Introduction
Acquisitions and Investments
Operating Models and Commercial Contracts
Funding Investment
Construction
Infrastructure Provision and Project Rights
Construction
Moving to Low Carbon Solutions
Ensuring Resilience
Intellectual Property Rights
Data and Cyber/Regulatory Compliance
Disputes
Conclusion
11 Around the Corner, What Could Happen Next
Glossary
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 Overview egress fees by AWS region.
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Tier level definitions.
Table 5.2 Types of changeover device.
Table 5.3 ASHRAE 2021 air cooling environmental guidelines recommended and ...
Table 5.4 Summary of free cooling system types.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Data centre interfaces with the Internet of Things (IoT).
Figure 2.2 Workload placement; traditional on‐premises or colocation, cloud,...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Site selection to a construction decision.
Figure 3.2 Grading matrix for site selection.
Figure 3.3 Qualitative analysis of site selection.
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Illustration of data centre composition, similarity to logistics,...
Figure 4.2 A single‐frame IBM z15 mainframe. Larger‐capacity models can have...
Figure 4.3 Example of a FedEx mainframe data centre.
Figure 4.4 The world's first Web server, a NeXT Computer workstation with Et...
Figure 4.5 Flickr growth of photos per day.
Figure 4.6 Google Data Center.
Figure 4.7 Google Data Center.
Figure 4.8 Rack with OCP servers.
Figure 4.9 General Electric – demand building by selling electricity‐consumi...
Figure 4.10 Microsoft’s connectivity network from the European Commission pr...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Example of electrical power distribution and cooling system using...
Figure 5.2 Data centre total cost of ownership.
Figure 5.3 Downtime for
N
system.
Figure 5.4 Downtime for
N
+ 1 system (only when both components are simultan...
Figure 5.5 Dual power supplies to IT equipment, normal operation.
Figure 5.6 Dual power supplies to IT equipment, source B failed.
Figure 5.7 ITI/CBEMA curve (
public domain
).
Figure 5.8 Raised floor cooling with air flows in section (hot aisle‐cold ai...
Figure 5.9 Psychrometric chart with ASHRAE 2021 recommended and allowable A1...
Figure 5.10 Raised floor cooling with air flows and temperatures in section....
Figure 5.11 Cold aisle containment with raised floor.
Figure 5.13 Chimney rack containment in the section without raised floor.
Figure 5.14 Refrigeration cycle.
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Project stages extracted from RIBA’s plan of work.
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Duration of downtime.
Figure 7.2 Time to Restore Service (TTRS).
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Growth of data centre capacity.
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Figure 9.2 PUE breakdown.
Figure 9.3 Product life cycle.
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acronyms & Symbols
Foreword by Tom Glover
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Glossary
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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Data Centre Essentials
Design, Construction, and Operation of Data Centres for the Non‐expert
Vincent Fogarty
Fellow of the Royal Institute of Charted SurveyorsIncorporated Engineer, Engineering Council of the UK
Sophia Flucker
Chartered Engineer, Engineering Council of the UKMember of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
This edition first published 2023© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Vincent Fogarty and Sophia Flucker to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication DataNames: Fogarty, Vincent, author. | Flucker, Sophia, author.Title: Data centre essentials : design, construction, and operation of data centres for the non‐expert / Vincent Fogarty and Sophia Flucker.Description: Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2023. | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2023007219 (print) | LCCN 2023007220 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119898818 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119898825 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119898832 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Data centers.Classification: LCC TJ163.5.D38 F64 2023 (print) | LCC TJ163.5.D38 (ebook) | DDC 005.74–dc23/eng/20230224LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023007219LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023007220
Cover Image: WileyCover Design: © Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images
Acronyms & Symbols
ACoP L8
Approved Code of Practice L8
Ag
Silver
AHU
Air Handling Unit
AI
Artificial Intelligence
AIA
American Institute of Architects
AP
Authorised Person
ARP
Alarm Response Procedure
ASHRAE
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers
ATP
Authorisation to Proceed
ATS
Automatic Transfer Switch
BIM
Building Information Modelling
BMS
Building Monitoring System or Building Management System
BREEAM
Building Research Establishment Energy Assessment Methodology
BSI
British Standards Institute
BSRIA
Building Services Research and Information Association
CAPEX
Capital Expenditure
CBEMA
Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association
CCU
Close Control Unit
CDM
Construction Design and Management
CDP
Contractor Design Portion
CFD
Computational Fluid Dynamics
CLS
Cable Landing Station
CPU
Central Processing Unit
CRAC
Computer Room Air Conditioning
CRAH
Computer Room Air Handling
CSP
Cloud Service Provider
Cu
Copper
DCF
Discounted Cash Flow
DCIM
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
Delta T
Difference in Temperature
DNS
Domain Name System
DP
Dew Point
DX
Direct Expansion
EBC
Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme
EIA
Environmental Impact Assessment
EIS
Environmental Impact Statement
EMI
Electromagnetic Field Interference
EN50600
European Standard 50600: Information Technology. Data Centre Facilities and Infrastructures
EOP
Emergency Operating Procedure
EPC
Engineer, Procure, Construct
ERs
Employer Requirements
ESG
Environmental, Social, and Governance
ETS
Emissions Trading Scheme
EU
European Union
FAC‐1
Framework Alliance Contract
FAT
Factory Acceptance Testing
FLAP
Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris
FIDIC
International Federation of Consulting Engineers
FM
Facilities Management
FMECA
Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis
FPT
Functional Performance Testing
FWT
Factory Witness Testing
GIM
Gross Income Multipliers
GPP
Green Public Procurement
GPU
Graphics Processing Unit
GRI
Global Reporting Initiative
HFC
Hydrofluorocarbon
HSE
Health and Safety Executive
HSSD
High Sensitivity Smoke Detection
HV
High Voltage
HVO
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil
IC
Integrated Circuit
ID
Identity Documentation
IEA
International Energy Agency
IEC
Indirect Evaporative Cooler
IFC
Issued For Construction
IoT
Internet of Things
IP
Internet Protocol
IRC
In‐Row Cooler
IRL
Issues Resolution Log
ISO
International Organization for Standardization
IST
Integrated Systems Testing
IT
Information Technology
ITIC
Information Technology Industry Council
ITUE
IT Power Usage Effectiveness
KPI
Key Performance Indicator
kW
Kilowatt
LCA
Life Cycle Assessment
LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
LOTO
Lock Out Tag Out
LV
Low Voltage
M&E
Mechanical and Electrical
MMR
Meet Me Room
MOP
Maintenance Operating Procedure
MPOP
Main Points of Entry
MSL
Managed Service Provider
MTS
Manual Transfer Switch
MTTR
Mean Time To Repair
MW
Megawatt
MWh
Megawatt Hour
N
Need
NABERS
National Australian Built Environment Rating System
NDA
Non‐Disclosure Agreement
NEC
New Engineering Contract
NIM
Net Income Multipliers
NIS
Natural Impact Statement
NNN
Triple Net Lease
NOC
Network Operations Centre
NOI
Net Operating Income
NOx
Nitrogen Oxides
O&M
Operating and Maintenance
OFCI
Owner Furnished, Contractor Installed
OPEX
Operational Expenditure
OPR
Owner’s Project Requirements
PC
Practical Completion
PCB
Printed Circuit Board
PDU
Power Distribution Unit
PoP
Point of Presence
PPA
Power Purchase Agreements
PPC2000
Project Partnering Contracts, 2000
PPE
Personal Protective Equipment
PPM
Planned Preventative Maintenance
PTW
Permit to Work
PUE
Power Usage Effectiveness
RAMS
Risk Assessment and Method Statement
RCA
Root Cause Analysis
RCM
Reliability‐Centred Maintenance
RDC
Rear Door Cooler
REITs
Real Estate Investment Trusts
RFI
Request for Information
RFS
Ready for Service
RH
Relative Humidity
RIBA
Royal Institute of British Architects
RICS
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
ROM
Rough Order of Magnitude
RPO
Recovery Point Objective
RTO
Recovery Time Objective
SAP
Senior Authorised Person
SBTi
Science‐Based Targets Initiative
SDG
Sustainable Development Goal
SDIA
Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance
SLA
Service‐Level Agreement
SLTE
Submarine Line Termination Equipment
SOP
Standard Operating Procedure
SPOF
Single Point of Failure
SPV
Special Purpose Vehicle‐Type Company
STS or S/S
Static Transfer Switch
TC9.9
Technical Committee 9.9
TCO
Total Cost of Ownership
TTRS
Time to Restore Service
TUE
Total Power Usage Effectiveness
UK
United Kingdom
UN
United Nations
UPS
Uninterruptible Power Supply
VPN
Virtual Private Network
WBCSD
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
XaaS
Anything as a Service
Foreword by Tom Glover
We live in exceptional times. The world’s technological evolution is springboarding civilisation beyond nature’s Darwinism limits. While the world deals with world issues, the world’s ultrarich are heading for the stars and the next frontier – wherever this is, rest assured there will be a data centre nearby.
Keeping up with all the noise around us and ongoing change is a full‐time job, which is why, if nothing else, we should all once in a while pause and remind ourselves that in order to manage the changes around us, we first need to understand the fundamental, underpinning enablers to those very changes.
The growth of the digital world has been rapid, and the change it has brought about is immense. Do you recall the first Sinclair ZX81 with 1K of RAM; the birth of email, modems, newsgroups, the internet, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Salesforce all coming into being; and watching companies acquired, falling by the way, and morphing into different visions of themselves?
Every year we consume more digital experiences than the last, create more data, build more applications, and solve more problems through technology. When we lose our phone under the sofa, or our computer crashes, we feel lost, disconnected from humanity’s modern hive. In many ways, in the way Tim Marshall talks about ‘Prisoners of Geography,’ are we not also ‘Prisoners of Technology,’ albeit technology’s borders are global?
Throughout the journey of this digital evolution, one enabler has remained constant, adapting and improving, but always there ‘on’ in the background making our digital world so.
The Data Centre.
Without data centres, mobile phones do not work, communications revert to tapped‐out messages and pigeon carriers, and global pandemics would have been tenfold worse – our world coming to an even harder ‘STOP’ than it did.
Behind everything we do at the heart of the digital world is the data centre. A purpose‐built facility, housing the vast compute and connectivity capabilities needed to run our world. And yet how much do you really know about this silent global enabler?
It was in the 1990s, two years into my technology career that I first entered a data centre at BT Martlesham, the platform for science fiction, highly secure, a whirl of activity, flashing lights, and a background noise and smell that anyone who has visited a data centre will know. At the time I did not fully understand the importance of these non‐descript buildings of infrastructure. Today I am a little more versed, still learning, and in awe of their silent importance in the world around us.
In 2009, I joined Interxion (now Digital Realty) working for one of our industries’ veterans, David Ruberg, and my immersion into the world and inner workings of data centre began in earnest. I wish this book had been written then as it provides a roadmap for anyone interested in data centres, from employees, investors, developers, and operators to the mighty cloud providers. This book unpacks and simplifies the data centre into the constituent parts of a data centre’s life.
I have had the pleasure to work with Vincent on several data centre projects; he has been an ambassador for the sector for well over two decades and exudes a humble passion for it. Vincent could have written each chapter in this book but chose to engage with the best within our industry who together have written chapters on their expert experiences, which when combined present a cohesive best‐in‐class insight into data centres.
Experts assembled, our own DC Titans so to speak, this data centre handbook of handbooks takes rudimentary topics that form the foundations of our digital world and brings them to life for the novice and expert alike. This book is for the reader who wants to understand how these inconspicuous buildings come into being and are operated, maintained, and protected – from bricks and mortar to penmanship.
If you are interested in getting data centre zoning or planning, securing power to a site, wanting to design and build a data centre, running the operating company, maintaining the data centre, wishing to unpick the legal complexities of a lease agreement, or simply understanding what is behind all the change around them in today’s digital world, then this is the book.
We live in exceptional times; data centres are the exceptional infrastructures behind our world today, and this book will help you understand them.
Preface
The origins of this book commenced from an icy place in the subarctic. In the winter of 2015 and the spring of 2016, Sophia and I had to work on the same Facebook data centre project in Luleå, Sweden. Our contribution to the project was entirely different. I was working on commercial matters whilst Sophia was engaged in providing mechanical engineering support for design, commissioning, and operational cooling challenges on the previous and current phases of the project.
In this challenging environment where temperatures reached minus 34 °C, the project teams started early and finished late into the night and then, on many occasions, off to the restaurant and sometimes the only pub in Luleå. Most of those who worked on the project have never forgotten the harsh condition of living there; some meet up regularly. The nuances of living in Swedish houses with frozen locks, plug‐in motor cars that prevent overnight freezing, and other constraints are not easily forgotten by those who were there.
As and when people experience all extreme challenges, people bonding and comradery follow. Sophia was more of the fly‐in and ‐out expert, usually returning home at the weekend; however, she was very much part of the engineering team and a deeply respected solutions proposer. You do not need to spend much time with Sophia to recognise her unique talent for making complex engineering principles easy to digest by non‐experts.
Following on from Luleå, we occasionally crossed paths at various industry events and had the old conversation here and there. Whilst my origins are more routed in engineering, I am more of a generalist in the data centre space, focusing on commercial matters. Whilst Sophia works as a technical expert in engineering matters, from those diverse positions appears a recognised void – the need for something for the non‐expert who needs a holistic overview of the complete life cycle of a data centre.
When I asked Sophia if she would partner with me on this endeavour, her response was almost immediate, and we agreed on clear objectives. We soon recognised we needed an IT expert. So Max Schulze joined, covering the known and the unknowns about IT. The tentacles of data centres impact many legal transactions, and sometimes disputes emerge; those all need specialist legal services, and, in that regard, it was with great relief that Andrew McMillian joined our journey to set the legal background.
Tom Glover, who has held many senior positions at the most prominent global data centre practices, kindly agreed to provide the Foreword.
The key deliverable stemmed from the recognition that there was a need for those that may become involved in data centres but were on the periphery of that industry to understand the basics of data centres. Therefore, the book's vision is to provide knowledge to those who intend to provide professional service and other deliverables to the data centre industry but do not have a technical background or sector experience. The intention is that this book will give the essentials and address the entire domain context of the data centre life cycle from initial concept and investment appraisal to operational use.
The intention is to get a lot covered on a broad domain, but because data centres can be considered the ‘brains’ of the internet and are central to the digital economy, we encompass the wide margins of business needs and a whole range of dependable interfaces.
This book will outline the technical landscape and help identify the unknown unknowns, to help the reader understand where they will need to engage with professional data centre expert specialist services. In that context, it provides a high‐level overview of critical considerations but is not a technical deep dive into complex matters of complex design, construction, commissioning, and operation.
Our objective is to fill the knowledge void for professionals like lawyers, financial and insurance advisors, surveyors, engineers, architects, and other professionals, who do not necessarily have a deep domain experience in data centres. It ought to assist companies that are equity investors, financial services firms, lessors of data centre space, insurance companies, facility management companies, data centre supply chain businesses, educators, and all those working within or on the periphery of the data centre industry. The broad domain of this book is intended to assist non‐data centre professionals in gaining awareness of critical concepts and terminology, complement their core skills when drafting documents or making business decisions, and help them ask more informed questions when working on data centre projects.
Data centre solutions evolve so quickly that there is no perfect time to write about them. However, some of the fundamentals remain the same – the need for resilient power, cooling, and connectivity. Our key objective was to weave the narratives of data centre needs, site selection, engineering solutions, and legal context.
This book recognises that climate change is the defining challenge of our time, and the rehabilitation of the image of data centres as environmental bad boys to a sector that is keen to make steady inroads on sustainability continues. As we peek around the corner of the future, we recognise that regulation may need to be enacted and applied across borders consistently and transparently. What the future holds will no doubt give the need for future additions and revisions.
We drafted this book against extensive transitions following COVID impacts that accelerated home working, a platter of new internet needs, and the intensification of sustainability and global warming debates. For a book whose origins started in the freeze of the Nordics, data centres are now the hottest topic of our planet’s engineered solutions.
Acknowledgements
This book benefits from being reviewed by a number of colleagues and collaborators. It would not have been possible without the support of a number of people.
Sophia Flucker
Thanks; Beth Whitehead, Marc Beattie, Niklas Sundberg, Robert Tozer, Steve Avis, and the whole team at OI and MiCiM who are a pleasure to work with and have taught me so much. And, of course, my nearest and dearest behind the scenes (who know who they are).
Vincent Fogarty
Before setting off on this journey, I asked John Mullen, the director of Driver Group Plc., himself a published co‐author of Wiley for ‘Evaluating Contract Claims,’ for his initial insights on the writing process that have proved invaluable. Mark Wheeler, the CEO of Driver Group Plc., was motivational and supportive of my efforts of getting the book across the line.
Selina Soong, a consultant of Currie & Brown, who shared insightful knowledge gained from acting as the auditor of global data centre leases was gratefully received.
Lee Smith provided my graphical representation and was a pleasure to work with.
Max Schulze
I would like to dedicate this work to both my daughters June and Violet, who are always incredibly patient with me when I am caught up in my own thoughts. And, of course, none of the work would be possible without the discussions and dialogue within our NGO and the team of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) and the wonderful community that over the years has informed many of the insights I am writing about in this book. A special thanks goes to Daan Terpstra, who is the CEO of the SDIA, for giving me the freedom to pursue projects like this book.
Many of the ideas I wrote about are the results of discussions and conversations with many people in the industry and beyond. Yet there is one person who has been a continuous source of inspiration: Jurg van Vliet. I am glad to be able to call him a friend.
Similarly, I would like to thank John Laban, who has been a strong supporter of the SDIA and who put me on the track of sustainable digital infrastructure, to begin with. I will never forget the first very long‐hour encounter at a conference, with his pen and phone as the whiteboard. Another supporter and one of the first people working with me on the topic of sustainability in digital infrastructure is Mohan Gandhi; many of the insights from this book come from long debates we have had together during his time at the SDIA.
I would also like to thank the people of Perugia, Italy, for protecting the beautiful nature, which was the backdrop to most of my writing for this book.
Andrew McMillan
Acknowledges the Pinsent Masons LLP team and contributions from the following individuals spanning diverse legal practice areas: Becca Aspinwall, Anne‐Marie Friel, Rob Morson, Mark Marfe, Angelique Bret, Paul Williams, and Tadeusz Gielas.
About the Authors
Vincent Fogarty received his MSc (King's College) in Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, BSc (Hons.) in Cost Management in Building Engineering Services. Diploma in Engineering Services, FRICS, FSCSI, MCIArb, ACIBSE, MIEI, I.Eng.
Vincent is a dual‐qualified engineer and quantity surveyor and started his data centre journey as a mechanical and electrical consultant for the Bank of Ireland data centre in Dublin, which housed reel‐to‐reel data storage for some of the first cash machines. Many years later, Vincent ventured to Luleå in North Sweden as commercial manager on Facebook's first data centre built outside the United States. Since then, Vincent has provided commercial advice and dispute resolution services on various commercial matters on many data centre projects in many jurisdictions. Vincent is also a founding partner of Project Art, a data centre site currently under a planning application process in Ireland.
Vincent has over 38 years of combined quantity surveying and mechanical and electrical engineering experience within the construction industry. He initially trained as a mechanical and electrical engineer with a firm of specialist consultants and later joined consultants and contractors working on the whole project life cycle from inception to completion and then handover and operation. Lawyers have appointed Vincent as an expert in complex mechanical and electrical quantum matters concerning commercial data centre disputes. He has also given a quantum opinion on operational costs and loss of revenue in energy generation.
He is a fellow of the RICS since 2014 and maintains membership in the Institute of Engineers as an incorporated engineer. He recently became a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, having an MSc in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from King's College, London.
Sophia Flucker is a Chartered Engineer with a background in mechanical engineering who has worked with data centres since 2004. She has worked as an engineering consultant on a variety of projects in several countries, including delivery of design, commissioning, training, and risk and energy assessments. This includes working alongside operations teams to help clients manage their critical environments and enjoy collaborating with others to optimise system performance. Her experience includes developing low‐energy data centre cooling solutions, creating analytical and reporting tools, and leading teams and business development. Sophia’s contributions to the digital infrastructure sector were recognised in 2020 when she received an Infrastructure Masons IM100 Award. She is passionate about sustainability and participates in various industry groups and has published and presented several technical papers on data centre energy efficiency and environmental impact. Sophia is the Managing Director of Operational Intelligence (OI), a company she joined at its inception in 2011, which delivers services to help optimise data centre reliability and energy performance throughout the project cycle. OI’s approach focuses on the human element and improving knowledge sharing for better outcomes. In 2022, OI merged with MiCiM, specialists in mission‐critical management, and Sophia joined their board as Technical Director.
Max Schulze is the Founder of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA). With a background as a software engineer and a cloud expert, Max brings his experience in measuring the digital economy's footprint and advancing the SDIA’s roadmap towards making it sustainable and future‐proof. Throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to the well‐being of people and the planet as he is committed to creating a positive future for the next generation.
Andrew McMillan is a partner at an international law firm, Pinsent Masons LLP. Within Pinsent Masons, Andrew heads up the Technology & Digital Markets and Data Centre practices. He specialises in corporate transactions within the technology, media, and telecommunications space and advises trade players, investment banks, and private equity houses on transformative mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and high‐value commercial partnering arrangements. He has been recommended by various legal directories, including Legal 500, Chambers, Who’s Who Legal (Telecoms and Media), and Super Lawyers, both for his sector expertise and execution capability.
For several years, Andrew chaired an artist‐led charity that was established to provoke and inform the cultural response to climate change, bringing together artists and scientists with a view to encouraging both to find new ways of communicating and shifting the public perception of environmental responsibility.
Chapter 10 (the legal chapter of this book) was a team effort, with contributions from the following individuals at Pinsent Masons, spanning diverse legal practice areas: Becca Aspinwall, Anne‐Marie Friel, Rob Morson, Mark Marfe, Angelique Bret, Paul Williams, and Tadeusz Gielas.
Tom Glover, a self‐proclaimed ‘tech junkie,’ has worked in the IT sector for over 25 years, starting with software application and technology layers such as machine learning, early‐day AI, business rules, and algorithmic trading platforms before progressing to TCM and core banking applications. In 2009, he was lured to the dark side of data centres by David Ruberg with the role of leading Interxion’s international business development. During his tenure, he and the team grew the business and share price by over 300%.
Over the past 12 years, Tom has overseen and steered data centre transactions worth over $10 billion and worked with occupiers, hyper‐scalers, developers, landowners, governments, and institutional investors in this dynamic sector.
In his current role at JLL, Tom leads their EMEA data centre transactional business line across EMEA. In a recent poll (+170 replies), he observed that sustainability in the data centre arena was the number 1 challenge, with the resource (human capital) a close second. Tom believes that the data centre community is responsible for ensuring quality products are combined with best practices in achieving sustainability and bringing as many ‘tech junkies’ into the sector as possible. In a recent panel discussion, he said, ‘The digital economy is not growing, it’s exploding, and data centres are the bedrock foundation needed to support this!’
Tom Glover is currently DC Head of Transactions, EMEA, for JLL.
1Introduction
As prefaced, this book is written primarily for lawyers, financial and insurance advisors, surveyors, engineers, architects, and other professionals who do not necessarily have direct experience with data centres but need to participate in the subject matter. The intention is to provide the reader with the broad landscape of technical and commercial issues and help identify a high‐level overview of critical considerations. We trust that the book should provide the key concepts and terminology to complement their core skills when drafting documents or making business decisions and help them ask more informed questions when working on data centre projects. Data centres are a complex ecosystem with many stakeholders from different disciplines interacting at different phases of the facility's lifetime. The objective of this text is to provide the reader with a full spectrum of the entire life cycle of a data centre from inception to operational use.
Vincent Fogarty and Sophia Flucker have written the book, with Max Schulze and Andrew McMillan sharing their expertise in specific chapters.
Vincent Fogarty is a dual‐qualified engineer and quantity surveyor who has acted as the appointed quantum and technical expert in mechanical and electrical matters in litigation and alternative dispute resolution processes in the United Kingdom and overseas. He has commercially managed various data centre projects, solved delay and cost disputes and has been an equity partner with data centre developments.
Sophia Flucker has specialised in data centres since 2004, working as a mechanical engineering consultant. Sophia's experience included secondments with operations teams, which broadened her practical knowledge helping data centre clients optimise their reliability and energy efficiency performance. Passionate about sustainability, she has collaborated with colleagues on several technical papers on data centre energy efficiency and environmental impact. She enjoys collaborating with different stakeholders to deliver award‐winning work.
Max Schulze has a background as a software engineer and cloud expert, bringing his experience from start‐ups and corporates to transforming the digital economy, making it future‐proof and sustainable. He believes that sustainability is an opportunity and contributes to unlocking it with his work.
Andre McMillian is an international telecoms media and technology lawyer; he has a wealth of experience advising corporates, investment banks, and private equity houses on in‐sector mergers and acquisitions and high‐value commercial contracts.
Chapter 2 starts by examining data centres' central role in the digital economy and the growth trends due to the world's increasing reliance on data. In Chapter 3, whilst examining the multiple competing criteria layers of site selection, it is evident that the perfect data centre site may not exist. The optimal site criteria involve trade‐offs that require an engineering solution to resolve the site‐specific opportunities and risks.
In Chapter 4, Max demystifies computing and global connectivity, explaining how IT services work. This includes a macro architecture overview of all the connecting parts from data centres to fibre cable, terrestrial internet, Wi‐Fi, and all the interconnecting infrastructure parts that ultimately connect the end users.
Sophia describes the key components of a data centre's physical infrastructure and various engineering solutions for cooling and powering the data centre in Chapter 5.
The reader is provided with the essential considerations and challenges of designing and building these complex projects in Chapter 6, including the project process, client requirements, design, installation, commissioning and handover, programme, budget management, what can go wrong, and lessons learned.
After the construction phase, the facility starts its operational life. Sophia explores considerations and challenges for cost‐effective and efficient operation in Chapter 7, including faults and failures and the role of maintenance, management, and training to avoid and mitigate costly errors.
In Chapter 8, Vincent explains why data centres attract investors and the valuation considerations applied. There are many models by which finance may enter the data centre domain, and this book explores those fundamentals, including why data centres have a utility‐like asset class that has the potential to provide a predictable income stream and therefore are investment grade for sovereign and private equity.
Data centres have a high and growing environmental impact due to their energy consumption and use of resources. Sophia addresses this in Chapter 9, which describes how engineering options and opportunities can mitigate and somehow avoid the worst impacts of these energy‐intense operations.
In Chapter 10, Andrew explores the jurisdiction, regulation, and legal matters that wrap around the life cycle of data centre transactions and also looks at case law on when things go wrong and require a dispute resolution process. It is paramount to properly present and consider data centres in the relevant terms of the business.
Finally, in Chapter 11, because the data centre industry is full of innovation and is constantly evolving, the authors examine what may be around the corner and future trends in the industry, including regulation.
We hope for many that this book assists in identifying the unknowns and may provide a valuable source of continuous reference for the navigation of the data centre world.
2What Drives the Need and the Various Types of Data Centres
From the outside, data centres may be seen as clean, windowless warehouses with thousands of circuit boards racked and arranged in rows, stretching down halls so long that operational staff on scooters may ride through the corridors of these rows of racks. But what drives the scale and growth of these intelligent data centre buildings? This chapter looks at the trends, current market, and industry structure and provides insights into the potential growth drivers, restraints, risks, and prospects. Those recent and legacy drivers of the data centre growth, the impacts, and the various generic types of data centres are all considered.
We, the populace, all interact with the internet, simply uploading our latest photos to Instagram, which may end up stored inside a vast data centre. The key driver's data centres that enable growth are becoming more recognisable. Data centres are where the cloud lives,1 and our data, photographs, and music are stored. They are a critical component of the worldwide economy, whether you are a human being, a city, or a country. Likewise, the demand for data to enhance business performance is driving the growth of the data centre industry.
Data centres are also a fundamental part of the business enterprise, designed to support applications and provide services such as data storage, access management, backup, and recovery. Data centres also provide productivity applications, such as online meeting portals, e‐commerce transactions, and provisioning for online gaming communities. Recently big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) have prompted the growth of data centres.
Cloud computing is a primary driver of data centre growth.2 The cloud relies upon the pooling of data stored and then processed within the capabilities provided by the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Users connect via internet devices, and through the network's tentacles, data centres allow users access to the data they need. The data is in all formats, from audio files, photographs, and computing software. Data centres are the internet's core, and the cloud is only made possible by high‐speed, resilient, and reliable networks. These cloud networks may be public, private, or commercial.
Following the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0,3 manufacturers depend on big data analytics to enhance their operations' output efficiency and cost‐effectiveness. The IoT usually refers to the instrumented world where IP4 addresses are embedded in objects in the environment.5 These ‘Things’ are devices operated in their home or carried by people. Modern‐built assets tend to have intelligent doors, lighting, and controls that all interface with IP addresses. All types of Bluetooth, RFID,6 GPS,7 vehicles, and many more ‘Things’ are connected by the network's tentacles. The potential of a digital twin8 that augments the creation of virtual reality offers the possibility to simulate all types of asset design and function scenarios, create extensive data, and compute demand.
Many IoT missions may require several locations for IoT data analysis and storage, including endpoint devices with integrated computing and storage; nearby devices that perform local computation; intelligent gateway devices; and on‐premises data centres, managed to host sites, colocation facilities, and network providers' point‐of‐presence locations. The diversity of edge‐computing locations reflects the diversity of markets for IoT.
Figure 2.1 Data centre interfaces with the Internet of Things (IoT).
Several IoT deployments may end up storing, integrating, and moving data across a combination of public cloud and other commercial facilities, including colocation sites, with both distributed micromodular edge data centres and enormous centralised core data centres, including those of public cloud providers playing a role. Even within similar IoT applications, network architectures and data centre types may have various interfaces and data exchange paths, as shown in Figure 2.1.
The internet has primarily fuelled this sustained growth of data creation. The smartphone has been a big part of this growth. However, more IoT devices have further generated data through internet connections. The processing of mega quantities of data prompts the need for the internet via cloud computing because standalone technology does not have the capacity. The pivotal engine of this physical cloud computing infrastructure are data centres.
In this age of data, reports9 indicate that there were 36 billion IoT devices installed worldwide by 2021 and a forecast of 76 billion by 2025. The generation of large masses of data affects the transactions to be captured, transmitted, stored, evaluated, and retrieved. Data centres house these treasuries of this internet age.
The stock market confirms that some of the ten biggest global companies by market capitalisation are Alphabet,10 Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta.11 It may well be obvious how much data those big five produce and how it drives the data centre's needs. It may be less obvious that your local shop and sporting bookmaker also has data centre needs generally catered for by a colocator data centre provider. However, some businesses have privacy concerns about client data, such as banks, insurance companies, health providers, and others, who continue to have enterprise data centres.
Data Demand versus Compute Efficiency
There is a competing axis around which data centre size continually evolves. The first part is chipset efficiency, the second is software efficiency, and the third is rack density.
As we, the consumers of the data exchanges, continue to produce and depend upon more transactions and records, the pile of data increases organically. According to projections from Statista,12 the total amount of data created, captured, duplicated, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly. Until 2025, global data creation is forecast to rise to more than 180 zettabytes.13 You can assume the relationship between data demand and data centre size is directly related; however, three factors influence that connection.
The first influence is chipset efficiency; the latest generation of server processors delivers more workload than those engaged previously. Every new server technology generation has delivered a leap in efficiency across the board for the past 15 or so years. In this context, it is worth recognising Moore's law as a term used to refer to the opinion given by Gordon Moore14 when, in 1965, he said that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. In 2021, Intel claimed15 that the semiconductor industry would meet or beat Moore's Law.16
Second, some computer scientists point out that the efficiency or performance of the software decreases when the hardware becomes more powerful.17 Many reasons are impacting this condition. The really significant reason is that the cost of creating software is dramatically increasing while, at the same time, computer hardware is becoming less expensive.18 In 1995, Computer Scientist Niklaus Wirth stated, ‘Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster’. This statement was later recognised as Wirth's Law.19 It is because software comes to be more intricate as the hardware progresses; the actual execution of computers might not be improved as people anticipated. The term ‘Software bloat’ was created to describe the occurrence. Subsequently, computer scientists continued to make similar statements about Wirth's Law. British computer scientist Michael David May stated, ‘Software efficiency halves every 18 months, compensating Moore's Law’.20 This declaration became identified as May's Law. Whilst Wirth's Law, May's Law, and other laws contend that inefficiency counteracts the effect of Moore's Law, it is accepted that hardware efficiency trumps software inefficiency in productivity gains.21 On the one hand, the software is slow and inefficient; on the other hand, the hardware industry follows Moore's Law, providing overabundant hardware resources.
The third is rack density within the data centre space. Racks are like a framing system that organises the high‐density blade22 servers,23 network, and storage equipment. Each blade has an energy‐consumed measure that may be stated in kilowatts (kW). The summation of power consumed in a single rack may range from 2 to 20 kW and sometimes beyond. This number of kW per rack is generally known as the rack density; the more kW per rack, the greater the density. The rack power density calculation is one of the most fundamental regarding server room and data centre designs. When the client or developer has decided on the data centre's capacity, the design density of the racks may offer most of the answer to the size of the floor area of the data centre. While densities under 10 kW per rack remain the norm, deployments at 15 kW are typical in hyperscale facilities, and some are even nearing 25 kW. An increased rack density for a total design load effectively reduces the data centre's footprint.
The development tendency has been to provide increased rack density and an ever‐increasing chipset efficiency, thus getting more data transactions per footprint unit area of the data centre. In addition to floor area requirement, the power per rack multiplied by the total number of racks in the room provides the basis for capacity planning, sizing, critical power protection, and cooling systems. The industry trend is to squeeze more ‘compute24’ out of less footprint and power consumed.
It follows, therefore, that the chipset efficiency and power consumed to provide the data transaction is an ever‐evolving equation and is a counterbalance to the ever‐increasing demand for more data transactions. As the network latencies improve with the enabling of fully immersive virtual worlds that are accessible to everyone, the compute infrastructure layer continues to be pivotal in that journey. This increase in chipset efficiency may lead to more extensive retro refitting of data centres where new racks with new computer chipsets are replacing their older incumbents and reducing the need to build new data centres. However, the cooling requirements also increase as you increase the power load to higher densities. In retrofit projects where rack density increases the power usage and, therefore, the cooling need, it may prompt a complete redesign of the mechanical and electrical services with plant and systems replacement.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has categories that include knowledge management, virtual assistants, semi‐autonomous vehicles, virtual workplace, and machine learning. As networks become more complex, distributed, and augmented and virtual reality demands of the metaverse become more evident, the need for real‐time computing and decision‐making becomes more critical. The application and potential applications are so vast that I only touch upon those more obvious applications in the following paragraphs.
The possibility for AI to drive revenue and profit growth is immense. Marketing, sales, and customer service were identified as functions where AI can realise its full potential. Using algorithms to improve the basics of account and lead prioritisation and requirement, suggesting the content or sales activity that will lead to success, and reallocating sales resources to the places they can have the most impact.
