Data Centre Design Service

Designing a data centre takes careful planning and careful consideration.

The main points we consider when designing a data centre.

• Data Centre Location
• Data Centre Building
• Resilience of the Data Centre
• Efficiency of the Data Centre
• Data Centre security

1 Data Centre Location

Power
Availability of supply needs to be confirmed with both the local electricity supply authority and where applicable, the landlord. If it is envisaged that the site will need more power in the future, costs for the supply upgrade would be sought from the electrical supply authority.

Planning
Planning permission will be needed for any changes to the exterior of the building or, if a change of use is envisaged for the site ( changing car parking space into air conditioning and electrical plant areas etc), local authorities will require an energy conservation report to be submitted with the planning application. Building regulations are required for a change of internal use of the building.

2 Data Centre Building

If it is to be a co-location facility the type, size and layout of the data centre will be greatly affected by the requirements of the data centre operator and the type of client. TIA 942 recommends that space can be easily reallocated to meet changing environments and growth, a philosophy we have adopted, and one which has allowed our sites to grow vastly beyond the initial build stage.

The layout is designed to keep the different functions of the data centre in discrete, contained areas and to minimise movement between these areas. Movement through the comms area itself is restricted and controlled by security. The layout is also determined by the equipment which needs to be installed in a particular way in order to optimise efficiency.

3 Resilience of the Data Centre
The resilience of the data centre will have a major influence on the data centre design and cost of the installation. Although it is possible to upgrade the data centre to a higher tier rating at a later date, it will be more cost affective if the intention is known at the initial design phase. The levels of resiliency are defined in TIA 942 and range from tier I to tier IV.

4 Efficiency of the Data Centre
A number of factors affect the power consumption and efficiency of the data centre, principally the type of equipment chosen and the way it is installed. The equipment selected will have a great affect on the running costs of the data centre.

5 Data Centre Security
Fire Detection and Suppression Any tier III or tier IV data centre will require a means of fire suppression, tier I or II sites will require fire detection. Fire detection is carried out using a mixture of ionisation, optical and heat detection placed throughout the data centre within the floor void and if not fire rated, above the suspended ceiling.