Building a data center cost model

Building a data center cost model is an important step in managing your data center capital costs and ongoing operational costs.

• A data center cost model lets you understand how incremental growth impacts costs.
• A data center cost model allows you to predict future scenarios.
• A good data center cost model helps you build a pricing model for cloud services or chargeback.

Many companies that build a data center cost model find that the cost of incremental growth is full of spikes. A new project with a few servers may cost the company $100,000 in new generators, UPS equipment, and air conditioning systems. The next few projects might have little or no direct data center capital costs.

Companies who develop cost models also may discover that they are likely to “hit a ceiling.” Often there are upper limits on power, cooling or floor space in an enterprise data center due to the location, the property owner, or the building configuration.

Affordable colocation providers with sensible data center pricing models can help companies solve these problems. Outsource data center facilities provide an incremental operating cost model rather than a spiky capital cost model. Hardened data center buildings, redundant generators, UPS systems and air conditioning are the outsource data center provider’s problem. Your company purchases high-tech real estate with service level agreements to ensure quality.

An affordable colocation provider with multiple carriers, no cross-connect fees and simple pricing models is hard to find. Need help building a data center cost model? Looking for outsource data center alternatives? Call the simple data center pricing model experts.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.