Building your own data center? It may cost your dearly

Building your own data center? It may cost you dearly.

First, ask yourself how much data center downtime can you stand. Building a data center for 99.995% uptime (28 minutes of data center downtime per year or less) is expensive. Can you afford two utility feeds from your power provider? Will you buy two generators, two UPS systems, and two independent HVAC systems? These levels of data center redundancy are the only proven way to reduce or eliminate the risk of downtime. Will your new building meet these data center power redundancy standards, including hardened data centers (facilities that are F5 tornado resistant data centers)?

Second, what are the hidden, ongoing maintenance costs of building your own data center? Are you including the costs of cleaning under the raised floor? Have you counted the costs of preventative maintenance on your multiple power feeds, generators, UPSes and HVAC systems? Are you able to increase power or space as needed? What is the FTE burden associated with the management and maintenance of an in-house data center?

Third, what levels of data center compliance does the government, your vendors, and your clients require? Many outsource computer room facilities maintain multiple certification levels so you don’t have to spend the time and money doing it yourself.

Do the math. Check the figures. If renting space makes more financial sense than building, use the high uptime, affordable colocation facilities of Lifeline Data Centers. Call us at 317.423.2591.

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.