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Queue the Jeffersons Theme Song

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The pleasure is all mine being born at the beginning of the 80’s, got to dub tapes, rip mp3’s, burn cd’s, and has managed multi hundred kW to multi MW builds within one half of a lifetime. The most exciting theme I saw in 2025 was companies ‘Moving on Up.’ Not the short list of bloated commodity deals. This goes beyond the neolithic grunts of ‘me need hundreds of MW who has?’ to ‘oh my I’m going to become a consumer of my competitions offering if I don’t get cracking.’ These kinds of companies had all together a few MW’s tucked away in corners of data halls across colo providers throughout the US, but had never bought a sizable piece of the infrastructure pie. With half of the top tier of the colo market you’re going to be buying a quarter, half, or whole new site – or picking up the leftovers at a legacy building. This is the eat or be eaten new enterprise business data center segment. They are building  the colo version of nice new subdivisions not the entire city scale like around Abeline, TX which has everyone’s attention. There have been just enough data cycles to begin level one framework for success.

Start with the idea that it takes a minimum of 3 legs to build a stable stool.

  1. Find a partner from the gear side – think about the tens of millions that will be spent on AI servers, rpdus, or busway. You’re looking to land power in a data center. You’ll need to have data to understand what’s drawing power / generating heat. These will be the variables that you’ll be solving for once you’ve signed up for a larger piece of data center infrastructure than you typically take down. These timelines are long, and you’ll want to have everything in place before your data center search.
  2. Find a data center provider who’ll work as a partner. Ask your AI assistant of choice for a rank list of AI data center providers. Then look within to think where your company ranks within the overall ecosystem. The first time at a steakhouse you’ll look to order the biggest most expensive tomahawk and go home miserable. Over time you’ll look for a nicer filet with a shared side and salad that makes sense. The top data centers expect their customers to sign their legal paperwork as is and to come fully equipped to self-engineer their solution in to the site. They’re going to look at you the customer as a credit asset or liability if you’re taking on a considerable portion of their expensive asset.
  3. Talk to the leaders of your own company. They went to a conference or read a story in HBR on AI now they want that sparkling jewel. Start with the simple question ‘Are we going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in IT gear and leases and not add headcount?’ Then ask ‘How are we going to train these people?’ There are teams who were managing colo PoP’s now with their heads spinning going from 50kW deployments to 4MW single deployments. There is a direct relationship between what companies invest in to the success of their projects to how successful their projects are. This is a no S concept that needs to be said out loud to be brought to reality.

Next run through this Base Level of Installation Considerations.

By thinking about these items early your team is able to get all of the parties involved early.

 Buildout Considerations
Power 
Power (kW)How many cabinets?  What is density per cabinet?
WhipsInclude how many per cabinet (typically 2 per cab).  This is typically defined by density..
BuswaySee the timelines for the entire solution down to the tap cans
CAGE 
Cage WallHeight needed / solid or perf wall. 
Doors# of Doors (swing vs slider, egress only) 3ft vs. 4ft.
SECURITY 
Badge/BioInclude details, data hall, office, storage, etc.
Badge ONLY (egress or entry)Include details, data hall, office, storage, etc.
Any otherunder floor mesh, proprietery access requirements.
CABLING/CONNECTIVITY 
IFC CablingInclude from each MMR, # of strands (make sure armored is standard)
Cross ConnectsQuantity what carriers are needed
Basket TrayWho is providing.  Draw layout, details and quotes.
Conduit if there’s office or storageDoes inter facility cabling need be in conduit back to MMR or Office/Storage Spaces?  What size?  Full path or only in shared spaces? Demarc in customer cage/office/storage)
Connectivity SolutionsWhat does customer need? (bandwidth, dedicated circuits, etc)
 Setup a time to discuss with data center connectivty SME
CABINETSProvide cabinet dimensions for layout.
Cabinet Setup and GroundIs customer providing white glove service? If so, just quote grounding.
Hot/Cold Aisle ContainmentDoors or full containment.  If quoting doors, need 2 sets per row and make sure height is lined up to cabinet height and aisle width.
OTHER …

Build your three legged stool, run the traps of the buildout considerations, and you’ll be walking as confidently as George Jefferson himself. Having an understanding of the entire scope will set the expectations for a successful project. It’s key to leave you with the understanding that a true AI deployment isn’t just taking down power, but assuming a block of infrastructure. The more plans your team can bring to the table the longer it’ll take for your data center provider to begin billing. If you have whip and IFC locations, and power striping models baked into the power lease they can’t start billing till the physical pieces are in place. Find a way to get your planning put into a simple flexible order that can be amended. That way the framework is built and changes can be made accordingly. Power and cooling are not exact and can be upgraded as necessary. The top standard 22/17kW whip is essentially the building block that is being doubled and tripled within cabinets. Cooling can be dumbed down to 17kW cabs need containment, 70kW cabs are in the rear door heat exchanger range, 100kW and above start talking about liquid to chip. You can get more exact and reach for the top early, but that will limit your flexibility. The result is you potentially future goof not future proof your project. Have general costs ready for the top brass’s next great conference takeaway. “Oh I see we invested $15k so you could get great insight at a conference – did you know that plan will take $150M to kickoff, then tens of millions yearly, and take additional support?” Gold beats brass, or costs are the bosses boss. You’ll have all that research time back when they come to the monetary realization of the great idea they heard. It’s an exciting time in the data center industry. It’s important to remember that every company is living a dual reality of decisions being made at a point in time within a fluid environment. That makes for a high-stakes business landscape –

Last thoughts

– require all vendors to provide useful recommendations or move on. Don’t allow people to just take orders, take your money, and move on. Keep the markets competitive.

– know that AI will become a solid service so you can decide to go the OPEX route. Think on prem data center v the cloud evolution/revolution.

– if you can’t think big picture, get caught up in the details, you’ll choke on gnats, and die. 

okay so nobody will die, but enormous amounts of time and money will be wasted.

Okay We’re Releasing the Files

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It has been over a year since you’ve gotten new content here. I completed an MIT. In the spirit of Sam Altman I’m opening up my computer – This is assignment 1

Question:

Consider a working environment. It could be your current organization, an organization where you have previously worked, or a fictional organization. Think about the role of technology in the organization and how it assists managers and other employees with efficiency and productivity.

Response:

My organization relies on focus. We are not the cheapest, and often times the general public cannot tell our offering from other data centers. We are focused on a particular client who is able to utilize their data center as an asset for their company. We are focused on meeting the power requirements of what is being called data factories where businesses are finding value for their shareholders by having superior data. We also have a focus on interconnection that provides direct transmission of data for advantages in finance and other high speed interconnected processes.

We can leverage AI in the future at the data hall, campus, and global levels of our organization. In data halls we can preventively see where the supporting power infrastructure is about to go out and have solutions ready. At one of our large campuses our monthly report takes a few minutes longer every month because the data points are expanding by that much. We could use AI to toss any useless data to optimize this process and improve the overall data set. At a global level we can assure that investments that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars are made in the correct markets at the best times so that when customers come up with large requirements they can be filled on time and with a good profit. It is interesting to think that a company where AI is being stood up has so much potential to improve through the use of AI.

My company can gain differentiation and cost leadership through focus. Every property we build out is a gamble, every piece of machinery, every customer we sign. They are all opportunity costs of potentially better places we could have built, machinery that meets the needs of more clients in a more profitable way, and passing on a customer who isn’t going to grow for another one who ends up expanding and bringing tons of revenue. By being focused on optimizing decision making our company can save a lot of useless cycles of work that goes no where and focus on profits. With that we’d be able to pass some cost savings on to customers. The time savings would be a differentiator in speed to market and availability. Focus on who to serve, where, and how would be a clear strategic win in the data center industry.

AI could bring all of the data points from the data hall to the global footprint to optimize our company effectiveness. The data could be taken from the many different disciplines like, accounting, finance, engineering, and sales to make everything make sense for all parties. We could replace automated tasks with automation, avoid potential break down issues, plan for the future, and there are ways to improve in our industry that haven’t even been imagined yet.

The real magic will be the solutions that haven’t yet been imagined. It’s pretty cool to think a fundamental platform using a revolutionary tool for clients also doing the same to mee their own goals.

Stay tuned there are a handful of these to come….

The Future is Futures

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The time of effortlessly buying data center capacity a couple months out is coming to an end. I’ve heard from people saying ‘I’ve called multiple providers about my 100kW install and not gotten any response.’ Projects that end at just a megawatt or less are no longer the focus of a lot of data center companies. The major brands are buying 100’s of megawatts to sell a minimum of 5 at a time. Smaller installations just get too messy.

Things are getting more complex. Beefy cooling technology often means adding plumbing. Yes, running water is getting intimate with cabinets holding millions of dollars of equipment hooked up to enough power for 15-20 houses. We’re at a time where wild stuff is happening and we’re just not thinking about it further.

“You’re going to run water in your multimillion dollar building inches away of lightning? Do you think they ordered lunch in for the office today?”

There are physical challenges that will take time in high density data centers. It’s best to get in before the building is constructed to call out the best places to install the water taps. This lowers the length of piping runs which lowers cost by millions for the install. Bussway is the way to go for jobs that have graduates to 415v. There will be a lot of opinions on running them down the cold or hot aisle, can we do 1200A to further limit runs? Folks begin to wax intellectual on if we use liquid to chip, when is the next chip coming out – should we plan for that? There are 2 camps – those dipping their toe into AI and those who know the challenges enough to budget plenty of time to plan.

Companies need to decide if they’re going to be processing their large data sets with their equipment or through a third party. Data centers were where data was stored like files in a cabinet. They evolved to be interconnected to provide redundancy and share resources to save money. The past few years data centers have been a great for retail sales and marketing. The next phase will be solving the big problems. Data centers are where scientists will figure out how to grow organs, zap tumors, grow food without human labor, create more power, make anything at a lower cost…

Selling futures. Is a whole new sales motion. Who are the candidates. Smaller organizations handle the idea of not being able to move in tomorrow.

Will your company be a producer or consumer of processed data?

Are they looking to innovate and solve for problems that haven’t even been thought possible yet?

We have direct line of site to a gigawatt of IT usable power to be built and sold through 2026 and 2027.

Ready and Born Ready

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Luck is born in the room right next to good, and no one ever knows the difference. With data centers it often comes down to doing what you think is right long term. This usually means well thought planning with potential higher costs up front to reap great benefits in the future.

The majority of colo data centers in the past 20 years have had the air cooled or direct evaporative CRAC’s and UPS’s on the floor next to customer equipment. Companies with walled off and modular designs must run extra expensive wiring and lose sellable space that is dedicated to the cooling units. The name of the game for many is maximize the whitespace that you can charge for.

What about data center providers who dropped their UPS’s in containers to the side of the facilities with the CRAC’s walled off from the whitespace? They’re doing quite well now that AI is a sprouting reality. As the needed requirements change they are able to make adjustments without overhauling equipment directly adjacent to working cabinets. It’s possible to make changes if they need to upgrade to nickel-zinc batteries, or introduce CDU’s.

Chilled water sites have often been avoided due to higher cost and a more complex fit out. Water is cheap so providers are happy to burn it off and pour it out ignoring the idea that water conservation is a real green action not green washing. Data centers that were designed with closed loop systems saved millions if not billions of gallons of water. As luck has it they also have the ability to simply and effectively upgrade any part of their site to a high density AI solution by simply tapping into the pipes already ran under the floor.

The companies moving into data centers are working to create complex systems to solve insanely difficult problems. The builders of the facilities should keep the simple mindset of Davy Crockett written on a post it on their desk ‘Be always sure you are right – then go ahead.’

New Clear Power Path

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In early 2023 we were hearing about the new power demands that will come as a result of the processes needed to make AI/machine learning work. Not much changed until Spring when news of AI companies gobbling up entire data centers to meet their requirements. Some of the 100+ MW asks almost seemed like a fantasy.

It seems like only a few years ago onsite substations became common, and everyone had signed their promises to be carbon neutral by 2030. Providers were left with a new twist to the problem to not only go green but also go bigger than ever imagined.

Why aren’t large data centers just covered in solar panels to get a green source of energy? It’s because solar just isn’t a robust enough point at the moment. Simple math says that one can achieve about 100kW per 100,000 sqft of roof-space. Furthermore, AI data centers are going to be shrinking their physical space as every 3-5 cabinets pull up to a MW of power. We could be looking at a 50,000 sqft building pulling around 50MW!

Other great alternatives while we wait for solar and wind to evolve are SMR’s, onsite natural gas generation, and even hydrogen. These are all great choice with one immediate issue… they’re not immediate. Think for a second how long licensing for your own small nuclear reactor or gas/hydrogen plant might be if a simple substation is held up for 3-5years because of transformer shortages and permitting.

The industry is going to see data center providers connecting to already built gas plants and nuclear reactors behind the meter to meet the veracious power demands of AI companies desperately needing power. This will allow speed to market. Also, data center providers won’t have their scope of responsibility doubled by now running a power plant and a data center in tandem. Attaching to one or two existing plants will bring 300 MW data centers online by Q3 of this year if not early 2025. By this time we’ll see AI evolve from a novel co-pilot / assistant closer to the more mature product that it was intended to be.

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