Data center construction is more than executing on a construction plan. It is a management process that takes into account both the present and the future of your data center needs.

Universities teach entire courses in construction management. However, as the owner of the building, you should be aware of the pressing needs that your business and your builder will meet while constructing your data center.

Here are three considerations you will need to address while building your data center:

Sequencing

The largest data center in the world (Langfang, China) is 6.3 million square feet—nearly the size of the Pentagon. That data center required an extensive plan before the first shovel of dirt was turned. And critical to that plan was the sequencing of the build.

You must appoint a construction manager to oversee all the contractors. This person will work hand-in-glove with the general contractor to make sure subcontractors arrive when they are needed. A day too late will cost you time and throw off your construction schedule. A day too early will cost you money as you pay the subcontractor to sit around until the project is ready for the subcontractor to start.

For example, data center air conditioning installation must occur after all the components of the data center cooling system arrive. But it must be completed before the ceiling and walls are installed.

Likewise, your data center power distribution units must be installed near the end of the process, but before the electrical subcontractor is dismissed from the project in case the electrical system needs troubleshooting after they arrive.

Sourcing

Data center construction cannot happen until you have sourced your materials and they have arrived. Sourcing construction materials and ensuring they arrive on time can pose a logistical challenge. Coordinating the materials with the arrival of the subcontractors on site adds an extra dimension to the challenge.

Hiring a logistics expert to work under your construction manager can give you the expertise you need in supply chains, transportation, and storage to ensure that your materials arrive just in time for their use. This will keep your data center construction on schedule without needlessly wasting resources on storage.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance should be incorporated into your construction plan. If your only inspections occur after the project is completed, you might spend weeks or months correcting a problem that could have been detected earlier.

But by setting specific quality assurance goals and milestones along the way, you can ensure that problems will be caught early enough to fix.

The best way to build quality assurance into the construction project is to have an independent inspector. Someone who is not tied to either your company or the builders will be able to look at the construction with a detachment that will improve the quality of your data center.

Data center construction is just one part of the data center implementation process. Whether you are building a data center in a remote location or supervising data center implementation in Redmond, Washington, one of the centers of U.S. technology, having a plan to manage the construction, logistics, and quality assurance of your project will save you both time and money. Contact LDP today for mission critical support solutions.