Data Center Projects Data Planning.pdf

Data Center Projects:


System Planning

By Neil Rasmussen
Suzanne Niles
White Paper #142
Business
NEED
Detailed
DESIGN
Executive Summary
System planning is the Achilles’ heel of a data center physical infrastructure project.
Planning mistakes can magnify and propagate through later deployment phases, resulting
in delays, cost overruns, wasted time, and ultimately promised system. Much of the
trouble can be eliminated by viewing system planning as a data flow model, with an orderly
sequence of tasks that progressively transform and refine information from initial concept
to final design.


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stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. 42 Rev 2007-0
Introduction
Planning remains a major challenge for small and large IT facilities. Data center build and upgrade projects
are typically planned using methods resembling art more than science, in a process often perceived as
intimidating, unstructured, and difficult. Plans are municated among the various business
stakeholders within anization. Planners may be presented with proposals that are presented in
excruciating technical detail, yet still lack the information they need to make decisions. Small changes in
plans can have major cost consequences or create downstream surprises and disasters.

Consulting engineers have traditionally carried the burden of system planning for data centers, with great
care focused on the unique requirements and design of each project. This accumulated experience of
decades of data center planning now offers an opportunity to consolidate that knowledge and evolve toward
a more standardized approach that can provide increased quality and economies of scale for both provider
and consumer.

In a data center con