Entities of all sizes are increasingly becoming more reliant on data center facilities in order to carry out, and preserve information regarding, their everyday core missions and activities. More and faster computing requires more and faster servers, storage, and other active hardware devices. This, in turn, requires that the data center facilities be bigger and/or denser. This often requires renovation of existing physical plant facilities or construction of entirely new physical plant facilities.
Various problems arise in addressing the demand for bigger and/or denser data centers: cost, deployment time, and technology innovation. Data center facilities often can cost in excess of ten to twenty times the cost of other real estate facilities, such as typical office spaces. This in turn may demand a significant financial commitment and investment, often involving substantial risks if the planning for such renovation or new construction happens to be done poorly. The data center lifecycle is getting shorter, often 5 years or less. There is often a significant lag time between planning a data center and actually going online. It often may take around one year to construct a data center in a pre-existing facility, and building a new facility from the ground up usually takes much longer. Further, the technology planned for in the design phase may be on the verge of being obsolete even before the data center facility becomes fully operational. Data centers also are often deficient in power, cooling, and capacity.