Taken from the Digital Realty Trust site, a chart illustrating the timelines the company projects for its data center services, in comparison with a "do it yourself" project.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a first-of-its-kind program for the data center industry, wholesale data center provider Digital Realty Trust (www.digitalrealtytrust.com) is guaranteeing the completion of its Turn-Key Datacenters, Custom Data Centers, and POD Architecture Services projects on time, and on budget.
According to its Tuesday announcement, this program makes Digital Realty Trust the only data center provider that offers this type of guarantee for its product line, effectively eliminating the risks of cost overruns, contingency fees and schedule slippage for customers. In the event that Digital Realty Trust fails to deliver on either the price or timeline aspect of the contract, the remedy will be specific to each customer’s contract, depending on their needs and preferences.
“Essentially, we are offering customers the industry’s first risk-free data center product line,” Digital Realty Trust global sales vice president Brent Behrman said in a statement. “Data center builds can be fraught with risk for customers that take a do-it-yourself approach to their data centers or that work with construction companies that do not specialize in data centers. Projects can often veer off course, leading to delays of months or years and cost overruns of millions or tens of millions of dollars. Digital Realty Trust’s guarantees eliminate those risks for our customers.”
Large-scale, do-it-yourself data center development projects pose inherent risks, according to a recent survey conducted by industry news site Data Center Knowledge (www.datacenterknowledge.com) of its readers. One in five of those involved in recent data center projects reported that the data center project was not completed on schedule, and a quarter of DIY data center projects went over budget – with a sixth of them surpassing a million dollars or more in overruns. The survey also found that data centers built by in-house teams were twice as likely to have cost overruns between $1 million and $10 million as projects involving a wholesale data center provider.
Michelle Bailey, research vice president for IDC’s enterprise platforms and data center trends, explained that designing and constructing data centers is a complex process that can often cost more and take longer than originally expected.
“For most IT organizations, planning, engineering and constructing these specialized facilities is a multi-year process that often results in budget overruns and delays in delivery,” she said in a statement. “Two key success factors in effective data center delivery are shortening time to market and injecting more predictability around the data center blueprint. The longer a datacenter project takes, the more likely it is to miss meeting corporate objectives and disrupting capacity planning models. Risk assessment and risk mitigation are therefore critical requirements for any company undertaking a data center project.”
Digital Realty Trust’s Turn-Key Datacenter product suite is designed to offer a full range of options for a move-in-ready dedicated data center. It is available in increments ranging from 720kW to 2160kW in Europe and 1125kW to 8100kW in the US, and features a dedicated power and mechanical backplane. Each Turn-Key Datacenter is sub-divisible to a single Power Distribution Unit, and features the power, cooling and redundancy needed for mission-critical applications.
Additionally, the modular methodology of POD Architecture enables Digital Realty Trust to build-out raised floor data center space using standard power and cooling building blocks for cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency and design flexibility.
“Providing customers with guaranteed pricing and delivery, even for custom projects, is unique in the industry,” Digital Realty Trust portfolio management senior vice president Dave Caron stated. “Rather than take on the risks associated with a $10 million, $50 million or $100 million data center project, our ability to provide this guarantee program offers customers a clear, risk-free option.”
Not only does the company limit project costs, but it also offers recurring energy savings through the latest efficiency technologies. Last week, Digital Realty Trust estimated that it has saved about 10,000 kW annually (worth about $6 to 10 million) at its Bay Area facilities due to the energy efficiency of its San Francisco and Silicon Valley properties.
