Data center jargon can make searching for the right colocation facility challenging for businesses, and when it comes to terms like “purpose-built,” enterprises might be left wondering exactly what that means, why they should pay attention to it or if they even need that at all. Luckily, in the case of this data center term, it’s relatively self-explanatory but that doesn’t mean a closer look at its meaning and the benefits it offers isn’t necessary to guide businesses as they choose their ideal data home. So, if you’ve ever wondered about what the advantages of a purpose-built data center (PBDC) are and why they’re important in today’s digital business, look no further.
A Quick Overview of A Purpose-Built Facility
A purpose-built data center essentially is exactly what it says it is—a building built specifically for the purpose of being a data center. As the demand for data center space has continued to grow in response to expanding amounts of data, it’s natural that the number of data centers across the world has grown substantially. Space in ideal locations can be difficult to find, so many of the data centers serving businesses today are retrofitted, meaning that they were buildings originally constructed for a different purpose (such as serving as a warehouse). These locations have been remodeled to accommodate necessary data center equipment and systems.
The purpose-built data center is the opposite of the retrofitted facility, in that it was built fresh from scratch with the intention of being a data center. The space was purposefully designed for the appropriate power systems, cooling systems, racks, white space, and more—it’s made to house mission-critical IT.
Why Does A Purpose-Built Data Center Matter?
At a glance, it may not seem like it would make that big of a difference—as long as the facility protects IT and functions well, it works. Well, this often isn’t the case. There are many benefits that purpose-built data centers offer that a retrofitted space just can’t because of the way it was originally built or the location it’s in.
One of the major benefits of going purpose-built is scalability. Where repurposed buildings may be held back from expansions due to the building’s original layout not being conducive or the location being restrictive, PBDCs were placed in locations and built with scalability in mind, meaning that they can stretch to fit any customer needs. This is key when the trend of business continues to shift toward the online world and needs are continuing to grow. No compromises, no roadblocks, and no bottlenecks because this expansion was always planned for.
Retrofitted facilities, as a result of being built where sites were available instead of where location was ideal, may also suffer from other geographic issues such as restricted loading dock access, reduced accessibility to major highways or airports, and more. Meanwhile, a PBDC can be strategically located at the intersections of multiple electrical, power and water sources which is essential should one fail and a back-up source be needed while keeping all these elements of accessibility in mind.
Another key component of PBDCs to be cognizant of is that they often are built much more recently than repurposed data centers, and therefore were built from the ground up according to the latest standards and customer expectations. This means weather-proof, highly secure foundations, and walls that keep IT equipment safe from any natural disasters on top of the power and cooling systems that meet the high-density computing requirements of modern IT equipment with built-in redundancies.
Finding Your Ideal Data Home
There are so many choices on the market for data centers and colocation, but at Data Foundry, we’re committed to making your data center decision as easy as possible. Our Houston 2 facility is just one of our purpose-built facilities that offers every benefit your business requires—robust scalability, security, redundancy, and more. Houston 2 is a state-of-the-art facility, able to handle any sized colocation deployment and power density requirement with dual underground, concrete-encased utility feeds, N+1 to 2N redundancy, a concurrently maintainable chilled water-cooling system and more. Also, just like our other facilities, Houston 2 goes above and beyond to keep the Data Foundry promise of high-touch customer care, offering dedicated, flexible and customizable office space to keep IT teams comfortable and capable.
To learn more about purpose-built facilities and why they’re beneficial, you can download our white paper here.
To get a quote for or learn more about our Houston 2 facility, please click here.
