What exactly IS a White Space Fit-Out?
March 21, 2018
The CPG team was recently prepping for a panel discussion for the CAPRE Data Center Summit in Chicago and sat down with one of our experts, Chad Towner – Principal Director of Critical Infrastructure Solutions (CIS) at CPG, to discuss ideas for the panel. Over the last decade, Chad has changed the way data centers are developed and engineered. He’s deployed large scale, high-performance, critical systems and processes in hyper-scale, enterprise and colocated data centers. “BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING AND MANAGING TENANT FIT-OUTS IN WHOLESALE AND COLOCATION DATA CENTERS” is definitely in his wheelhouse.
The demand for data centers is constantly growing and as a result, so is the need for white space. Data center “white space” is the space allocated for IT equipment and resources used to support a facility’s infrastructure. Companies will invest in “fit-outs” in order to construct more white space to support scalability and efficiency for mission critical facilities.
Defining a white space fit-out isn’t always easy. In this ever-changing industry not everyone even uses the same terminology when talking about a fit-out: “tenant” in lieu of “white space” and you may hear “upfit” or “build-out” rather than “fit-out”. No matter how you say it, there are three main areas of deployment that determine this type of construction project:
- The electrical power delivery from the base building perimeter Power Distribution Units (PDUs) to the IT racks
- Cooling from the base building heat rejection system to remove heat generated by the IT equipment in the racks
- Communications connectivity from the data carriers’ Meet Me Room (MMR) to the network switches in the racks.
Simply put, a successful white space fit-out provides a place you can roll racks into with power and communication available on location for plug in. The real work is in the details – what is the solution for today and the future. The options for cooling are many: cooling may be fixed in place in the way of containment or also a simple plug in for more localized heat exchange such as in-row coolers, rack mounted heat exchangers or a number of “direct-to-chip” fluid-based solutions. The cooling and power is what keeps the racks running, so it’s essential to have the right system.
White space fit-outs are essentially prepping ideal space for the rack, but there are instances where the white space fit-out scope will converge with the IT Infrastructure. The CIS team then needs to include the setup and installation of the IT racks themselves including the rack mounted PDUs. This step is often referred to as “Rack & Stack” and may include the loading of the IT gear into the racks if not preloaded by the technology vendors. Full-service companies like CPG have special teams that come in and work on the Rack & Stack.
The key to a truly successful fit-out according to Towner is to work with customers as early as possible in the planning process. This allows the CIS team to assess how to best affect cost efficiencies based on increasing material volumes. Options include deploying multiple end-user clients in a colocation data center or deploying an end-user client in multiple colocation sites with one or more vendors. It can be a matter of “number of suites” combined with “number of phases,” a build scenario commonly used in Hyperscale data centers. And, the quickly evolving mile-by-mile edge market shows great potential for cost efficiencies and scalability, as well.
Teams like CPG’s CIS team are invaluable in the early stages of development, bringing extensive expertise honed though years of client-side experience. The goal is to get it right from design through commissioning, the first time, on time and on budget. The right result is “no change orders”, and a scalable solution that minimizes stranded capacity and maximizes efficiency.
If you are ready to start planning your data center fit-out, contact us today.