What should be considered when building a new data center?

This is the cornerstone of all decisions. First, ask yourself: What is the primary objective of building this data center?

1. Enterprise Core Hub

• Mission: Hosts the company's most critical systems like ERP, databases, and core applications. Pursues ultimate stability, security, and compliance.

• Build Logic: Stability overrides everything. Employs mature, reliable technology with sufficient redundancy. Investment focus is on high availability and security.

2. Cloud/Hyperscale

• Mission: Provides standardized, elastic cloud services for massive users. Pursues extreme scale, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

• Build Logic: Efficiency is paramount. Investment focus is on green energy efficiency, automated operations, and hardware resource pooling to lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

3. Edge/On-site Compute

• Mission: Deployed at the data source or user edge to meet low-latency, high-bandwidth demands for IoT, autonomous driving, industrial internet, etc.

• Build Logic: Rapid deployment and unmanned operation. Investment focus is on prefabricated, modular design and remote management capabilities.

Only by clarifying the positioning do the subsequent technical choices become meaningful.

Step 2: Grasp the Core Trends (Technical Perspective - Answer "What Style to Build?")

New data centers now and in the future cannot bypass the following four core trends. Your data center needs to find its place across these four dimensions.

Step 3: Formulate the Decision Path (Action Perspective - Answer "How to Choose?")

Now, combine your Core Positioning with the Core Trends to form your final decision path. You can follow the decision logic shown in the flowchart below:

Finally, before finalizing the plan, be sure to conduct a final feasibility check:

• Resource Alignment: Do the local electricity costs, climate, water resources, and land costs support your technical choices? (e.g., be cautious with water cooling in water-scarce areas)

• Team Capability: Can your team operate and maintain the advanced technologies you've selected? (e.g., an AIOps platform requires corresponding skills)

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Don't just look at construction costs; model the operational costs over 10 years, especially energy consumption and maintenance fees.

Summary:

There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer for building a new data center, but rather the "most suitable" solution. This solution should be the optimal combination of:
 Your Business Positioning + Trend-Aligned Technology Mix + Your Practical Constraints.

We hope this reorganized framework helps you make decisions in a more structured way.