To keep pace with the tsunami of Internet ones and zeroes, businesses are investing heavily in data centers, deploying new applications, embracing cloud storage, and renovating out-of-date facilities.
TOP 30 DATA CENTER ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Gensler $34,240,000
2. Corgan $32,400,000
3. HDR $15,740,000
4. Page $14,100,000
5. CallisonRTKL $6,102,000
6. RS&H $5,400,000
7. Clark Nexsen $3,105,999
8. HOK $2,535,000
9. DLR Group $1,600,000
10. Stantec $1,575,034
TOP 40 DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The $1,083,554,383
2. Holder Construction Co. $730,000,000
3. DPR Construction $486,876,000
4. Turner Construction Co. $474,216,912
5. Structure Tone $410,600,000
6. JE Dunn Construction $405,159,678
7. AECOM $294,660,000
8. Fortis Construction $271,709,620
9. Fluor Corp. $238,760,000
10. Gilbane Building Co. $227,161,000
TOP 50 DATA CENTER ENGINEERING FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Vanderweil Engineers $41,247,200
2. Jacobs $40,110,000
3. Syska Hennessy Group $38,578,562
4. Environmental Systems Design $14,670,507
5. Highland Associates $9,100,000
6. Dewberry $8,997,875
7. Newcomb & Boyd $4,683,201
8. Ghafari Associates $4,000,000
9. Arup $3,727,928
10. Glumac $2,971,198
The need to bring new capacity online as quickly as possible is motivating individual business enterprises and co-location facilities to embrace streamlined design and delivery approaches.
“Almost all our recent data center projects have involved either a design-build or integrated delivery method to get contractors on board and moving even before the full design is finalized,” says Andy Baxter, PE, Principal of Science + Technology at Page.
A new 80-MW data center campus under construction in Garland, Texas, reflects this approach. RagingWire, a provider of co-location services, is acting as owner and contractor on the project, which encompasses five 200,000-sf buildings. The facilities have been designed so they can be replicated in other U.S. locations with only minor tweaks.
The growing availability of offsite facilities and cloud-based solutions has opened up new options for large businesses to manage their data.
“More enterprises are using a hybrid approach, which means they are comfortable outsourcing their less critical applications, but they want to control core business applications in their own facility,” says Hal Adams, AIA, LEED AP, Vice President and Regional Manager at Carlson Walbridge.
Businesses choosing to manage their own facilities are taking cues from co-location/wholesale developers to control costs. “This entails building a more flexible and scalable solution that can adjust to changing requirements over the building’s lifetime,” Adams says.
Because today’s resilient networks and software can deliver a much higher degree of reliability than in the past, highly redundant and capital-intensive Tier III and Tier IV data centers are gradually being replaced by simpler, lower-cost Tier II facilities.
“Clients now make more informed decisions about how much reliability they really need,” says Page’s Baxter. “They are no longer building one-size-fits-all facilities and are opting instead to have varying levels of reliability within the same facility. As a result, more data centers are now designed with traditional MEP systems for a lower cost.”
KEEPING EveryTHING cool and EFFICIENT
Major improvements in IT hardware are giving AEC innovators the opportunity to develop more-efficient ways to power and extract heat from equipment.
Increasingly efficient mechanical systems continue to reduce power usage effectiveness, or PUE, lowering electricity operating costs. The use of novel cooling systems, notably centrifugal chillers and indirect evaporative cooling (known as “IDEC”), can save energy costs over compressors and other air-based systems. But these water-based solutions face heightened scrutiny as resource concerns continue to intensify.
“There is a love-hate relationship that is developing with evaporative cooling,” says Brian George, AIA, Principal at Corgan. “The consumption of water is becoming increasingly problematic in some areas because of quality and availability issues.” Climate issues will only intensify these concerns.
Innovative cooling strategies are being pioneered at a new 100,000-sf data center under construction by Infomart Data Centers outside Portland, Ore. When it comes online later this year, the facility will serve as the new West Coast data center for LinkedIn, whose storage and processing needs have shot up 34% in the past year.
DPR Construction worked with the equipment manufacturer to develop a customized cooling system to accommodate IT rack payloads that will fluctuate from 3 kW to more than 30 kW on a daily basis.
“Our team and partners evaluated rack-based solutions that allow for just-in-time delivery, installation, and connection with existing cooling sources,” says DPR’s David Ibarra, Advanced Technology/Mission Critical Market Co-Leader. He says his team’s goal was to not only successfully install hundreds of these cooling systems, but also to “flawlessly test” each of them as they were installed to avoid any impacts on the schedule.
GROWTH AT THE EDGE
The demand for new data centers located closer to end users is also on the rise.
“By bringing data closer to the consumer, edge data centers are looking to eliminate network latency or performance issues,” says Richard Green, Director, Mission Critical Group, JE Dunn Construction. Green says this pattern is fueling data center growth outside of core connection hubs like the New York City region and Silicon Valley.
Content providers may still operate large data centers in major regional markets, but many also have edge data centers in smaller regional markets, plus micro data centers in other locations.
“This means we are now pursuing work with clients all over the country instead of just in specific regions,” says Page’s Baxter. “These facilities are much more compact, repeatable, and cost efficient, sometimes as small as a single rack.”
Looking ahead, new accounting rules that are expected to be enacted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board at the end of the year may reshape the balance of data center ownership. “These changes will treat most sale/leaseback arrangements very similarly to owned assets, which may result in more enterprise users choosing to build their own facilities,” says Corgan’s George.
RETURN TO THE GIANTS 300 LANDING PAGE
Related Stories
| Sep 26, 2013
Literature review affirms benefits of daylighting, architectural glazing
The use of glass as a building material positively impacts learning, healing, productivity and well-being, according to a white paper published by Guardian Industries and the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The findings highlight the significant influence daylighting and outside views have on employees, workers, students, consumers and patients.
| Sep 26, 2013
Mobilizing your job site to achieve a paperless project: fact or fiction?
True mobility in the field has rapidly evolved from lock-box kiosks on each floor to laptops on rolling carts to tablets and iPads loaded with drawings sets stored in the cloud. And WiFi-ready job sites have gone from “nice to have” to “must have” status in just a little over a year.
| Sep 26, 2013
Leading in the face of change
As AEC firms navigate toward an uncertain future, the most effective leaders are those who eagerly adapt to change. Here are three attitudes that drive leaders who are of most value to their firms.
| Sep 23, 2013
The art of rewarding employees
What’s the best way to reward those employees who go the extra mile, particularly when it’s not always feasible to give large financial bonuses? According to author and “recognition expert” Dr. Bob Nelson, the most effective employee rewards are also the least expensive.
| Sep 23, 2013
Six-acre Essex Crossing development set to transform vacant New York property
A six-acre parcel on the Lower East Side of New York City, vacant since tenements were torn down in 1967, will be the site of the new Essex Crossing mixed-use development. The product of a compromise between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and various interested community groups, the complex will include ~1,000 apartments.
| Sep 20, 2013
August housing starts reveal multifamily still healthy but single-family stagnating
Peter Muoio, Ph.D., senior principal and economist with Auction.com Research, says the Census Bureau's August Housing Starts data released yesterday hints at improvements in the single-family sector with multifamily slowing down.
| Sep 19, 2013
What we can learn from the world’s greenest buildings
Renowned green building author, Jerry Yudelson, offers five valuable lessons for designers, contractors, and building owners, based on a study of 55 high-performance projects from around the world.
| Sep 19, 2013
6 emerging energy-management glazing technologies
Phase-change materials, electrochromic glass, and building-integrated PVs are among the breakthrough glazing technologies that are taking energy performance to a new level.
| Sep 18, 2013
Annual SteelDay to include 125 free events around the U.S.
Hosted by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), its members and partners, SteelDay invites the AEC community and the public to see the contributions the industry has made in the design and construction of steel buildings and bridges.
| Sep 18, 2013
WHR Architects opens first European office, in Copenhagen
WHR Architects has opened its first European office in Copenhagen, Denmark. The decision to locate in the Danish capital was spurred by the Danish healthcare system’s initiative to renew and expand their facilities across the country.