While data center power draw has traditionally grown on a slow and steady course, in the past year, Internap has seen rapid growth in watts per square foot of actual power consumption. This upward trend marks a significant change and demonstrates the importance of scalable power density for our customers.
During the past two years, data center power consumption has begun increasing at a much faster rate than before. Across our Internap data centers, average actual power draw per square foot has gone up 40% since January 2013, and we’ve seen a 30% increase in the past year alone. Several locations are markedly higher. It’s no surprise to see top markets like Dallas (up 100% in 2 years), New York (up 56%) and Silicon Valley (up 40%) lead the trend.
There’s never a good time to discover that you can’t add more power circuits.
During the evaluation process, buyers need to consider what their power usage needs are today, and what they will be in the future. Over time, a growing business will require more power than it does today, and the data center should be equipped to handle this growth. When infrastructure requires more power down the road, facilities with fixed power densities will become problems.
Facilities designed to support higher power densities allow your business to scale more efficiently and with fewer headaches. Do your due diligence before entering into a colocation contract to avoid the disruption and expense of migrating your infrastructure to another data center later. Keep in mind that the colocation ‘deal’ you get today could turn into a nightmare in the future if your data center doesn’t have scalable density to power your growth.
Learn more about the essential design elements of high power density data centers.
