GDCE Group

Concept Design


Establishing a clear Concept Design for any data center project is a critical step in ensuring a shared vision, aligned business objectives and prioritize for execution will provide the roadmap to a successful project in all aspects.  The Concept Design is much more than an initial sketch or an architectural plan; it’s a strategic tool that ensures every aspect of the data center project is aligned towards a common goal. It facilitates communication, decision-making, and planning, ultimately providing a clear path to a successful, efficient, and effective data center operation.

Concept Design: Serves as the foundational phase where the project’s vision, scope, and objectives are established. It outlines the high-level strategy, including the data center’s capacity, layout, and the initial approach to critical systems such as power, cooling, and IT infrastructure. This phase is critical for ensuring all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the project’s goals and priorities.

Basis of Design:
Takes the conceptual framework and objectives outlined in the concept design and translates them into detailed, technical criteria and specifications. The BoD details the specific standards, systems, assumptions, and decisions that will guide the detailed design and construction phases. It includes technical specifications, performance criteria, and compliance requirements, providing a comprehensive guide for engineers, architects, and contractors.
Other fundamentals are the required flexibility of infrastructure. (Not all data centers need to be created with unlimited flexibility. This can again reduce costs for elements that are never going to be realized, no matter how long the data center stands.) Creating the Concept Design that will enable the next stage (Detailed Design) requires experience and deep knowledge of leading designs and solutions. Maybe your data center is best built using modular strategies. Maybe your data center is best built by customizing a suite in a colocation facility. Maybe your data center requires placement in a complex terrain, weather or seismically challenging environment. All aspects of the use, capacity, placement and resilience of the facility must be considered.

Designing for the Ordinary and the Extreme
Global Data Center Engineering designers have decades of experience considering all types of data center configuration and construction ranging from highly stable to some of the most extreme and volatile physical conditions imaginable. Sometimes the data center cannot be built on the perfect patch of stable land, with the ideal climate. Sometimes your data center has to be built at the air port, or on a fault line. (We’ve spent decades designing and building these around the world, particularly Tokyo and California). The business often requires data centers in extreme conditions. We have the experience necessary to create innovative design solutions that can be built and operated literally anywhere. We’re ready to help realize your next data center project, no matter the challenge.