By Michael Fisher*
When it comes to securing data centres, there is no room for compromise by designers, builders, managers and owners.
The average cost of building one of these facilities in Australasia can be up around $10,000 a square metre, according to local project managers. This value is just the tip of the iceberg, especially when you factor in the value of the stored data and the costly liabilities associated with data breaches.
With investment costs of $8 million to $12 million per megawatt of IT load, data centre construction means building physically secure spaces for the vital technologies involved, including servers, power systems, cooling, and network gear.
Regardless of whether the data facility is enterprise-scale, colocation, cloud, or smaller-scale edge facility, all data centres are intensely capitalised projects with high stakes and zero room for errors, reconsideration and delay caused by poor choices.
Improving ROI at data centres means protecting the investment with properly planned and effectively layered security. Beyond the initial outlay, considerations must extend to the ongoing operational, maintenance, and upgrade costs, constituting the Total Cost…
