Here's a deep dive into the spectrum of options for data center expansion and how different data center scenarios fit into, and across, the different options. These include renovating an existing site, building custom, and adding a modular unit.

1. LEADERS LAB
Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center?
Hybrid Architecture: Is Cloud the Inevitable
Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center?
LEADERS LAB
WHITEPAPER
WHAT IS A LEADERS LAB?
Leaders Labs bring AFCOM’s mission to life by fostering in-depth dialogue, coupled with collaborative
work, helping data center managers address the rapidly changing demands in the industry. In each lab,
15-20 data center professionals worked side-by-side to tackle critical industry challenges and map out
directions and recommendations for the future.
CERTIFIED BY THE DATA CENTER INSTITUTE

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 2
Whitepaper Contributors
The following thought leaders participated in this AFCOM Leaders Lab and contributed to this whitepaper.
Leaders Lab Advisor
Mark Monroe, Energetic Consulting
Kyle Moore, Neustar
Jeff Potter, Xcel Energy
Christopher Reece, The TJX Companies
Nat Tafuri, zColo, A Zayo Company
Terry Barrett, West Corporation
Kelly Bates, Department of Veteran Affairs
Jim Bearce, Walmart Global Business Services
Michael Brunson, OneNeck IT Solutions
Hector Diaz, Intermountain Electronics
Jeremy Gigliotti, University of Colorado Boulder
Laura Cunningham, Data Center Consultant
With extensive experience in developing business cases for enterprise Fortune 500 companies
to justify data center investments emphasizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return
on Investment (ROI), Laura’s efforts have been instrumental in obtaining approval for multi-
million dollar enterprise data center developments.

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 3
Why the Clamor for Cloud Context is Growing
Many organizations prefer cloud-based data centers, and
for good reason. The model has freed up time and mon-
ey, enabling data center personnel to focus on strategic
business initiatives. But the cloud—be it private, public or
hybrid—may be out of reach for some. This white paper
focuses on the spectrum of data center options currently
available for businesses and the key drivers that influence
which solution may be the best fit.
The questions of whether, when, and how to move to the
cloud underscored discussions during the AFCOM Leaders
As the term cloud-based computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous, most companies are considering how leveraging the
cloud could benefit the business. “I think the biggest reason this is a topic of interest is that many companies are experi-
encing exponential data growth even with technology advances, which is putting pressure on data center requirements”
Cunningham said, adding added “since all of that data needs a home, it is up to the business to determine if that home is a
data center belonging to an organization or to a service provider.”
Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center?
Lab: Hybrid IT Architecture. In this workgroup, attendees
discussed the dominant data center models based on
industry, company size, and other factors, and collaborated
to determine whether and when the cloud tide will shift for
organizations that don’t currently leverage the model for
data center systems and services. The Leaders Lab experts
worked to address the rapidly changing demands on the
data center, with the goal of tackling current challenges
while mapping out future direction for their companies—
and the technology community at large.

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 4
Key Takeaways
 “Cloud” is different things to different people.
Organizations must come up with a definition
that makes sense for them.
 Companies must remain flexible as the business
requirements will inevitably change.
 Stakeholders from across the organization must
be involved in weighing in on the right data cen-
ter decision
“Most of the companies I work with are changing the way they are implementing technology and experiencing the data
center,” she said. “Therefore, they need to know how to expand their existing data center footprint.” Add to the fact that
an increasing number of data centers are quickly reaching useful life, and it’s not surprising that so many companies are
grappling with the need for both expansion and renovation of their existing data centers, Cunningham pointed out
During the Leaders Lab meeting, attendees considered the spectrum of options for data center expansion and worked to
determine how different data center scenarios fit into, and across, the different options. Options considered include reno-
vating an existing site, building custom, adding a modular unit, leasing data center space, moving applications to the cloud
and just about any combination in between.
 If the right talent is in-house, then a hybrid model or
on-premise scenario may be the best choice.
 Cloud is not all or nothing: Consider options, and ex-
plore on an ongoing basis what level of cloud exposure
is right for the business.
Types of Data Centers
Greenfield/
Brownfield
BUILD / BUY SERVICE PROVIDERS
Greenfield: New purpose
built data center, new
construction from ground up,
brick and mortar.
Brownfield: Significant
renovation, expansion, or
upgrade of an existing
structure.
Modular Colocation
Colocation: Service provider
leases data center space
including facility
management and MEP
maintenance.
Managed Services
Managed Services: Service
provider leases data center
space including facilitiy
management, MEP
maintenance, hardware,
maintenance, and technical
support.
Cloud
Cloud: Service provider
leases data center space
including facililty
management, MEP
maintenance, hardware,
maintenance, technical
support and operating
systems.

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 5
Before determining what data center systems and workloads may or may not make sense in the cloud.
It’s important to ensure that everyone in the organization is working from the same
definition of the cloud.
To help organizations determine what cloud means to them, it is helpful to use a standardized description. For example,
the Leaders Lab used the NIST’s definition of cloud, for its purpose. According to NIST, “cloud computing is a model for
enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources
(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
management effort or service provider interaction.”
The “right people” at that data center table come from three sides of the company that rarely interact with each other, but
have mutually big impacts: facilities, IT, and the business itself. Because these entities have historically worked in isolation,
it will be important to ensure that each side clearly articulates its needs and goals. It will also be important to determine, as
a group, where those needs and goals align and where they may be in conflict with each other.
In the end, business requirements drive IT requirements, and IT requirements drive facility requirements.
One key—if not the key—driver of the discussion among these three groups is the following
question: Does creating a data center strategy dictate what the IT and application strategy of
the business will be, or should the data center strategy be led by the business requirements?
Whether or not the cloud figures into a company’s data center
future, an effective data center strategy depends on one thing:
input from all stakeholders.
The data center may have once been a technical ivory tower, but
with the importance of data to the business today, the data center
must be a relatively open book. For example, the CEO may never
walk the data center floors, but he or she must know what’s being
done to store, protect, integrate, and ensure compliance of data.
He or she will also have increased expectations of being able
to easily decipher data and get quick and accurate results—not
matter where and across what systems that data is stored.
Define Cloud
Bring the Right People to the Table
IT Facilities
Business
Data Center
Strategy

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 6
The answers to this question will depend in large part on what is driving the company itself. For example:
 A company with a land portfolio is driven by facility requirements and available real estate.
 An enterprise is driven by IT requirements.
 A webscale/hyperscale company is driven by economic incentives.
To determine the best course of data center action,
companies must carefully evaluate three major areas:
capacity, investment strategy and location.
Capacity, specifically kW capacity, is the IT equivalent
of “space”. Consider the short-term and long-term kW
forecast. How variable are the capacity requirements
over time? For many businesses uncertainty in capacity
requirements drives applications toward the cloud as it
can provide the scalability as needed. On the other hand,
more certainty in capacity requirements drives the strategy
toward on premise. Forecasting how soon additional
capacity is required is another key in choosing a data center
strategy because the sooner secured capacity is reached
and utilized, the faster the payoff period of the investment.
Also consider the types of applications: Can they exist
outside of the existing data center footprint, are they cloud
ready, or what level of redundancy is required?
Key Factors & Major Considerations
Capacity Factors
Capacity Forecast
IT Equivalent of “Space” = kW
Investment and Ownership Strategy
CapEx vs. OpEx
Location Requirements
Geographic Risks, Costs, Latency, Tax incentives
kW
Legacy to Optimized
Applications
Time
to
Deploy
kW
Capacity
Flexibility and
Scalability
Optimized
Legacy
High
Low
High
Low
High
Low

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Is Cloud the Inevitable Best Practice When it Comes to the Data Center? 7
Second, consider what financial mix the organization prefers: Capital Expenditures (CapEx) or Operating Expenditures
(OpEx)? Building or buying a data center makes more sense for businesses that have or can more easily access capital and
want to maintain lower ongoing costs. Utilizing a service provider makes more sense for businesses that need to conserve
capital and want to better match expenses to revenue. Startups generally find cloud to be especially attractive due to
the minimal initial investment. However, legacy organizations must consider how to balance investments in existing
infrastructure and in outside service providers.
Control, or the perception of control, can a big role in choosing the data
center strategy.
On-premise data centers are still perceived by most organizations as offering the most control over operations as compared
to off-premise solutions. Feeding into the perception of control are regulatory or policy constraints that may require certain
systems to remain onsite.
Investment Strategy
As most businesses have varying levels of capacity and application requirements,
a one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate, and a combination of solutions
will likely be the best fit.
Capacity Factors continued
Control
OpEx
CapEx
Facility Option
Modular
Colocation
Managed Service
Cloud
High High
High
Greenfield/Bloomfield

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Of course, there are a number of other considerations that must be made when determining the most effective way to
establish or expand data center presence. For example, renewable energy drives the decisions many energy-conscious com-
panies make, and a potential shortage in the availability of relevant talent affects the way companies think about the data
center and how (and with whom) it will be staffed.
While there are many issues muddying the data center waters today, what’s clear
is that there is no one right way to establish and expand a company’s compute,
storage, and network capabilities.
Cloud usage will continue to increase, but other options will not go away. The key to making the right decision about the fu-
ture of the data center is to have the right people at the table, in an ongoing and open discussion designed to align the goals
and requirements of all sides of the business.
Conclusion
Finally, location plays a significant role in developing a data center strategy. Geographic risk such as earthquakes, tor-
nadoes and hurricanes should be considered when determining the required resiliency of the data center and business
continuity plans. Major geographic differences in cost of construction, energy and workforce can greatly impact building
and ongoing operating costs. Many companies want to maintain presence around current operations and leverage existing
real-estate portfolios for expansion. If you’re moving or expanding, consider that there are more than 20 states currently
offering some type of tax incentives for new data center sites.
How important is latency? Proximity hosting and interconnection services offered by colocation providers are popular with
many companies that want the ability to interconnect to the stock exchanges or cloud data centers. In many cases a dedi-
cated network connection is available from the colocation data center to cloud providers which can reduce bandwidth and
provide consistent network performance.
Location

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About AFCOM
AFCOM is the industry’s longest running professional association for individuals who
plan, develop, deploy and manage on-premises, colocation, hybrid cloud, and pure
cloud data center solutions. By building an open environment for information and idea
exchange, AFCOM supports the critical IT infrastructure team by bringing together all
principals of the mission critical ecosystem. Uncovering and addressing the paradigm
shifts within the industry, AFCOM provides members with the education, professional
relationships, and industry specific tools to support their full career development.
About Data Center Institute
The Data Center Institute is the think tank of AFCOM that focuses on the emerging
trends around innovation, technological change, macro-economic shifts and workforce
dynamics shaping the data center and IT infrastructure industry worldwide. Its mission
is to advance knowledge and inform data center and IT infrastructure professionals
through producing independent research, presenting webcasts and speaking at
industry conferences like Data Center World on major issues and opportunities
affecting the future of data centers and IT infrastructures.
Advancing Data Center and
IT Infrastructure Professionals
www.AFCOM.com