The High Stakes Of Data Center Buildouts
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Imagine this: You’re standing in the middle of a cavernous white space, surrounded by rows of humming servers. It’s the beating heart of your soon-to-be-finished data center. The next needed block in the 21st century digital infrastructure, powering everything from our favorite streaming platforms to the AI tools reshaping industries.
Now imagine one of those servers overheating, a cooling system failing, or a commissioning deadline slipping by just a few weeks. The result? Downtime. Angry stakeholders. Money lost. And a whole lot of finger-pointing.
According to Uptime Institute’s recent global survey, more than half of significant data center outages now cost over $100,000, and one in five cost more than $1 million—a number that continues to climb as the world’s digital infrastructure becomes more critical and complex.
For anyone building, expanding, or commissioning a data center in the next 18 months: this is for you.
What It Takes To Build A Data Center
Building or converting a data center is a high stake balancing act. Every decision, from cooling systems to power draw assumptions, carries the weight of potential disaster. And the margin for error? It’s thinner than the fiber optic cables running through the walls.
That’s where Parsons steps in. We’re the team you call when failure isn’t an option. With decades of experience in data center buildouts, brownfield conversions, and advanced digital infrastructure projects, we anticipate problems before they become big ones. From design to commissioning, we ensure your data center is operational on Day 1, without surprises, delays, or budget blowouts.
Let’s break down the biggest challenges and why they are the difference between a data center that hums and one that hiccups.
The Challenges That Keep Data Center Builders Up at Night
Every piece of equipment needs to be calibrated and fit perfectly when building a data center. And every element of your design, from the walls to the floorplan to the air flow, will affect every other piece. You’re building a technological ecosystem. Miss one detail and you’re looking at downtime, blown budgets, or worse.
Most clients don’t walk into a project knowing exactly what they need. Especially when retrofitting or converting a space. One client imagined a 60 MW facility…eventually. But what did they need on Day 1? Year 3? Year 10?
Parsons guides clients through the uncertainty, modeling multiple layout and capacity options before a single cable gets pulled. For a recent brownfield conversion, our team developed over a dozen floorplan variants, testing rack densities, power assumptions, and future growth pathways. Why? Because early evaluation is where efficiency is born and waste is prevented.
Here are the challenges that can make or break any new build out project—and why Parsons makes sure they don’t become your reality:
1. Cooling Systems: The Silent Budget Killer
Servers don’t just hum. They roast. Without efficient cooling, energy costs skyrocket, equipment fails faster, and uptime becomes a gamble. The stakes are even higher in hot climates, where cooling systems face relentless pressure from the environment.
Parsons doesn’t just design cooling systems; we engineer confidence. We’ve helped clients in desert environments save hundreds of thousands in energy costs by designing cooling systems that flex with the seasons, the workload, and the growth curve. Whether you’re building new or retrofitting an existing space, we future-proof performance through strategic design: hot aisle/cold aisle containment, prefabricated insulated wall systems, and modular HVAC that scales as your footprint grows.
That strategy includes smart design choices that improve PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) while keeping systems flexible enough to evolve with IT load demands. We optimize airflow through hot and cold aisle containment, deploy liquid cooling for high-density floors, and align server utilization strategies with floor-by-floor cooling plans. We have even designed for free cooling, leveraging outdoor temperatures to reduce load on mechanical systems. And where clients are open to it, we explore on-site renewables like solar or wind to lower utility costs and shrink carbon impact.
2. Supply Chain: The Invisible Saboteur
Transformers, redundant power panels, and cooling systems aren’t items you can grab off the shelf. They are the backbone of your data center, and they take what seems like forever to order and receive. Long lead times, vendor bottlenecks, and the occasional “sorry, we’re out of stock” email that sends your schedule into a tailspin.
The last thing you need is this sort of problem. Your construction crew is on-site, ready to install critical equipment. The clock is ticking, the budget is tight, and then…nothing. The transformers you ordered are stuck in transit, delayed by weeks. Every day costs thousands in idle labor, and your carefully planned timeline starts unraveling. It’s not just frustrating; it’s expensive.
When you work with Parsons, we don’t wait for problems to show up—we plan for them before they happen. For one client, we helped implement a proactive material storage system that ensured every piece of equipment was on-site and ready when needed. Think rented land, climate-controlled vans, and a security team keeping watch. Game changer for the client. Let’s do the same for your firm.
3. Commissioning: Where Projects Fall the Hardest
Commissioning is the final hurdle before your data center goes live, and it’s where many projects stumble. Missed steps, poor planning, or lack of oversight can lead to costly delays and offline systems.
We’ve seen it happen: commissioning delays that stretch for weeks because of overlooked details. Imagine discovering critical errors (like reversed PDUs) just days before your go-live date. The result? A two-week delay and frustrated stakeholders.
Parsons believes in planning commissioning from day one, ensuring every system is tested, validated, and ready to perform. Our process goes beyond checklists. We stress-test systems under real-world conditions to catch issues before they become problems.
Confidence Built In: Why Parsons Is Your Safety Net
Parsons doesn’t just help our clients build data centers. We help them build certainty in their projects. Certainty that the cooling systems won’t buckle under the summer heat. Certainty that the supply chain won’t leave your construction crew twiddling their thumbs. And certainty that when Day 1 arrives, the brand-new data center will hum and not hiccup.
Not every firm can handle the stakes of data center buildouts. But Parsons isn’t just any firm. We’ve spent decades turning high-stakes projects into success stories. Whether you’re starting from scratch or turning an old telecom hub into a modern tech powerhouse, Parsons has the playbook. We’ve led brownfield conversions, office-to-data-center retrofits, and mechanical upfits that extend the life of existing assets without compromising future performance.
So, here’s the question: Are you ready to stop worrying about what could go wrong and start building smarter?
Let’s talk. Whether it’s a Cold Eyes Validation to uncover risks early or full-service consulting to guide your project from start to finish, Parsons is the partner you call when failure isn’t an option.