Available data centers

A turnkey data center is a fully developed, operational facility ready for immediate use and designed to host a variety of IT infrastructure for high power-needs HPC projects such as AI or Bitcoin mining. A turnkey site typically comes with everything in place, including: the building, power systems, cooling, networking, and security. Turnkey data center solutions offer businesses the advantage of a quicker time to market, as the infrastructure is already built and functional. These data centers usually come with long-term service contracts or leasing options, allowing companies to simply deploy their equipment and start operations without worrying about construction or facility management. They are ideal if your organization is looking to scale quickly and avoid the complexity and time commitment of building a data center from scratch.

Greenfield data center land refers to undeveloped, raw land where a data center can be built from the ground up. Investing in greenfield land offers more flexibility and control over the design, construction, and customization of the data center to meet your specific needs when it comes to criteria such as energy efficiency, layout, and scalability for future expansion. However, it will require a longer timeline for construction, as well as potentially needing additional investment in land acquisition, permits, utilities, and infrastructure. Greenfield land is typically favored by larger enterprises or investors looking to develop a high-performance, purpose-built data center with future expansion potential.

Choosing the right data center for your power project—whether you're looking for server space for high-performance computing (HPC), Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence (AI), or other critical infrastructure—requires careful consideration of a variety of factors. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you identify and select the right data center or land for building a data center:

1. Understand Your Project's Needs

Investing in Bitcoin mining or AI infrastructure can secure high return on investment, but before you begin searching for a data center or land, you need to clearly define the requirements of your project.

• How much Compute Power will you need? For this, check the total available power of each site.
• How much storage will your project require?
• Scalability: Will your project need to expand quickly? If so, a greenfield site might be preferable.
• Bandwidth/Connectivity needs
• Redundancy and Uptime: For mission-critical operations like Bitcoin mining or AI model training, high uptime is essential.
• Cooling and Power: Depending on the workload (e.g., Bitcoin mining requires substantial cooling), you may need specialized infrastructure such as liquid cooling or access to renewable energy sources.

2. Evaluate Key Data Center Criteria

Power and Energy Supply

• Power availability: Look for a data center with sufficient power capacity to support your operation, whether it's a large Bitcoin mining operation, a GPU farm for AI, or general high computing needs.
• Energy efficiency: How energy-efficient is the data center? For Bitcoin mining, low electricity costs are critical, so ensure that the data center offers competitive pricing per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Data centers with green energy options (e.g., hydro, solar, wind) are increasingly important, especially if you are looking to minimize your environmental footprint.

Location

• Geographical location: The physical location of the data center affects both latency and power costs. For AI and HPC applications, proximity to your end-users or research hubs may be important. For Bitcoin mining, power costs (and availability of renewable energy) may be more important than proximity to users.
• Access to Fiber Networks: Check if the data center is well-connected with high-speed fiber and whether it offers direct access to multiple internet exchanges, reducing potential latency for both AI and data-driven operations.

Security

• Physical security: Is the site fenced? Are their security measures in place?
• Cybersecurity
• Compliance: For regulated industries or projects (e.g., AI in healthcare, financial data, etc.), verify that the data center complies with relevant certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA for healthcare data).

Connectivity and Bandwidth

• Bandwidth requirements: High-performance computing, AI projects, and large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations require high bandwidth. Ask about the available network speeds (e.g., 1Gbps, 10Gbps, etc.), redundancy (multiple ISPs), and latency.
• Low latency: For AI training or high-performance workloads, low latency can be crucial. Check if the data center offers direct connectivity to cloud services, research institutions, or other services you may require.
• Peering and interconnection: Consider data centers that offer cross-connects to other facilities, partners, or major cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure). This is important if your project relies on hybrid solutions.

Technical requirements

• Cooling Infrastructure: High-density workloads like Bitcoin mining or AI model training generate a lot of heat. Look for data centers with high-efficiency cooling systems, such as liquid cooling or immersion cooling, if you're working with dense server farms.

Scalability and Flexibility

• Space for Expansion: If your needs are expected to grow over time (especially in Bitcoin mining or AI), make sure the data center can accommodate future scaling. This includes additional rack space, power, cooling, and network bandwidth.
• Lease Terms: Understand the terms of the lease by checking legal documents. For long-term projects, check if the data center offers flexibility in contract length and the ability to scale without penalties.

If you need help to better evaluate your project needs or want to look into other services to develop your HPC project, check FindMorePower’s additional HPC services and don’t hesitate to contact us.