Mission critical and data center facilities represent a large capital investment, are critical to business success and provide our clients an advantage over their competitors. It is critical to obtain the services of a design firm with experience and expertise, one who understands the intricacies of this type of facility. Affiliated Engineers offers a multidisciplinary staff with a full range of mechanical, electrical, piping and information technology engineers and designers to address all of the needs within a data center.

Identifying key project stakeholders is the first step to a successful design and delivery process for these types of technologically complex facilities. We work closely with these stakeholders to establish project goals that accurately and thoroughly represent the client's business needs. By listening closely and asking the right questions, we are able to develop a design-focused response that fully addresses the project goals while maintaining project budget and schedule. These questions could include: What will be the primary facility function? Will it be a corporate data center or a secondary or backup disaster recovery site? Will scientific or medical computing take place within the facility? What is the impact of facility downtime? What other sites must be connected to this one? How much room for expansion should be included? These types of questions are necessary to determine how the facility must be designed.

Appropriately sizing the facility is critical to project success. Per square foot construction costs are high for these facilities; adding more space is not a solution. Rather we investigate how the facility will be used, what it will be used for and consider future technology changes. Modular designs are used that allow the facility systems to respond to changing demands, simplifying the budget and implementing processes for future system expansion.

Proper physical placement of the facility is an important design component; recommendations are made on where a facility could and should be located. Avoiding high traffic areas contributes to a secure facility and consideration is given to the availability of local product and support services for communication services, electrical power, gaseous fire suppression, large-scale UPS systems and exotic cooling systems when selecting the physical location of this type of facility.

A final aspect of a successful project is ensuring the facility operates under every imaginable situation. This includes establishing appropriate system redundancy and assisting with disaster recovery plans. Ensuring that all systems associated with the facility work together properly and that staff know how to manage the systems effectively and respond to and correct potential failure scenarios are key components to a successful project design.

Data Center Modeling Software
TAS Ambiens and Tileflow are both data center modeling software that Affiliated Engineers utilizes to predict how efficiently a data center will be heated and cooled. Both softwares allow the designer to enter different layouts and scenarios for data center design. These scenarios predict the impact the mechanical system will have on the heating and cooling of the space and allow us to tailor the design of the facility to optimize operating efficiency and reliability.

Representative Clients

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