The cost to build and operate a modern Data Center continues to increase. This Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) includes capital and operational expenses. The good news in all of this is the performance or compute capabilities in the same Data Center (DC) is increasing at a much higher rate than the TCO. This means the actual cost per unit of compute performance is coming down in the Data Center.

While that is a positive trend the increasing densities still present a challenge. This challenge though is primarily one of design and operation. One of the most common misconceptions in this period of growth is that the TCO of a new data center is lower with a low density design. We look at the construction and design of both types and present results demonstrating that high-density DCs are a better choice for reducing the owners cost. These results apply to new construction and mostly-unconstrained retrofits. Densities of 1000 watts per square foot of work cell are being achieved with good efficiencies. Modern designs of 200 to 400 watts per square foot of work cell are much more common, but cost more. Costs of the architectural space, power systems and cooling systems are reviewed as are the operational costs for these systems. High-density DCs do cost less. The challenges for the high-density DC are also called out and suggestions for successful operation are made.