Orange County

About Cresa Orange County

Cresa Orange County is led by Managing Principal Pat Murphy, who has over 30 years of experience in commercial real estate. 11 additional Principals are also located in the Orange County office, including Board Member Jeff Manley, Cresa MCS Managing Principal Jason Shepard and Project Management Principal Rick Martin.

Taken November, 2012 at Newport Beach Country Club


Cresa Orange County is a proud sponsor of PGA Tour winner, Brenden Steele

Jason Shepard Managing Principal, Cresa MCS email: jasonshepard@cresa.com tel: 949.706.6630

As recent events like Hurricane Sandy and the Missouri tornadoes have shown us, natural disasters can wreak havoc on business systems. In fact, in 2011 the U.S. broke its record for billion-dollar weather disasters. The U.S. saw more weather catastrophes costing at least $1 billion in damage than it experienced throughout all of the 1980s.

Now add to the equation our increasing dependence on technology and the facilities we need to house it. The constant evolution of technology, along with companies’ increasing dependence on those IT systems to stay in business, drives the need for scalable and redundant IT infrastructure that support corporate data centers and ensure they won’t go down.

According to a research report by Emerson in 2011, the average cost of data center downtime across a variety of industry sectors was $5,600 per minute(i.e. $336,000 per hour). Those data center downtime costs can go up substantially in certain industry sectors such as financial services.

Where a company’s data center is located can have a downstream impact on its ability to continue to operate (i.e. uptime) and stay in business. Regardless of whether the building is designed to withstand hurricane force winds, unless all of the utility providers servicing the facility are designed to withstand the same, the facility is at risk.

Take for example the regional and local power infrastructure that supplies energy to corporate data centers. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA), in the five calendar years between 2007 and 2011 there were 582 “Major Disturbances or Unusual Occurrences” on the United States electrical system. Of those, over 67% weather or flooding related.

Site selection for corporate data centers is therefore a strategic and sequential process of elimination of locations based on risk mitigation, evaluation of utility infrastructure, fiber optic availability and latency considerations, accessibility by both employees and service vendors, economic considerations and more.

Companies operating data centers in areas of higher risk for natural disasters should expect higher frequency of downtime events. Failing to prepare for those events will leave a company exposed. These strategies should not be limited to the evaluation of a company’s own corporate data center but also to any third party service provider’s (e.g. colocation, cloud, managed services, etc.) facility.

Key Data Center Statistics

• In 71% of companies surveyed, the Corporate Real Estate or Facilities department pays for the power and utility bills for the organization (Source: Uptime Institute, 2012 Data Center Industry Survey). 

• 60% of companies reported that their data center’s capacity will be sufficient for three years or less (Source: DCUG, Spring 2012 Survey).


• Server virtualization (53%) and server consolidation (46%) are the top two IT/data center initiatives companies surveyed are planning in the next 18 months (Source: DCUG, Spring 2012 Survey).


• 63% of companies surveyed use 2 – 8 KW per cabinet, with an average of 6.0 KW (Source: DCUG, Spring 2012 Survey).


• 29% of companies surveyed plan to build a new data center in the next 12-18 months; 37% plan to do so in the next 36 months (Source: Uptime Institute, 2012 Data Center Industry Survey).


• 24% of companies surveyed plan to lease colocation space in the next 12-18 months; 26% plan to do so in the next 36 months (Source: Uptime Institute, 2012 Data Center Industry Survey).


• 35% of companies surveyed plan to deploy workloads to cloud computing within 36 months (Source: Uptime Institute, 2012 Data Center Industry Survey).


• 42% of companies surveyed plan to update or upgrade their mechanical

There are a myriad of considerations when selecting a location for a new data center. Following are some of the key issues to keep in mind when evaluating a location:

Location
 

• Company Needs: Does the center need to be close to headquarters or other regional office?
• Risk Tolerance: Is the area at risk for earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding?
• Distance Limitations: Are the company’s data centers tethered to each other by bandwidth latency? Utility Considerations: What is the cost, source and stability of the region’s utility sources (i.e. power and water)?
• Financial: How do the regional and local costs (e.g. construction cost, taxes, etc.) impact Total Cost of Ownership? How do the incentives stack up?
• Accessibility: Is the area easily accessible for the company’s employees and service technicians?
• Talent: Is there a qualified workforce in the area?

Space/Property
 

• Site: Is there a site of suitable size, with required setbacks and proximity to power, water and telecommunications infrastructure?
• Building: Is there an existing building, of appropriate size with the required infrastructure (i.e. electrical and mechanical) and ancillary spaces such as office, storage, and staging?
• Financial Structure: Which makes the most sense – lease or own?
• Timing: Does the company have the time to both build-new and migrate or will existing options need to be considered?

Critical Infrastructure
 

• Expected IT Hardware Deployment: What is the company’s current and planned equipment mix? What is the refresh cycle?
• Software and Services: Does the company self-perform all critical services, out-source services to a third-party operator, etc.?
• Power: What is the anticipated critical load, projected PUE, acceptable density and projected growth?
• Water/Sewer: What is the anticipated GPD needed from the water provided?
• Broadband: What providers are available, and what is their capacity to serve?
• Redundancy: What are the acceptable redundancy levels of infrastructure?