A Smarter Data Center Strategy: Reuse, Not New Construction

A cornfield in Nebraska, Iowa or Minnesota might seem like an ideal site for a 1-million-square-foot data center. But it may not be. Given the pace of technological change and the limits on power and water, greenfield megasites tend to be the riskier, slower and more expensive way to add computing capacity. I believe developers should instead look at existing buildings—office, industrial, even obsolete data centers—to reuse where the infrastructure already exists.