Data Center World 2025

Many data center professionals are familiar with Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Uptime Institute Tier Ratings, but there are far more industry metrics to measure all aspects of data center performance. This session will present more than 20 metrics useful in evaluating data center efficiency, reliability, deployment flexibility, scalability, connectivity, hazards/risks, environmental-friendliness, third-party providers, and cost.

By understanding these quantitative assessment metrics – and when to use them – prospective data center occupants can effectively evaluate new data centers, and current users can analyze their existing data centers for continued occupancy, expansion, or modernization. With rapidly evolving deployment plans fueled by AI initiatives and cloud adoption, developing a data center facility strategy using yesterday's yardsticks can be ineffective. This informative and fast-paced session will present evaluation metrics and formulae for easy adoption by attendees, and a few non-quantitative factors will also be discussed. Several case study examples will be presented followed by audience Q&A.

Takeaway

• Get to know 20+ metrics for quantitatively evaluating data centers.
• How to decide which metrics matter to decisions about staying in existing facilities, renovating them, or selecting new data centers.
• Techniques to incorporate quantitative measures into internal project presentations for corporate project approvals.
• Best practices to communicate data center metrics to senior management for career growth purposes and recognition for a job well done.