Data Center Business Plan
Data Center Business Plan
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Are you about starting a data center? If YES, here is a complete sample data center
business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE.
Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a data center business. We also
took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample data center marketing plan template backed up
by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for data centers. So let’s proceed to the business planning
section.
Even though data centers are mostly run by government agencies or large companies, several
medium and small scale companies are also going into the business so as to provide a cloud
solution service that can be used for private and business applications.
This business is however one that is capital intensive as any entrepreneur going into this would
need to procure enough computers and also ensure that where the computers are housed has
steady electricity, ventilation and is secure from theft, accidental and intentional manipulation.
Also, asides from these factors, there must also always be periodic back-ups in order to ensure
that the business remains operable.
To start this business, it is necessary to approach a reputable business consultant who not only
understands the industry but also the business very well in order to determine if it would be
worthwhile going into the business. The business consultant also points out the obstacles and
challenges the business is likely to face and how best to overcome them when it crops up.
Another thing that is important to have before starting any business is a business plan. Writing a
business plan might not be so easy, however it is for this reason that a sample business plan has
been prepared below – a sample data center business plan;
The data center industry is one is one that has seen several changes come upon it, as businesses
operating in this industry have moved from cloud adoption to data sovereignty, which is due to
the fact that client companies are getting business smart about their data as well as computer
strategies.
This has led to operators in the united states of America and even globally to experience growth
in revenue as well as round the whole industry. The state that has the strongest presence in the
data center industry is North Virginia, which is due to the fact that they have a low-post power as
well as renewable hydropower.
Around the globe, operators are eyeing government policies that might require that data centers
be housed in the same country from which the data is accessed from which would lead to
locations playing a huge influence on the data center industry.
The data center industry has made a huge impact on the power sector in the United States of
America as electricity savings have been improved in between the last seven years.
This is contrary to the expectations that energy use would increase as more people demand for
real-time data which has not been so has energy has remained stable since 2010. Also, according
to projections, energy use will reduce as the industry grows which would come from improved
cooling and powering strategies and data center micro grids.
Most operators in the data center industry have started pushing for flexibility in their leasing
agreements by looking to cut down the standard lease agreements from 10 years to between 5 – 7
years, this is so as to right-size and server reliance.
The lifespan of data centers is usually around 8 – 10 years on the average as technologies have
been used to determine its lifespan. It should also be noted that cloud computing has also started
gaining popularity among service providers; this is because more companies are switching from
enterprise data systems to cloud services.
The data center industry has also seen some operators start to use automated network
management systems. This automated network management operate physical network
configuration, plugs and unplugs physical ports on command prompt from software and also
allows physical data center network connections to be managed more quickly and remotely.
According to a recent study by International data Corporation (IDC), it has been projected that
North America will provide the highest share of IT spending globally between the period of 2015
to 2019 which has been projected to pass the $1 trillion mark by 2017. In 2015, the data center
industry grew to 6.1% with operators in the United States earning $115.6 billion in revenue.
2. Executive Summary
Utech datacenters is a leading and standard data center that will be located in Houston – Texas in
order to serve all our domestic and corporate clients here in the United States of America and
international clients as well.
We are in the data center business to provide hosting services such as shared, VPS, dedicated,
co-locative and cloud services. We also in addition to our core services offer consultancy
services in line with training services so as to boost our bottom line.
We are in business not only to make profit but to also favorably compete with our competitors
here in the United States of America as well as globally.
Our vision is to offer our clients a reliable, secure and fast data center regardless of whatever
applications they choose to run on our data center. We also aim to be amongst the top five
preferred data center here in Houston – Texas by the year 2025.
Our location in Houston – Texas is very strategic as we are not only very easy for clients to get
to but we will also have low overheads in running the data center via factors such as power costs,
lease costs, sales taxes, property taxes as well as the potential incentives.
We intend to procure the best equipment in order to be able to provide the best services for our
clients and run a standard data center here in Houston – Texas. Our goal is also to ensure that we
build a business structure that will aid us in achieving our corporate goals and objectives.
Our intention in running a smooth business with as less hitches as possible is to ensure that we
hire the right number of employees who not only have an understanding of the industry and are
professionals but also are attuned to our corporate goals and vision and are committed to
ensuring that these goals and visions are achieved.
We intend to provide a conducive and friendly environment for our employees as well as ensure
that they get the required training that is continuous in nature so as not only to enhance their
skills and increase productivity for the organization but to also ensure that the skills gotten are
the best across similar start-up such as ours in the industry.
We also intend to make sure that our employees are one of the best paid and that they also have
one of the best welfare packages in the industry. We intend to carry out continuous appraisals on
our employees to ensure that those who are hard-working are promoted in order to motivate them
into being more productive.
Finally our owners, Blake Chylds and Rob Branson have not only been in the data center
business for years but have also served in the management capacity where they have had to make
strategic decisions on behalf of the company. Both men have several IT certifications and are
alumni of Harvard University and MIT Engineering School.
Both men also have several stakes in the IT industry and are going into the data center business
due to the demand from their various clients. They will bring their over 30 years experience to
bear in this business and ensure that the goals and objectives of the business are achieved.
Utech datacenters will offer traditional data services to its customers that are of the highest
standard possible from our permanent and strategic location based here in Houston – Texas.
However as part of our efforts to boost our bottom line, we intend to ensure that we create
multiple sources of income to our core service by providing consultancy services as well as
trainings to our clients.
Our intention is to ensure that we make profits as is legally permissible by the laws of the state
where we are operating as well as all over the United States of America. Therefore, some of the
products and services we intend to offer at Utech datacenters include;
Providing hosting services such as shared, VPS, dedicated, co-locative as well as cloud
Consultancy services
Trainings
Our vision is to offer our clients a reliable, secure and fast data center regardless of
whatever applications they choose to run on our data center. We also aim to be amongst
the top five preferred data center here in Houston – Texas by the year 2025.
In order to achieve our vision, we intend to ensure that we get the right equipment,
choose the right location that is not only strategic but secure and also hire the right
employees that understand our vision to help us run the business.
Having the right business structure is very essential to the growth of our business and we are
therefore not taking this aspect trivially. We intend to ensure that our corporate foundation is
perfect and as such we would go the extra mile in sourcing for and hiring competent and
hardworking employees to handle the various roles and responsibilities in the organization.
We are ready to do whatever it takes to achieve this as we are a standard company with a
standing in the industry that will lure the right employees to come and work for us at Utech data
center here in Houston – Texas. The employees we intend to choose to work with us are those
that understand the objectives of the business and are willing to work in ensuring that we achieve
our intended goals and objectives.
Due to the fact that we intend to offer a wide range of services and offer trainings as well as
consultancy services at our data center business, we intend to hire different employees that will
be able to handle the different responsibilities from the assigned tasks that would be available at
Utech datacenter here in Houston – Texas.
Therefore, the business structure that we intend to build at Utech datacenter is;
Formulates the policies that are used in planning for the strategic direction of the
organization
Manages financial resources by recommending yearly budget and ensuring that the
organizations resources within the budget guidelines are in line with organizational laws
and policies
Reviews policies and processes and removes or modifies those that are found to be
inefficient
Infrastructure Manager
Responsible for all the IT systems which includes the hardware, software as well as
security systems in the organization
Responsible for ensuring that data is secure the company data-wise and also ensure that
the business runs smoothly and efficiently
In charge of implementing up-to-date solutions across the infrastructure
Works closely with the systems administrator to ensure that all the database needs are
being met
Carries out an upgrade to the database whenever needed
Ensure that the security of the database is implemented in order to safeguard the data
Ensures that the network is designed in such a way as to suit the needs of the organization
Ensures that the network administration is set up and configured
Adds new host machines, administers network security and also trouble shoot network
problems
Customer Service Executives
Are up-to-date about relevant trends in the industry as well as organizations policies so as
to give clients informed information
Keeps an accurate database of clients and updates when necessary on behalf of the
organization
Carries out any other duties as directed by the human resource manager
Carries out communication with target market and also ensure that client relationships are
well managed
Conducts more research on the target market in order to determine new markets for the
organization
Advertises the organization on different platforms so as to create awareness for the
organization
Security Specialist
Security Personnel
Patrols organizations property to ensure that the premises and personnel are secure
In charge of monitoring surveillance equipment and reports irregularities
Restrains trespassers and inform violators of policies and procedures of the organization
Human Resources and Admin Manager
Defines job positions for recruitment, carries out recruitment exercise and induction for
new staff members
Ensures that recruitment, welfare benefits as well as contract termination are in
compliance with legal, contractual and statutory procedures
Handles general office management issues
Accountant
Cleaner
6. SWOT Analysis
Due to the fact that we intend to run a business that is up to standard, we have hired the services
of a reputable business consultant here in Houston – Texas who has the necessary experience and
also knows the business and industry thoroughly to help us look through our business concept
and determine if it was worthwhile going into the kind of business that we were going into.
The business consultant was also to help us determine if we were well suited to run a data center
business profitably and also compete favorably with the competitors who were running a similar
business to ours here in the data center industry.
In view of that, an analysis was run in order to be able to take stock of what strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats were available to us in the industry we intended going into here in the
United States of America. Below is the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Utech
Datacenter;
Strengths
There are several strengths available to us during the course of running the business and they
include the fact that there are already existing distribution and sales networks available which
makes it easier for us to penetrate the target market and get a share.
Also, the industry has been projected to grow and has a high growth rate which means that we
are poised to earn lucratively from this business. Another strength lies in the fact that we have
reduced labor costs as some of the tasks are being automated.
Finally, our employees are not only competent but very experienced and professional and are
well equipped in ensuring that we achieve our intended goals and objectives.
Weaknesses
The weakness we have in this business is due to the fact that we are running a small business unit
that might affect our standing in the industry. We however intend to combat this by taking our
sustainability and expansion measures seriously.
Opportunities
There are several opportunities that are available to us in the course of running this business and
they include; the growing demand from the target market as more and more people are shifting
towards cloud based services and other hosting services. This would lead to another opportunity
for income, as income for workers and operators in this field will be on a constant increase.
Threats
Every business no matter how lucrative faces threats every now either during start-up or whilst
running the business and the data center business is no different. As a serious business we
however have already laid down strategies that would combat any threat that we might face
during the course of running the business.
Some threats that we are likely to face when starting this business include; technological
problems that might arise from the equipment. Price changes in procuring most of the equipment
or in running the data center that might likely affect our pricing rate for our clients. The arrival of
a competitor in the same location might cause our profitability to drop.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
Market Trends
Data center providers in the United States of America have between the years 2009 and 2015 had
a total of 1,267 projects both new and existing; most of these projects had Texas topping the list
of states with a total of 147 projects.
This is because Facebook has a 750,000 square foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas which is worth
nearly $1 billion, another of such large corporation with several data centers in Texas in HP.
Houston in Texas is the hub of for data centers as the demand for these centers is mostly driven
by oil and gas companies, energy companies as well as healthcare organizations.
Another state that has a large hub for data centers is Virginia and it has been projected to
overtake New York metro. This is because Northern Virginia has abundant fiber, cheap and
reliable power as well as attractive tax incentive programs for data center providers. Data centers
bring large investments to the community as they also attract service providers.
Although the network management for data centers have been automated for a long while back,
they were not fully automated as they ran on servers and routers, physical switches, and were
lined by physical network cables. Also, the plugging and unplugging of network cables had been
physically limiting for the automatic network configuration.
However, with innovations all the aforementioned difficulties have been resolved especially the
plugging and unplugging of physical ports which can be done as a command from software.
The data center industry has a wide range of customers demanding for its services. However, in
order for us to truly know who our target market is here in the United States of America, we have
conducted a market research to help us truly determine what we are likely to face in getting our
own share of the target market. This will also help us map out the needed strategies that would
help our business reach its intended goals.
The market research we have conducted is also to help us know what exactly to look out for in
our target market and what they will also be expecting from us. In view of this, we have
determined that we are in business to cater to the following group of existing and potential
clients;
Data center service vendors
Market operators
Consultancy firms
System integrators
Training and education service providers
Telecom and IT companies
Cloud providers
National regulatory authorities
Government and public sector
Financial institutions
Oil and gas industry
Small and medium enterprises
Energy industry
Healthcare industry
We have established our business not only to make profit and be amongst the industry leaders
but also to ensure that we have all the necessary factors that will allow us not only compete
favorably with others but give us an edge as well.
We are located in a strategic location here in Houston – Texas that not only offer our employees
easy access but also ensure that our overheads are low thereby affecting the overall pricing rates
for our end-user clients, giving us an edge over others.
Even though data centers run a basic service of providing hosting services to clients, we intend to
stand apart from our competitors by ensuring that we offer the best customer care service to our
clients. All the inquiries of our clients, follow-ups and complaints will be professionally handled
by our very qualified customer service executives.
Secondly, we intend to source for and hire the best employees to handle all the necessary
responsibilities in the organization. Our employees will not only be very competent, qualified
and professional, they will also understand not only the industry but also our corporate core
values and be committed to ensuring that we attain all our intended goals and objectives.
Also, we will ensure that our employees are well paid and have the best welfare package across
the industry whilst working in an environment that is conducive and safe. Also, our employees
will always undergo regular training that will further enhance their skills while making them
more productive for the company.
Utech datacenters Houston – Texas just like any other private business has been established with
the intention of making money in the data centers market cum the Information technology
industry here in the United States of America through our provision of data services for our
numerous clients.
At Utech datacenters, we intend to generate income through the provision of these services;
Providing hosting services such as shared, VPS, dedicated, co-locative as well as cloud
Consultancy services
Trainings
The data center business industry is one that is still growing and this is because the demands for
services of this nature are growing.
Our strategic location in Houston – Texas has made it very possible for us to be optimistic about
generating the required income that would allow us not only make enough profits that will allow
us sustain and grow our business within six months of operations.
However, in order to ensure that we come up with a sales projections that is not only accurate but
that we can rely on, we conducted a critical analysis of the data center industry cum IT industry
in order to analyze what chances we had.
The sales projections were done based on information gathered on similar start-ups such as ours
here in Houston – Texas as well as all around the United States of America. Below is the sales
projection for Utech datacenters based on several factors;
N.B: The above sales projections were done based on several assumptions that there won’t be an
arrival of any major competitor and that growth in the industry would be stable. It should be
noted that should there be a change in the assumptions, the projected sales figures would likely
increase or decrease but not remain the same.
We have hired the services of a reputable marketing consultancy firm here in Houston – Texas
who have the expertise in this industry and now the terrain here very well to help us draft
strategies that would benefit our business and generate the revenue that we have projected for the
organization.
We want to build a marketing structure that will allow us also compete favorably with other
leading datacenters here in the United States of America whilst also ensuring that we attract
potential customers to our business. Our marketing and sales executives have also been
empowered to work together with the marketing consultancy firm so that the strategies drafted
are in line with our corporate policies and goals.
Below are the marketing strategies that we intend to adopt in generating revenue for Utech
datacenters;
Ensure that our data center business is introduced to organizations and agencies as well as
other stakeholders in the United States of America
Place adverts in local and national newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and
television stations
Engage in direct marketing and sales
Throw a huge IT themed party in order to capture the interest of stakeholders, potential
clients and the general community
Use our website and other social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google
plus and Twitter in order to actively promote our data center business
Ensure that our business is listed in online directories
Every business that intends to make profit knows the importance of ensuring that the business
receives enough publicity. Publicity for a business not only increases awareness for the business
but also ensures that more revenue is generated through the publicity the business gets.
Also in addition to creating awareness for our business, we intend to ensure that our publicity
strategies will make us compete favorably with the other leading data centers in the United States
of America.
Therefore some of the publicity and advertising strategies we intend to adopt for Utech
datacenters include;
In deciding what prices we would set for our data center services we would need to carry out a
pricing strategy in order to correctly determine what to charge our end-user clients. Factors such
as power costs, lease costs, sales taxes, property taxes, what our competitors are offering as well
as what potential incentives are to be gotten from our location would go a long way in
determining what we would charge our clients.
In view of the fact that we are relatively new in the industry, we intend to lower our prices a bit
from what our competitors are offering and so we would ensure that we give our clients a
discounted rate for the first six months of business in order to ensure that more customers are
aware of the business and that we attract a huge share of the target market. We assure our
stakeholders that the lowering of our rates will not in any way allow us to run at a loss.
Payment Options
Utech is aware of the fact that our different clients have diverse business preferences and
lifestyles and so will require different payment options that will suit them. Therefore, the
different payment options that will be made available to all our clients include;
Payment via check
Payment via credit card
Payment via online payment portal
Payment by bank transfer
We have carefully chosen the above payment options because we know that they would work
without any form of hitches for our various clients.
The data center business is a capital intensive one especially as the bulk of the capital is used to
lease a suitable facility, get sufficient power, get the necessary equipment to be used and also pay
employees and utility bills. Therefore, the key areas where we intend to spend our start-up
capital are;
From the above requirements, we would need the sum of $35,000,000 to be able to start and
successfully run our data center business here in Houston – Texas. The above amount covers the
salaries of our employees and payment of utilities for at least 1 year of operations. It also covers
the leasing of an office facility for a period of 10 years, and also procuring of equipment needed
to run the data center business.
Therefore the areas where they intend to generate start-up capital from are;
Generate part of the start-up capital from sale of property and personal stock
Approach private investors for a loan in exchange for equity
Apply for a loan from the bank
N.B: We have been able to generate the sum of $5,000,000 from the sale of our properties and
personal stock. We approached a group of private investors who have agreed to lend us the sum
of $10,000,000 in exchange for 3% equity in our business.
Our agreements are however based on certain conditions. We approached the ban for the sum of
$20,000,000 to be repayable at the rate of 7% in 10 years. All the documents approving the loan
have been signed and the money would soon be credited into our account within the week.
The future of our business lies in how well we are able to sustain and later expand the business.
In order to achieve our goals and grow as an organization, we intend to focus on the following
factors such as investment strategy, our business structure as well as customer loyalty.
No business can survive without having a stable bottom line and so due to this; we intend to
ensure that we re-invest 30% of our profit back into the company so that the business would be
able to sustain itself without having to seek for external sources all the time.
We know how important it is for us to build a business structure and as such we are taking this
aspect very seriously by recruiting employees who are not only competent and professionals but
also those who thoroughly understand and identify with our corporate goals and objectives. We
also intend to ensure that we have a great welfare package for our employees so as to boost their
productivity efficiency for the organization.
Without customers, businesses would cease to exist as customers make sure that a business can
generate revenue and make profit. We intend to offer excellent customer care to our clients and
make sure that all issues and complaints are promptly resolved.
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