I would first find out from your faculty or stakeholders what kind of design they need. Do they need a 24x7 datacenter or a lab environment that's does not have performance specific metrics or critical processes running? If performance and availability are key you will need NOC monitoring, redundant power, water, etc. and in that case be sure to hire an independent engineering consulting firm to prepare the physical design once you're sure of the hardware requirements. Get a company that has experience building raised floors, installing Inergen fire suppression systems etc., because these are capital intensive decisions that your facilities managers will need to know about (if only for safety regulations). I was involved in building one of these and in my experience it's best to get the business owners (as it were) to detail their requirements and then spend the money to hire experienced professional for your design. In the end, we've used an Exodus facility (cheaper and more reliable, but not realistic for academic research). Adam MacDonald President and CEO Invio Bioinformatics Inc. SN: AdamCMacDonald V: (902) 420-1437 F: (902) 422-2388 www.invio.ca On Fri, 13 Dec 2002, James Cuff wrote: > On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, chris dagdigian wrote: > > > I started to reply but Joe hit it on the head exactly :) The key is to > > overbuild the physical facility, network core and storage/backup > > infrastructure. The compute systems can be aquired and scaled far more > > easily than the foundation stuff. > > Joe speaks the truth. We've so much been through the room that don't > scale and systems that will... > > J. > > -- Adam MacDonald President and CEO Invio Bioinformatics Inc. SN: AdamCMacDonald V: (902) 420-1437 F: (902) 422-2388 www.invio.ca