"The physical infrastructure of data centers and network rooms is typically oversized by five times the actual capacity at start-up and more than one and a half times the ultimate actual capacity," contends a recent white paper from APC-Schneider Electric.

Oversizing statistics from actual customer installations are presented in the paper's analysis, which quantifies the TCO costs associated with oversizing to be in excess of 30%. The document discusses the fundamental reasons why oversizing occurs, and presents an architecture and method for avoiding the phenomenon.

"The single largest avoidable cost associated with typical data center and network room infrastructure is oversizing," asserts Neil Rasmussen, the document's author. "The utilization of the physical and power infrastructure in a data center or network room is typically around 50-60%."

Read the white paper here.