While not traditionally a data center hub, digital infrastructure projects are blooming across Africa.
Given the supply and labor shortages that have constrained the market in recent years, any data center construction that manages to remain somewhat on track is worth celebrating.
But NTT Global Data Centers' Phoenix PH1 facility had to overcome another challenge - the team was still being formed.
At the same time, it also had to compete for talent and resources in a region with larger, more established projects.
NTT GDC has moved to a standardized global design that it hopes will speed up future builds, but this project was its first - adding yet more complexity.
Dealing with these issues and still building a LEED-certified facility on schedule are among the reasons why the company won the DCD Awards 2022 Data Center Construction Team of the Year award, sponsored by ZincFive.
The company is building a 102-acre data center campus along the Elliot Road Technology Corridor in Mesa, Arizona. At full build-out, the campus will consist of seven buildings offering a total of 240MW of critical IT load, along with an on-site substation with 480MVA.
The data center relies on closed-loop chilled water system with air-cooled chillers and integral free cooling that NTT GDC says minimizes water usage - a key feature in the resource-constrained Arizona landscape.
The architecture and engineering team began work in late 2020, while construction began in early 2021, with an aim of opening the first two-story 36MW building in February 2022.
Staffing proved an immediate challenge, as NTT GDC looked to expand rapidly beyond its RagingWire roots in the US and become a major player. It took until late summer 2021 for the final team to be established, with key hires made midway through the project.
The company said that it held off-site team-building events with new hires, general- and sub- contractors, and the original team to ensure that everyone knew each other well.
NTT GDC said that it held structured pull plan sessions that focused on the details of the schedule where everyone could give input on and commit to the schedule.
During the commissioning phase, all responsible parties reviewed and agreed to the commissioning plan and scripts. The company also held daily and weekly meetings to ensure teams were aware of upcoming activities.
"One of our biggest successes was keeping morale high through challenging moments by going above and beyond to celebrate wins," NTT said in its awards submission.
"Having an owner’s team that worked closely with and identified as an extension of the general contractor’s team was clutch in building and maintaining a trusting relationship and sense of shared success for all involved."
With the project just the first phase of a larger campus, the team put in miles of underground fiber and electrical duct banks for later phases.
As for the concrete and steel needed for the building, NTT GDC used its in-house Vendor Managed Inventory to order equipment earlier than usual in hopes of getting ahead of supply chain challenges – but the challenges remained.
“Having strong partnerships with our suppliers and vendors coupled with a hybrid modular approach in our equipment yards allowed the project team to pivot rapidly and keep the project on schedule," the company said.
While it was the first of its new standardized builds, NTT GDC said that the approach has already begun to pay dividends.
"We had to have a clear scope so the contractors could buyout the project in a timely manner and not worry about an evolving design or ongoing changes that can cripple large projects," the company said. "This allowed us to lock in production slots early for labor, materials and equipment. Our approach to solidify the scope early and not change it paid off."