The Location and the Best Use Correlation Model of Data Centers in Turkey

Data storage and IT equipment housing is demanded rapidly over the last decade parallel to improving the significance of big data. Data Centers (DCs) have supplied service to this demand for decades by being real estate assets built up in strategic locations with housed IT equipment. In parallel with this demand, data center investments have boomed around the globe in the last decade. To develop the supplied service quality of the data center investments, a reputable private organization Uptime Institute provide certification to measure how well a data center as a real estate can be designed and developed by classifying it in 4 classes of tiers. Data center tiers are a classification system, ascending 1, 2, 3, and 4 show the commercial reputation and operational efficiency of data center investments. Data center tiers are awarded after the measurement of operational redundancy in general. The measurement includes performance criteria such as design, infrastructure efficiency, energy efficiency, operational cost structure and location. The research paper focuses on location criteria and their correlative significance on the other performance criteria in general and narrows down into the problem statement; “Many data centers in Turkey are developed by mainly wrong location selection and, it results in operational performance and TIER III and less certified investments”. The research paper aims to test whether a model can be invented for location selection and the best operational use correlation of data center investments. It analyzes Central & Eastern Europe data center real estate market data and selected data centers in a particular methodology for a benchmark to understand how location affects the operational use of a Data Center in Turkey. In the methodology, the research paper explores past data center location decision models like DEMATEL Method, Fuzzy DEMATEL Method and EDAS Method and their results on both energy efficiency and cost of the facility. Furthermore, the research paper utilizes this method to benchmark TIER IV certified data centers using the same fiber optic cable network and data infrastructure. This continuing research provides a map for Turkey data center investor's correlation between selecting the right location and the operational best use of a data center as a real estate.