Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has begun a first-of-its-kind program in the datacenter industry that guarantees its turnkey data centers, build-to-suit datacenters, and POD architecture services projects will be completed on time and on budget. This program makes Digital Realty Trust the only data center provider that offers this type of guarantee for its product line, eliminating the risks of cost overruns, contingency fees, and schedule slippage for customers.

"Essentially, we are offering customers the industry's first risk-free data center product line. Data center builds can be fraught with risk for customers that take a do-it-yourself approach to their data centers or that work with construction companies that do not specialize in data centers. Projects can often veer off course, leading to delays of months or years and cost overruns of millions or tens of millions of dollars. Digital Realty Trust's guarantees eliminate those risks for our customers," said Brent Behrman, vice president of global sales at Digital Realty Trust.

A recent survey conducted by Data Center Knowledge illustrates the risks inherent in large-scale do-it-yourself (DIY) data center development projects. The survey of readers involved in recent data center projects showed that one fifth of all such data center projects were not completed on schedule. The survey also determined that one quarter of DIY data center projects went over budget with a sixth of them achieving overruns of a million dollars or more. The survey also determined that data centers built by in-house teams were twice as likely to have cost overruns between $1 million and $10 million as projects involving a wholesale data center provider.

"Designing and building data centers today is a complex process that has many inherent risks associated with it. For most IT organizations, planning, engineering, and constructing these specialized facilities is a multi-year process that often results in budget overruns and delays in delivery," said Michelle Bailey, research vice president for IDC's Datacenter Trends Program. "Two key success factors in effective data center delivery are shortening time to market and injecting more predictability around the data center blueprint. The longer a data center project takes, the more likely it is to miss meeting corporate objectives and disrupting capacity planning models. Risk assessment and risk mitigation are therefore critical requirements for any company undertaking a data center project."

"Providing customers with guaranteed pricing and delivery, even for custom projects, is unique in the industry," said Dave Caron, senior vice president of portfolio management at Digital Realty Trust. "Rather than take on the risks associated with a $10 million, $50 million or $100 million data center project, our ability to provide this guarantee program offers customers a clear, risk-free option."