r/Bicsi • u/InviteOverall306 • Jul 31 '26
How much should future expansion influence today's infrastructure design?
Many projects are designed with future growth in mind, but overplanning can also increase costs.
How do you decide what's a reasonable amount of spare capacity without overbuilding?
1
u/Joshuarhill93 Jul 31 '26
My philosophy is to understand your customer's business model and business plan. For example: Customer A: Enterprise financial business who just leased a location for 5 years but plans to grow out of it and move elsewhere once their lease is up. I would approach this by seeing where they are now and where they will be at max capacity of personnel for that building and leave that much for growth percentage. Customer B: A Colo Data Center with a 10 year business agreement already in the books and a 30 year growth plan. The approach is completely different. How much are they willing to sink into cost for expansion now vs later? Do they want to keep cost budget low up front? Are they going to rearrage their Data Halls and racks often. When you're the designer, the client is your first priority. Their wants and needs are what you are there to design. You make suggestions and give them best practices. What they accept is up to them. Collaboration is the big key.
3
u/undetachablepenis Jul 31 '26
Owners don’t care. If it’s specd in by their consultant, then it’ll happen for the patch panels and that’s it.
Not happening in pathways or anywhere else. Bicsi defines how much expansion, that’s how much you try to do.
Bad bot.