Data Center Site Selection Process at Dropbox

Introduction

This article highlights the approach taken by Dropbox in the data center site selection process and the balancing of cost and reliability with company values.

Capacity requirements

The data center engineering team begins the search process by identifying the facilities that can support the capacity requirements. Existing providers and their availability are considered, and a decision to include or exclude is made based on flexibility with power, space, and time requirements.

Facility Design

The facility design should adhere to industry-wide guidance in cooling, power, maintenance activities, and fault tolerances. Dropbox places particular emphasis on power usage effectiveness (PUE) in recent years for maximizing efficiency.

Questionnaire evaluation

A detailed questionnaire poses in-depth questions about the space, power design, cooling design, network design, historical information, site environmental risks, facility security, operational specifics, and staffing. Providers are then evaluated in-person by completing a site walk evaluation to validate the information provided in the questionnaire.

Provider scorecard

Each provider is given a numerical score in the areas of space, power, and network design based on criteria including redundancy, grounding system, efficiency, and upstream redundancy.

Overall, the data center site selection process at Dropbox involves a thorough evaluation of providers and facilities to ensure maximum efficiency and adherence to industry-wide guidelines.