INTRODUCTION Data center facilities house computer servers and associated components@ such as networking equipment@ telecommunication and archiving storage servers. Data centers with large footprints or high power densities are typically standalone facilities; whereas data centers with small footprints or low power densities could be a tenant within a building. Data centers can be distinguished by their exceptionally high energy consumption compared to other types of facilities. For instance@ typical office buildings consume an average of 5 to 10 W/ft2 power density@ as compared to modern data centers@ which are now designed to consume an average of 150 to 750 W/ft2 of electricity input (Patterson and Fenwick 2008). This is roughly equal to 600 to 1800 W/ft2 of the server footprint. Typically@ a data center is served by dedicated mechanical@ electrical and fire protection infrastructure that is independent from the systems that serve other portions of the building. Similar to other building types@ data center infrastructures are designed to meet local@ state and federal building codes@ as well as design standards and guidelines set forth by industry organizations such as the American Society of Heating@ Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE)@ National Electrical Code (NEC) and National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). Additionally@ data center design is often required to meet certain levels of redundancy@ reliability@ maintainability@ fault tolerance@ scalability and flexibility. The industry-recognized topologies for infrastructure design and site resiliency are established by the Uptime Institute@ a consortium of companies and industry leaders devoted to maximizing uptime for data center operations.