Don Beaty began his engineering career working on large water treatment plants. After graduating as an electrical engineer he spent his early career as a staffer before setting up set up DLB Associates in 1980 “with no money”.

Today the company employs 170 people and operates out of a 70,000 sq ft of converted factory in Eatontown, New Jersey with offices in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia providing data center consulting services in 19 countries across North America, Europe and Asia.

Today, both the best and worst kept secret in the data center industry is that DLB Associates was lead design engineer on Google’s initial data center campus build out (a well-guarded secret for the first seven years of Google’s build program). While Google provided the conceptual design and placed a high priority on efficiency, DLB designed the campus and buildings as well as the majority of the MEP infrastructure.

The scale of these projects, the requirements for geographic diversity, the physical layouts (new build and retro fit of existing buildings) and engineering innovations and unprecedented energy efficiency targets are based on a holistic engineering view of the data center. Google keeps tight control on the publically available information on its data center strategy but has disclosed some details behind its campuses, which are among the world’s largest and most energy efficient.

Google’s Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) numbers are now regularly disclosed and it said recently that its Belgium data center achieved a 1.11 PUE over a 12-month average in 2011. What may be surprising is that the majority of Google’s data center building and campuses, including the chillerless Belgium data center, were actually designed years prior to the formation of The Green Grid in 2007 and the advent of the PUE age.The performance aspect of an energy efficient data center was integrated into the design long before there was a metric to measure it.

“There are real tangible bottom line gains and competitive edges that can be had by breaking down traditional barriers and operating with a holistic and performance centric mind set,” Beaty says.

This ability to think across disciplines has enabled DLB to be prime professionals (a role traditionally reserved for architects) on many of its projects including the Google data center campuses. Another calling card is DLB’s ability to adapt to any role or scope of services comfortable in a more conventional sub-consultant role.

The Google projects and the role of DLB Associates in them is not something Don Beaty has ever spoken about publically at length. At one presentation early in 2013 he said how one project saw DLB hire an unmanned submarine to explore tunnels leading to and from the Baltic Sea as a potential source of data center cooling. From his description it became clear that he was referring to the now famous Google Hamina plant in Finland, a converted paper mill which is cooled using sea water.

Beaty did not identify the site. What he did say was that this is the type of engineering challenge he lives for.

Operating System
To successfully build large-scale technical facilities on time and on budget requires demanding maximum performance from all concerned. That includes in-house mechanical and electrical engineering staff, contractors and sometimes even the clients. This is part of what DLB calls its operating system (OS).

This operating system is not a technology but it does involve human interaction with technology.

The OS is something that has been continually refined over the years. The term 3 ‘Rs’ is often used by DLB’ers to help describe the premise behind it (right resources working on the right tasks under the right conditions). Implementation of the 3 Rs requires an understanding of both the IQ and EQ make-up of a given resource, hence the focus on the often overlooked behavioral science element. Internally this involves a system of full disclosure underpinned by a mentoring program described as right sized projects, effortless handoff and optional review. Right sizing the projects ensures deliverables are met, effortless handoff means nothing is passed on unless there is total trust in the ability of the person to deliver against the requirements and the optional review is used as a reassurance methodology.

“The technology-driven world is one of ever accelerating persistent change,” Beaty says. “Human beings want to perform but don’t want negative feedback. Engineers are people who wear mistakes on their sleeves. But their desire not to repeat mistakes can become an anchor to innovation. If you understand a person’s traits you can then effectively manage them and channel those traits into tasks and activities that become strengths. Playing people to their strengths means you maximize their performance; and this is the right problem to solve.”

This is an integral part of the DLB approach to creating professionals that are comfortable thinking holistically across disciplines and understanding the impact of human behavior on task and project execution. It is an engineered approach to the human aspect that is not only internal to DLB but has also played a significant role in establishing a delivery system for the Google data center campuses that were located in rural or remote areas  in the US as well as culturally diverse areas overseas, the company says.

Engineers and architects
The OS of DLB is built around understanding human behaviour and maximizing productivity. The use of technology underpins all of this. When using software packages such as AutoCad or even Microsoft Office all users are taught to use DLB’s extensive customization versions of the software developed with a mentality of minimizing keystrokes. Templates are established for reuse and constantly updated.

For communications with clients and project management DLB was among the first to recognize the strength of video conferencing. It was an early adopter of Tandberg video conferencing. Tandberg was acquired by Cisco and the company remains a customer of the networking giant. Many DLB projects involve the deployment of multiple large screen video conference units and dedicated high bandwidth connections to construction sites for use by developers, architects and contractors. This means all parties meet ‘face-to-face’ and can share visual content during project meetings.

Get it off the drawing board…
What happens when the project leaves the drawing board and enters the real world? It is all about overcoming stereotypes: Traditional views are that contractors believe that they will be overburdened by architects engineers who in turn think contractors are all about cutting corners.

DLB does not adhere to this model. Instead it sets out to overcome the culture of fear and blame that is common to large construction projects.

On one project DLB created a set of open plan trailers complete with realtime video conferencing facilities. At weekly meetings each contractor had to report on its own efforts and bring a view of the work of other contractors. This developed a culture of ‘Fail Fast, Identify, Fix Fast, Learn’.

By keeping communications open through as many channels as possible it meant DLB could anticipate conditions its contractors and their operatives were working under and then areas of concern which would impact productivity.

“People have filters – often they don’t listen unless you are saying something that matches their world view,” Beaty says. The obvious inference being that working for DLB Associates can change your world view. This applies both externally and internally. It involves discovering barriers and removing them, accepting most people have very small comfort zones and want to remain in them or will over delegate to avoid “pushing the envelope”.

At the New Jersey HQ each entrance to a DLB workgroup (each contains ten to 12 people and there are ten of them in the New Jersey headquarters) you are met with an interactive touchscreen that offers details on the occupants. The touchscreen reveals their personality profiling details such as their top five strengths.

Beaty describes how new engineering graduates starting work at DLB are first assigned projects. “If you are an electrical engineer then you are assigned a mechanical engineering problem and vice versa,” he says.

The idea is to push these newly qualified staff into seeing another perspective. Projects are earned and performance rewarded. This is reinforced by a constant feedback loop across the organization. As with the contractors, all staff are required to share their experiences and thoughts with colleagues on every aspect of their profession. This breeds confidence. And that is a much stronger force than arrogance.

Founding principles
It is easy to forget sometimes just how young a company Google actually is. That it relied on established design engineering expertise to help build out its data center infrastructure should not be a surprise.

“When we started at Google it had never built a data center or delivered a major construction project,” Beaty says.

Whether it is Google or DLB Associates, all companies reflect the personalities of their founders. On the visit to DLB’s Jersey HQ it is obvious that DLB Associates is built on hard work, expertise, efficiency, maximum productivity and accuracy.

Outside DLB Associates Don Beaty enjoys the recognition as an icon of the data center industry. He is best known for cofounding and being the first chair of the ASHRAE Technical Committee TC 9.9 (Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment). TC 9.9 was the first body that brought industry consensus to higher allowable server inlet temperatures to promote more energy efficient operation of data centers. It has published ten books in the past ten years on a wide variety of data center design and operations. DLB staff have contributed to all ten.

Beaty also likes to challenge orthodoxy. Those who have heard him speak at industry conferences know that his opinions are knowledge and  evidence based and like all good engineers he holds very strong opinions.

He likes to lead but also empowers his team while encouraging debate; but won’t suffer fools.The approach to processes is one of constant refinement. The premise is that being more productive per hour should also be synchronous with producing a higher quality of work product.

This article appeared in FOCUS magazine. Read the digital edition or download the iPAD version.