Mission-critical infrastructure consulting

Grid to rack.
Chip to utility.

N+1 helps owners, developers and operators of mission-critical facilities and AI infrastructure connect workload requirements, equipment choices and facility constraints to make informed technical and commercial decisions.

Contact N+1

One server or a whole campus

We scope any technology around the business outcomes you want.

  1. A single server
  2. Cloud capacity
  3. Racks in colocation
  4. A whole campus
  • Neo-Cloud and AI Infrastructure
  • Data Centers and Colocation
  • Financial Services and Quantitative Computing
  • Research and Public Sector
  • Healthcare
  • Media and Gaming
  • Semiconductor and Advanced Manufacturing
  • Logistics, Telecom, Utilities and Mining

Pick a stop to see what we do there, or take the tour.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 Rack close-up Server and chip close-up UTILITY GRID SUBSTATION DISTRIBUTION AND GENERATION LOW VOLTAGE AND UPS DATA HALL AND COOLING Carrier fiber (underground) Fiber entrance Meet-me room

Services by system

Start

From the utility grid to the chip

Power comes in from the transmission system on the left and ends at the servers on the right. The blue line is the network, from the fiber entrance to the servers.

Services here

  • Click a numbered stop, use the arrow keys, or press Take the tour.

Across the site

Procurement and vendor management
  • OEM, integrator and bid review: scope, compatibility, price, lead time, warranty and support; RFP and RFQ support
  • Substitution and design-change review: quantity, cabling, power, cooling, warranty and schedule consequences; pricing benchmarks
  • Equipment sourcing through established channels, including long-lead power and mechanical packages
  • Vendor and supplier management: selection, contracts, delivery schedules, warranty and support performance
  • Total cost of ownership, refresh and phased-expansion economics
  • Project scope, cost and schedule: technical dependencies, responsibilities and coordination across equipment and construction packages
  • Contract interface: supply, acceptance, warranty and support responsibilities across equipment and service packages
Operations, reliability and expansion
  • Operating procedures, staffing, spares and support review before handoff; ongoing operations
  • Resilience requirements: availability targets, acceptable failure conditions, redundancy and maintainability planning
  • Failure investigation and root-cause review; single points of failure and maintainability against availability requirements; maintenance, corrective-action and capital priorities
  • Vendor and service-contract management in operation; outage and emergency-response planning with operating teams
  • Refresh and phased expansion against capacity and reliability needs
  • Maintenance and asset management: maintenance plans, asset records and scheduled tasks against operating requirements
  • Facility continuity and recovery planning: dependencies across operating teams, facilities, communications and IT systems
  • System records and configuration: record accuracy, configuration changes and handover information supporting safe operation
  • Decommissioning and equipment recovery planning: isolation, data handling, equipment removal and site disposition
Contact N+1

Across the lifecycle

Showing: All stops

See every service by system

Services by system

01 Utility grid

Power arrives from the transmission system.

  • Site selection and technical diligence: power availability, utility studies, interconnection, carrier access, land, zoning and development considerations; greenfield, retrofit, modular and edge options
  • Utility interconnection, substations and high-voltage transmission up to 500 kV: planning, design, engineering, installation and coordination
  • Transmission-line design, engineering and installation
  • Zoning, entitlement and permitting: technical requirements, approval dependencies, schedule considerations and coordination through the approval process
  • Community and stakeholder engagement: local outreach, public-input coordination and schedule alignment during site selection and design
  • Environmental hazard review: flood, heat, wind, wildfire and seismic exposure against site and facility requirements
  • Structural, civil and geotechnical: foundation, loading, vibration and ground conditions against facility and equipment requirements

02 Substation

The substation steps the voltage down for the site.

  • Transmission up to 500 kV, substations, and medium- and low-voltage distribution; transformers, switchgear, generators, transfer switches, UPS and battery systems, distribution boards, busway and rack power
  • Arc-flash, coordination and grounding studies; power quality
  • NETA acceptance and maintenance testing programs; findings review, corrective actions, outage and cutover planning
  • Resilience requirements: availability targets, acceptable failure conditions, redundancy and maintainability planning

03 Medium-voltage distribution and generation

Medium-voltage switchgear distributes power across the site. Generators and energy storage provide backup power.

  • Medium- and low-voltage distribution: transformers, switchgear, generators and transfer switches
  • Bridge generation and energy storage
  • Load, protection, selectivity and redundancy review
  • Fuel system and supply: storage capacity, supply arrangements and replenishment requirements for backup generation

04 Low voltage, UPS and busway

Low-voltage distribution feeds the racks. UPS systems carry the load through supply interruptions.

  • Medium- and low-voltage distribution: transformers, switchgear, generators and transfer switches, UPS and batteries, distribution boards, busway and rack power; protection, selectivity and redundancy against actual loads
  • Electrical power monitoring and SCADA systems
  • Acceptance criteria and integrated systems test planning
  • Controls, monitoring and alarm systems: building management, electrical power monitoring and SCADA requirements, interfaces and alarm coordination

05 Fiber and communications entrance

Carriers enter the site here; campus fiber and structured cabling run from this room to the halls.

  • Site selection and technical diligence: power availability, utility studies, interconnection, carrier access, land, zoning and development considerations; greenfield, retrofit, modular and edge options
  • Ethernet, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel networking: topology, port counts, optics and cabling against capacity, resilience and support requirements
  • External connectivity: carrier access, fiber routes, entrance infrastructure, service requirements and resilience planning
  • Voice, radio and emergency communications: paging, two-way radio and mass notification system design and coordination against operating requirements

06 Data hall and cooling

The racks sit here. Air or liquid cooling removes the heat.

  • MEP design and engineering; rack and white-space planning
  • Air and direct-to-chip liquid cooling options against rack density, operating needs and facility constraints
  • Integration of new systems into new or existing facilities
  • Water supply, storage and treatment: availability, supply constraints, capacity and quality against cooling and process requirements
  • Wastewater, discharge and stormwater: discharge requirements, treatment interfaces and drainage risks to critical systems
  • Fire and life safety: detection, suppression, evacuation and emergency access requirements within facility design
  • Process utility and controlled environment: utility requirements, contamination control and facility interfaces
  • Environmental impact and resource efficiency review: noise, emissions, energy and water requirements against facility constraints

07 Rack and network

The network connects servers to one another and to storage.

  • Data center, enterprise, AI cluster and HPC architecture
  • Ethernet, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel networking
  • File, block, object and parallel storage
  • IT cybersecurity: security requirements and incident response planning across compute, network and storage systems

08 Server and chip

Processors and accelerators run workloads within the server's power, cooling, memory and connectivity limits.

  • Workload and reference-architecture review
  • Platform selection across x86 and ARM CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, FPGAs and ASIC-based accelerators: workload fit, memory, I/O, interconnect, software and licensing
  • Software and platform dependencies

Across the site: Procurement and vendor management

  • OEM, integrator and bid review: scope, compatibility, price, lead time, warranty and support; RFP and RFQ support
  • Substitution and design-change review: quantity, cabling, power, cooling, warranty and schedule consequences; pricing benchmarks
  • Equipment sourcing through established channels, including long-lead power and mechanical packages
  • Vendor and supplier management: selection, contracts, delivery schedules, warranty and support performance
  • Total cost of ownership, refresh and phased-expansion economics
  • Project scope, cost and schedule: technical dependencies, responsibilities and coordination across equipment and construction packages
  • Contract interface: supply, acceptance, warranty and support responsibilities across equipment and service packages

Across the site: Operations, reliability and expansion

  • Operating procedures, staffing, spares and support review before handoff; ongoing operations
  • Resilience requirements: availability targets, acceptable failure conditions, redundancy and maintainability planning
  • Failure investigation and root-cause review; single points of failure and maintainability against availability requirements; maintenance, corrective-action and capital priorities
  • Vendor and service-contract management in operation; outage and emergency-response planning with operating teams
  • Refresh and phased expansion against capacity and reliability needs
  • Maintenance and asset management: maintenance plans, asset records and scheduled tasks against operating requirements
  • Facility continuity and recovery planning: dependencies across operating teams, facilities, communications and IT systems
  • System records and configuration: record accuracy, configuration changes and handover information supporting safe operation
  • Decommissioning and equipment recovery planning: isolation, data handling, equipment removal and site disposition

Services

1. Compute, network, storage and platform

  • Data center, enterprise, AI cluster and HPC architecture: vendor reference-architecture fit, server and rack configuration, and rack density against power and space.
  • Platform selection across x86 and ARM CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, FPGAs and ASIC-based accelerators: workload fit, memory, I/O, interconnect, software and licensing.
  • Ethernet, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel networking: topology, port counts, optics and cabling against capacity, resilience and support requirements.
  • File, block, object and parallel storage: capacity, performance, data protection, backup and disaster recovery.
  • Software and platform dependencies: virtualization, containers and orchestration, cloud and as-a-service models, licensing and security requirements.
  • IT cybersecurity: security requirements and incident response planning across compute, network and storage systems.

2. Site, utilities and development

  • Site selection and technical diligence: power availability, utility studies, interconnection, carrier access, land, zoning and development considerations; greenfield, retrofit, modular and edge options.
  • Zoning, entitlement and permitting: technical requirements, approval dependencies, schedule considerations and coordination through the approval process.
  • Community and stakeholder engagement: local outreach, public-input coordination and schedule alignment during site selection and design.
  • External connectivity: carrier access, fiber routes, entrance infrastructure, service requirements and resilience planning.
  • Water supply, storage and treatment: availability, supply constraints, capacity and quality against cooling and process requirements.
  • Wastewater, discharge and stormwater: discharge requirements, treatment interfaces and drainage risks to critical systems.
  • Structural, civil and geotechnical: foundation, loading, vibration and ground conditions against facility and equipment requirements.
  • Environmental hazard review: flood, heat, wind, wildfire and seismic exposure against site and facility requirements.
  • Environmental impact and resource efficiency review: noise, emissions, energy and water requirements against facility constraints.

3. Electrical infrastructure (grid to rack)

  • Utility interconnection, substations and high-voltage transmission up to 500 kV: planning, design, engineering, installation and coordination.
  • Medium- and low-voltage distribution: transformers, switchgear, generators and transfer switches, UPS and batteries, distribution boards, busway and rack power; protection, selectivity and redundancy against actual loads.
  • Arc-flash, coordination and grounding studies; power quality; bridge generation and energy storage.
  • NETA acceptance and maintenance testing programs; findings review, corrective actions, outage and cutover planning.
  • Fuel system and supply: storage capacity, supply arrangements and replenishment requirements for backup generation.

4. Cooling and facility design

  • Air and direct-to-chip liquid cooling options against rack density, operating needs and facility constraints; chilled-water, fan-wall and coolant distribution interfaces.
  • MEP design and engineering; rack and white-space planning; mechanical, electrical and IT interface and constructability review.
  • Fire and life safety: detection, suppression, evacuation and emergency access requirements within facility design.
  • Functional and process safety: safe-shutdown design for hazardous processes during equipment or controls failures.
  • Process utility and controlled environment: utility requirements, contamination control and facility interfaces.

5. Controls, security and commissioning

  • Controls, monitoring and alarm systems: building management, electrical power monitoring and SCADA requirements, interfaces and alarm coordination.
  • Voice, radio and emergency communications: paging, two-way radio and mass notification system design and coordination against operating requirements.
  • Physical security: perimeter protection, access control and surveillance design against site and operating requirements.
  • Operational technology security: control system access, network separation and monitoring requirements across facility systems.
  • Commissioning readiness, acceptance criteria and integrated systems test planning; SOP, MOP and EOP review.

6. Procurement and vendor management

  • OEM, integrator and bid review: scope, compatibility, price, lead time, warranty and support; RFP and RFQ support.
  • Substitution and design-change review: quantity, cabling, power, cooling, warranty and schedule consequences; pricing benchmarks.
  • Equipment sourcing through established channels, including long-lead power and mechanical packages.
  • Vendor and supplier management: selection, contracts, delivery schedules, warranty and support performance.
  • Total cost of ownership, refresh and phased-expansion economics.
  • Project scope, cost and schedule: technical dependencies, responsibilities and coordination across equipment and construction packages.
  • Contract interface: supply, acceptance, warranty and support responsibilities across equipment and service packages.

7. Deployment and integration

  • Deployment and integration of new compute, network, storage and electrical systems into new or existing facilities and systems.
  • Readiness across power, cooling, space, cabling, existing IT and monitoring connections.
  • Cutover, migration and handoff planning around production, uptime, safety and change-control requirements.
  • Construction logistics: delivery access, staging and temporary utility requirements for installation and cutover coordination.
  • Responsibility and interface planning: who supplies, installs, tests, operates and accepts each package.

8. Operations, reliability and expansion

  • Operating procedures, staffing, spares and support review before handoff; ongoing operations.
  • Resilience requirements: availability targets, acceptable failure conditions, redundancy and maintainability planning.
  • Failure investigation and root-cause review; single points of failure and maintainability against availability requirements; maintenance, corrective-action and capital priorities.
  • Vendor and service-contract management in operation; outage and emergency-response planning with operating teams.
  • Refresh and phased expansion against capacity and reliability needs.
  • Maintenance and asset management: maintenance plans, asset records and scheduled tasks against operating requirements.
  • Facility continuity and recovery planning: dependencies across operating teams, facilities, communications and IT systems.
  • System records and configuration: record accuracy, configuration changes and handover information supporting safe operation.
  • Decommissioning and equipment recovery planning: isolation, data handling, equipment removal and site disposition.

Contact N+1

We facilitate, coordinate or execute services directly or through established channels. We review and recommend. You decide.

Engagements include focused project reviews, ongoing advisory and owner's-side technical support. Tell us what you are building and where it is stuck, and we can discuss what fits.

We only use this to reply to you.

Or email directly:

contact at nplus1advisory dot com

Scottsdale, Arizona

Capability statement (PDF)