Separate a forecast from your facility
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that U.S. data centers used about 176 TWh in 2023, around 4.4% of national electricity. Its 2025 update presents a scenario in which the share could reach 11.8% by 2030, with a range of 9.5% to 15.3%. These are national estimates, not a forecast for an individual building. A purchasing team should start with metered power, rack capacity, cooling headroom and the actual workload profile at its own site.
Compare useful work per constrained resource
For servers, record measured throughput and latency at the intended model size, typical and peak power draw, accelerator utilization, memory capacity and serviceability. For storage, compare usable capacity after protection overhead, sustained bandwidth, latency, endurance, recovery time and expansion limits. An inexpensive unit can be costly if it forces additional racks, cooling or downtime. Evaluate complete configurations under the same workload rather than comparing isolated component specifications.
Design the expansion path before purchase
List available electrical feeds, power distribution, network ports, floor space, cooling and lead times. Test at least a normal-demand and a high-growth scenario; document which assumptions would trigger another purchase or a site upgrade. Include monitoring and a retirement plan so power and capacity figures can be checked against actual operation. The global or national reports explain why the constraint matters; local measurements decide which architecture is suitable.