Data Center Cost refers to the cost of ownership in running a private data center or colocation facility — including the property, building, servers, networking equipment, power, cooling and other infrastructure needs.

While a number of details come into play when considering annual costs, the bulk of a provider’s data center cost depends on three things — the footprint of the building, the location of the facility, and the function of the center.

The average yearly cost to operate a large data center ranges from $10 million to $25 million. A little less than half is spent on hardware, software, disaster recovery, continuous power supplies and networking. Another large portion goes toward ongoing maintenance of applications and infrastructure. The rest is spent on heating, air conditioning, property and sales tax, and labor costs.

Partnering with a cloud data center or colocation provider can help companies manage their data center cost while providing scalability in a secure environment.