Modern enterprises know that data centers are essential to their business—which is why many choose to operate and maintain this critical infrastructure on their own. What these organizations may not realize is just how many hidden costs lurk inside in-house data centers, quietly eroding budgets, adding operational risk and pulling IT teams away from strategic, revenue-driving initiatives.
Today, organizations in high-growth markets are missing out on valuable expansion opportunities because their teams are stretched thin, struggling to keep operations moving in internal environments that have become too resource-intensive, unpredictable and outdated to support modern workloads.
Then, they choose to partner with a purpose-built, client-driven, demand-informed data center provider rather than scale alone, and the results are immediate: minimized downtime, easier scalability and rapid traction on growth and revenue goals that had previously been at a standstill.
The experts at ValorC3 Data Centers have seen this scenario play out countless times, and we’ve compiled a list of the most common productivity and revenue roadblocks to help you take a closer look at how your internally-managed infrastructure could be helping—or hurting—your business growth.
Power + Cooling: The Budget Busters Nobody Talks About
Power and cooling are the highest operational costs in any data center…and the least predictable.
According to a 2025 analysis by the Pew Research Center, most of the electricity consumed by data centers is used to power servers (60% on average, according to the International Energy Agency). Cooling is the second-largest energy consumer, reaching over 30% at less efficient enterprise facilities.
And, with fluctuating energy rates, rising demand charges and aging cooling systems that aren’t built to handle today’s heat-intensive workloads, power and cooling can easily cause budgets to balloon. Maintaining your own N+1 or N+2 redundancy only amplifies these costs.
The Valor Advantage:
Our facilities are engineered for efficiency, predictability and redundancy. Clients don’t get hit with surprise spikes—just stable, reliable, 24/7/365 availability built into a single, transparent cost model.
Never-Ending Maintenance + Refresh Cycles
Generator maintenance, UPS battery refresh cycles, fire suppression recertifications, HVAC rebuilds, audit preparations, facility lifecycle updates—data centers require constant, costly upkeep to ensure they’re healthy, reliable and able to scale alongside your business operations.
As your facility ages and workloads grow in density, the more frequent and costly this upkeep becomes. Servers, storage and networking gear age out fast. Warranties expire. Cooling and power systems can no longer operate at the level you need them to.
Unless you have dedicated, fully-staffed IT maintenance, management and upgrade teams, it can be near-impossible to scale, plan and budget your infrastructure cycles accordingly, and what looks like a straightforward CAPEX plan to keep all costs in-house can quickly become a recurring financial shock.
The Valor Advantage:
Valor helps enterprises exit legacy environments with minimal disruption, maximum uptime, and a “your success is our success” mindset. We’ve spent our careers building, maintaining and scaling infrastructure that growing enterprises can rely on. Our team ensures all systems are tested, maintained and ready at every moment, providing predictable refresh cycles and eliminating the stress of powering, cooling or accommodating new gear in an aging facility.
The True Cost of Staffing a 24/7 Operation
Many enterprises underestimate the headcount and training costs required to operate an internal data center—especially when the expectation is “always on”.
Data centers require round-the-clock coverage, trained electrical and mechanical support, security and compliance specialists, on-call response teams and more to ensure mission-critical data remains available, compliant and protected. And every hour your team spends just trying to keep your facility up and running is an hour they aren’t spending on modernization, AI readiness, digital transformation or business expansion.
The Valor Advantage:
Valor exists to give your team that time back. With facilities built for 24/7/365 availability and engineered to boost your success, we operate as an immediate extension of your organization, taking on the staffing and maintenance so your team can stay focused on innovation and alignment, not alarms and after-hours issues.
The Ongoing Tax of Security, Compliance and Risk Mitigation
The resiliency of your business is dependent on the resiliency of your data infrastructure. Without proper physical security measures (badging, cameras, visitor controls, etc.), compliance standards (SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA, PCI, etc.) and future-ready disaster recovery plans in place, your operations and revenue could be at risk.
A single outage, whether from power, cooling, hardware or human error, could cost your organization hundreds of thousands in lost productivity, revenue impact and emergency repair labor—not to mention harm your business reputation and customer trust.
The Valor Advantage:
At Valor, security and compliance are foundational, not add-ons. Our fully-managed infrastructure, physical and environmental monitoring controls and operational rigor dramatically reduce outage risk—reflected by our 99%+ post-project satisfaction rate.
Scaling Internally Is More Expensive Than It Seems
Even small expansions require major upgrades. And when your business is growing, you should be focused on how you can best maximize customer reach and revenue—not how to add more circuit capacity, cooling, server racks or room build-outs.
The Valor Advantage:
With Valor, clients can scale quickly and predictably to meet changing demand—without disruptive construction, long lead times or surprise capital expenses.
Your Data Should Be Accessible, Available and Always On—Without Hidden Costs
Valor’s mission is simple: to deliver client-driven, resilient, highly accessible data environments that eliminate the unpredictable burdens of running a data center alone.
If your internal facility is consuming more time, budget and energy than it should, it’s time to think outside the box. Reach out today to set up a consultation with one of our experts and see how colocating with Valor can do more for your business.