Title: What Does a Data Center Look Like? Outside and Inside | FOUND Description: What does a data center look like? The buildings, substation, generator yard, cooling equipment, and fences outside, and the halls and racks inside. Canonical: https://lotsfound.com/insights/what-does-a-data-center-look-like/ # What does a data center look like? From the road, a modern data center looks like a large warehouse or distribution center with a substation, rows of generators, cooling equipment, and a security fence around it. Inside, it is long halls of server racks in rows, with separate rooms for power and network equipment. [See if your land fits](/who-we-serve/landowners/) In this article 1. [What a data center looks like from the road](#what-a-data-center-looks-like-from-the-road) 2. [What sits outside the building](#what-sits-outside-the-building) 3. [What the inside looks like](#what-the-inside-looks-like) 4. [Why size and look vary by type](#why-size-and-look-vary-by-type) 5. [What the layout means for land](#what-the-layout-means-for-land) 6. [What the public record shows](#what-the-public-record-shows) 7. [Key recap](#key-recap) 8. [Questions](#questions) 9. [References](#references) > **Quick summary:** This guide describes a data center in words, outside and then inside. It is for residents, landowners, and local officials who want to picture a proposal before a hearing. The key point: the building is only part of the site. The substation, generator yard, cooling equipment, fence, and buffers take land too. ## What a data center looks like from the road A modern data center looks like a large industrial building, close in size and shape to a warehouse or a distribution center. Virginia's [legislative audit commission](https://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt598.pdf) describes the buildings this way. It reports sizes from a few thousand square feet to multi-story buildings of more than one million square feet. Many sit on campuses beside other data centers run by the same company. The look has changed. The same Virginia study notes that about ten years earlier, data centers were much smaller and similar in size and appearance to office buildings. A small facility can still sit inside an office building or a corporate campus. ## What sits outside the building Outside the building, a data center site holds the equipment that feeds it power, keeps it running in an outage, and carries its heat away. The Virginia study lists each of these as part of a typical site. ### The substation and power lines A large site often has one or more electrical substations on or next to it. Some sites also need overhead transmission lines that run in from the nearest main line. ### The generator yard Backup generators line up beside the building or sit in large generator sheds. The Virginia study counts a median of 35 trailer-sized generators per site. Large campuses hold far more. A [2026 North Carolina air permit](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCDEQ/bulletins/427509e) allows one campus to operate 588 emergency backup engines. [Data center generators: backup power and air permits](/insights/data-center-generators/) explains what those permits cover. ### Cooling equipment Chillers, cooling towers, or dry coolers sit on the roof or in a yard beside the building. The [Department of Energy's design guide](https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/best-practice-guide-data-center-design.pdf) describes rooftop units with air-cooled condensers, outdoor dry coolers, and cooling towers as common options. Which ones you see depends on the design. [Data center cooling systems and what they ask of a site](/insights/data-center-cooling-systems/) compares them. ### Fences, gates, and lights Most sites have a security fence, a guarded gate, and bright security lighting. The Virginia study names floodlights, fencing, and access controls as common physical security. The sites also have security staff. ### Buffers and screening Local rules set how much of this a neighbor sees. North Carolina counties write their own standards. One county's [development ordinance](https://www.randolphcountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1786/The-Unified-Development-Ordinance-PDF?bidId=) requires a planted buffer around the property lines for a data processing facility. It also requires a site plan that shows perimeter security and lighting, and it limits on-site generators to grid outages and routine testing. Virginia localities have added building setbacks, facade design standards, and screens around outdoor mechanical equipment. > **The short version:** A data center site is a building plus a utility yard. The substation, generators, cooling equipment, fence, and buffers can take as much planning as the building itself. ## What the inside looks like Inside, a data center is mostly large rooms of computer equipment in racks, arranged in long rows. The [International Energy Agency](https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/de9dea13-b07d-42c5-a398-d1b3ae17d866/EnergyandAI.pdf) defines the facility by that equipment: servers, storage systems, and networking equipment, typically installed in racks and organized into rows. ### Data halls, racks, and aisles The rows face each other in pairs. In a hot aisle and cold aisle layout, the fronts of two rows face a cold aisle that supplies cool air, and the backs face a hot aisle that collects exhaust, as the Department of Energy guide shows. Many halls close off the aisles with doors, panels, or plastic curtains to keep hot and cold air apart. Some halls sit on a raised floor. The guide calls for at least 24 inches of clear height under a raised floor where one is used. ### Cooling inside the hall Air-handling units stand along the edges of the hall or in rooms beside it. A [federal energy program schematic](https://www.energy.gov/cmei/femp/cooling-water-efficiency-opportunities-federal-data-centers) shows the computer room air-conditioning system pulling heat from the racks into a chilled water loop. Newer halls for dense equipment may bring liquid to the rack itself. That can be a cooling door on the back of a rack, cold plates on the chips, or tanks that submerge the servers in fluid. ### Power rooms Separate rooms hold the electrical equipment between the utility and the racks. The Department of Energy guide names uninterruptible power supply rooms, battery rooms, and switchgear rooms, and notes that people rarely occupy them. Power distribution units then carry power to the rows. ### Network rooms and offices Network switches and routers connect the servers to each other and to the outside world. The International Energy Agency lists switches, routers, and load balancers as the networking equipment in a data center. The building also holds lighting and office space for on-site staff, as the agency notes. ## Why size and look vary by type A data center's size and look depend on who uses it. The [national laboratory report](https://escholarship.org/content/qt32d6m0d1/qt32d6m0d1.pdf) for the Department of Energy describes facilities that range from small setups in closets to massive warehouses with thousands of servers. A network closet in an office building counts as a small data center. A hyperscale campus counts as a large one. The Virginia study separates these cases. Enterprise data centers often sit inside a corporate campus or a larger office building. Colocation and hyperscale facilities are often grouped on campuses. [Types of data centers and the land each one needs](/insights/types-of-data-centers/) matches each type to its site. > **Take action:** If you own a large tract and want to know whether a building, substation, and equipment yard could fit on it, the record gives a first answer. Start with [Is your land a data-center site?](/who-we-serve/landowners/) ## What the layout means for land The layout means a data center needs far more land than its building covers. The substation, generator yard, cooling yard, parking, roads, and buffers all sit outside the walls. A campus also holds land for future buildings. [Data center campus: what it is and what it needs from land](/insights/data-center-campus/) covers that footprint. The outdoor equipment also sets the distance from homes. Generators run during tests. Cooling runs around the clock, because the servers do. That is why buffers and setbacks appear in local ordinances, and why distance to the nearest house matters as much as acreage. ## What the public record shows The public record shows what a proposal will look like before it is built. Site plans in a rezoning or special use application show the buildings, yards, fences, and buffers. Air permits list the generators. Utility filings may show a new substation. The record rarely shows the interior design. How the inside works is covered in [How does a data center work?](/insights/how-does-a-data-center-work/), and the wider objections are checked in [Are data centers bad? The objections, checked against the record](/insights/data-center-misconceptions/). ## Key recap - From the road, a modern data center looks like a large warehouse or distribution center, often one of several on a campus. - Outside, the site holds a substation, a generator yard, cooling equipment, a security fence, lights, and buffers. - Inside, servers sit in racks in long rows, with cold aisles and hot aisles, plus separate rooms for power and network equipment. - Facilities range from a closet in an office building to multi-story buildings of more than one million square feet. - Local ordinances set buffers, screening, and lighting, so the site needs land well beyond the building. ## Questions ### How big is a data center building? It ranges widely. Virginia's legislative audit commission reports buildings from a few thousand square feet to multi-story buildings of more than one million square feet. Large campuses hold several buildings. ### Why does a data center have so many generators? The generators keep the servers running if the grid fails. Each one carries part of the load, so a large building needs many of them. A state air permit sets how they may run. ### Can the public see inside a data center? Usually not. Operators control access with fences, gates, and security staff. The public sees the exterior through site plans, permits, and hearings. ## References Primary sources cited on this page, in APA style. - International Energy Agency. (2025, April 10). *Energy and AI*. [https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/de9dea13-b07d-42c5-a398-d1b3ae17d866/EnergyandAI.pdf](https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/de9dea13-b07d-42c5-a398-d1b3ae17d866/EnergyandAI.pdf) - Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. (2024, December 9). *Data centers in Virginia* (Report 598). Commonwealth of Virginia. [https://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt598.pdf](https://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt598.pdf) - North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. (2026, August 28). *NCDEQ's Division of Air Quality requires additional monitoring, testing in final air quality permits for Amazon data center and Duke Energy projects* [Press release]. [https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCDEQ/bulletins/427509e](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCDEQ/bulletins/427509e) - Randolph County. (2026). *The Randolph County unified development ordinance*. [https://www.randolphcountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1786/The-Unified-Development-Ordinance-PDF?bidId=](https://www.randolphcountync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1786/The-Unified-Development-Ordinance-PDF?bidId=) - Shehabi, A., Smith, S. J., Hubbard, A., Newkirk, A., Lei, N., Siddik, M. A. B., Holecek, B., Koomey, J., Masanet, E., & Sartor, D. (2024, December). *2024 United States data center energy usage report* (LBNL-2001637). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. [https://doi.org/10.71468/P1WC7Q](https://doi.org/10.71468/P1WC7Q) - U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Energy Management Program. (2019, January 9). *Cooling water efficiency opportunities for federal data centers*. [https://www.energy.gov/cmei/femp/cooling-water-efficiency-opportunities-federal-data-centers](https://www.energy.gov/cmei/femp/cooling-water-efficiency-opportunities-federal-data-centers) - Van Geet, O., & Sickinger, D. (2024, July). *Best practices guide for energy-efficient data center design* (DOE/GO-102024-6283). U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Energy Management Program. [https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/best-practice-guide-data-center-design.pdf](https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/best-practice-guide-data-center-design.pdf) ## Data-center fundamentals - [What is a data center?](/insights/what-is-a-data-center/) - [What is a hyperscale data center?](/insights/what-is-a-hyperscale-data-center/) - [Types of data centers and the land each one needs](/insights/types-of-data-centers/) - [What is a colocation data center?](/insights/colocation-data-center/) - [What is an edge data center?](/insights/edge-data-center/) - [What is an AI data center?](/insights/ai-data-center/) - [Data center campus: what it is and what it needs from land](/insights/data-center-campus/) - [Data center vs warehouse: how the site needs differ](/insights/data-center-vs-warehouse/) - [What is PUE (power usage effectiveness)?](/insights/what-is-pue/) - [What are data centers used for?](/insights/what-are-data-centers-used-for/) - [Why do we need data centers?](/insights/why-do-we-need-data-centers/) - [When was the first data center built? A short history](/insights/history-of-data-centers/) - [How does a data center work?](/insights/how-does-a-data-center-work/) - [Who owns data centers?](/insights/who-owns-data-centers/) - [Data center vs. cloud: on-premises, colocation, and cloud compared](/insights/data-center-vs-cloud/) Send the requirements. We reply with how we would run the search. [See if your land fits](/who-we-serve/landowners/) ## Tell us what the project needs Load, acreage, counties, and timeline. We reply with how we would run the search and where we would start. [Start a site search](/contact/) [Try the calculators](/tools/) Transactions are handled through a licensed North Carolina real estate brokerage.