By Haydn Palliser | December 10, 2025
Course Overview
This video is an overview of our online Quick Look into Data Center Mini Course.
In this 5-video mini-course , you’ll learn some terminology, get a quick look at how retail and wholesale data center facilities earn revenue, the major cost drivers that shape their performance, and how they fit within the real estate / infrastructure spectrum. It’s a great starting point if you’re curious about one of today’s most dynamic asset classes.
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Video Transcript
Haydn: If you’re watching this video, chances are you have some device which you use to upload files to the “cloud” via services like Dropbox, One Drive, or Google Drive. But have you ever wondered where is “the cloud” exactly? Is it floating in the sky, inside your social media accounts, or maybe in some kind of virtual reality?
Dylan Not quite. What if I told you that the cloud is very real? It lives inside data centers. A data center is a big warehouse style building packed with server racks, storage systems, and networking equipment. These facilities are the backbone of our digital world. They power your Instagram posts, TikTok videos, and online banking. Every photo you share and website you visit passes through them.
Dylan: Up until 2010, most organizations kept servers inside their corporate offices. But as data exploded, these rooms became too big and too complex to manage. Centralized data centers let companies focus on core business while experts handle their data storage and processing.
Haydn: Exactly. Some data centers are massive hypers scale sites owned by tech giants like Google, Microsoft or Meta. Others are much smaller and located closer to the users for faster performance. These are called edge data centers.
Dylan: And then there’s artificial intelligence. Every AI query on platforms such as chat GPT, Grock or Perplexity requires roughly 10 times the processing power of a typical Google search. That growing demand is handled inside data centers, but it comes with a cost.
Haydn: Power, a lot of power. Some planned facilities could draw up to 5 gawatt, enough for more than 1.5 million homes or nearly half of New York City’s total power capacity. High growth is expected in the years ahead, but you don’t have to own a data center to be a part of this growth.
Haydn: You could be an adviser, a lender, or someone else just interested. To be involved with investors though, you must understand how these projects are financed and modeled. That’s where Pivotal 180 comes in. Our courses break down core project finance concepts across infrastructure, renewable energy, and specialized sectors like battery storage and mining. Follow the link in the description to enroll in a Pivotal 180 course or reach out to salespivot 180.com if you have any questions. We’ll see you in our next course.
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