Data Centre benchmarking

Linesight’s NextGen Benchmarking platform helps hyperscale and colocation providers compare construction cost per MW across projects, markets and regions to validate budgets and support investment decisions.

As a global leader in advising on complex data centre construction projects, Linesight has worked closely with leaders in hyperscale and colocation providers to develop an effective and reliable benchmarking platform.

NextGen Benchmarking is a performance measurement platform that helps teams make smarter, data-backed decisions. By comparing key performance indicators across projects, service lines and regions, it gives leaders a clearer view of what is performing well, where issues may be emerging and where greater consistency is needed.

Why benchmarking matters for data centres

Improve cost certainty and budget validation

Provides an objective view of how project costs compare across multiple projects, enabling stakeholders to validate budgets, challenge assumptions and improve investment decisions before construction begins.

Optimise capital deployment

Access to comparable project data enables informed decisions on design, procurement and delivery strategies, helping to reduce unnecessary expenditure while maintaining programme, quality and performance requirements.

Reduce delivery risk

Provides stakeholders with greater visibility of potential risks for cost and programme.

Core features of Linesight’s NextGen data centre benchmarking

Built in partnership with leading hyperscale and colocation providers worldwide, the programme draws on one of the industry's most comprehensive anonymised datasets. This breadth of market intelligence enables participants to compare projects against a diverse range of regional and global benchmarks while maintaining strict confidentiality and data governance standards. 

The dataset captures location, capacity, procurement route and delivery metrics alongside detailed cost breakdowns across ten core cost sections. Data is standardised through an agreed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), enabling like-for-like comparisons across complex projects and providing a consistent view of cost performance by asset type, scale and geography. 

Participants access insights through a secure Power BI dashboard, enabling visual comparisons of proposed project costs against relevant benchmarks, including cost per MW across lower quartile, upper quartile, median and average ranges. 

The platform supports analysis at portfolio, project and cost element level, helping teams identify cost variances, understand performance drivers and improve forecasting accuracy. 

What are the key benefits?

  • Assess project cost per MW ($/MW) against a global benchmark dataset to identify cost positioning, understand variance from market norms and support more informed investment decisions.

  • Executive confidence: Arm senior stakeholders with transparent, defensible evidence to support CAPEX allocations.

  • Risk mitigation: Identify outliers and cost/schedule drivers early to prevent overruns.