DPI-DC: Design, Procure, Install your Data Center — with no surprises
DPI-DC: Design, Procure, Install your Data Center — with no surprises
Three phases. One executive project that’s yours. Total transparency, or it’s not Noxtel.
Diagnostic → Bidding → PMO
The problem you already know
Your data center grew organically. Racks filled up, cabling became a nest, the power bill went up, and nobody really knows your actual PUE. Maybe you have equipment out of warranty, single points of failure you shouldn’t have, or hot zones shortening the life of your servers.
And if you need to expand, refresh, or build a new site, the pain list is long:
- You don’t have a reliable inventory of active equipment.
- Your network diagrams are 3 years old and nobody’s updated them.
- You get quoted solutions that don’t fit what you already have installed.
- Vendors sell what works for them, not what you need.
- Nobody hands you an executive project you can take to another integrator if you want to.
At Noxtel we saw this so many times we decided to do something different. We call it DPI-DC: an integrated consulting service in three phases — Diagnostic, Bidding, and Project Management — where the executive project is yours from day one.
This explicit separation of consulting from integration is rare in Latin America. Even rarer in the U.S. market, where integrators typically want to own the whole chain. Our bet: transparency as a business model.
The three phases of DPI-DC
Each phase can be contracted independently, but the real value is in the chain: the diagnostic feeds an informed bidding process, and the bidding feeds a well-managed project.
Phase 1 — Diagnostic: we know exactly where you stand
We don’t improvise. Before recommending anything, we go to your site, gather all the information, and deliver a complete executive project. This is not a “general assessment” — it’s engineering with hard data.
What we do
- On-site survey: we walk through your white space, UPS room, hot/cold aisles, electrical panels, cabling routes.
- Complete active equipment inventory: servers, storage, networking, UPS, PDUs, CRAHs/CRACs, monitoring systems, everything. With make, model, serial, warranty status, and firmware.
- Topology diagrams: network, power, and cooling in editable format (Visio, Draw.io, or what you use).
- Redundancy analysis: we identify single points of failure and compare your configuration against TIA-942 and Uptime Institute standards.
- Energy analysis: we calculate your actual PUE, profile consumption by area, and quantify savings potential.
- Airflow analysis: mapping of hot zones, bypass airflow, recirculation, and optimization recommendations.
Deliverables
- Executive report with findings, risks, and prioritized recommendations.
- Equipment inventory in Excel (filterable, sortable, ready for CMDB).
- Editable topology diagrams (network, power, cooling).
- Cost analysis: what you spend today vs. what you could spend with optimizations.
- Investment roadmap: what to do first, what later, with budget estimates.
- Achievable SLA with current configuration and recommended configuration.
Compliance and standards
All diagnostics are aligned with the standards your auditors and stakeholders expect:
- Uptime Institute — Tier I/II/III/IV classification and operational sustainability.
- TIA-942 — Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers.
- ASHRAE TC 9.9 — Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments.
- U.S. DOE DCEP — Data Center Energy Practitioner recommendations for PUE and energy efficiency.
- NIST 800-53 — For federal-adjacent and regulated workloads.
Two modes: choose what you need
BASIC DIAGNOSTIC
For when you need clarity fast
- Duration: 1 to 2 days on-site (U.S. and Mexico).
- Executive report, 15 to 20 pages.
- Equipment inventory in Excel.
- General topology diagrams.
- Basic redundancy analysis.
- PUE calculation and savings potential.
- Prioritized recommendations.
Ideal for: data centers that have never had a formal assessment, new teams that need current state, or investment decisions that require data fast.
This is our entry product. If you’ve never worked with Noxtel, start here.
ADVANCED DIAGNOSTIC
For when you need world-class engineering
- Duration: 2 to 4 weeks (depending on site size).
- Executive report + complete engineering project.
- CAD plans of the site (current and proposed layout).
- Thermal mapping with point-by-point sensors.
- CFD simulation (Computational Fluid Dynamics) of airflow.
- Complete single-line electrical diagrams.
- Detailed technical specifications for each system.
- Residual capacity analysis (how much more you can grow).
- Investment roadmap with phases and detailed budgets.
Ideal for: expansions, major refreshes, new builds, or when you need to present a project to a board or investment committee with the level of detail they expect.
Key: in both modes, the executive project is yours. Execute it with Noxtel, another integrator, or your own team. No lock-in, no hidden clauses.
Phase 2 — Bidding: competition works for you
With the diagnostic in hand, you know exactly what you need. Now you need to find who supplies it at the best price and conditions. But managing a data center bid is a job in itself: translating technical requirements, evaluating proposals, comparing apples to apples.
We do it for you.
What’s included
- Technical specifications document ready for RFQ/RFP — the vendors respond to the same requirements.
- Vendor shortlist based on your requirements (Vertiv, Schneider, Stulz, Eaton, and others).
- Proposal comparison matrix: apples-to-apples technical and commercial evaluation.
- Reference checks with each vendor’s existing customers.
- Negotiation support — we’re at the table with you.
- Contract review to flag SLAs, warranties, and penalties that don’t match what was offered.
Phase 3 — PMO: your project executed as it should be
The integrator was selected. Now comes the moment of truth: does the project actually happen on time, on budget, and to spec? Or does it suffer the typical scope creep, change orders, and quality issues?
DPI-DC’s third phase gives you independent PMO. We represent your interests, not the integrator’s.
What we do
- Project schedule with critical path and milestones.
- Weekly status reports with RAG indicators.
- Change order review — every scope change evaluated for cost, schedule, and risk impact.
- Quality audits at each milestone.
- Acceptance testing (commissioning) — performance verification before payment.
- Risk register maintained throughout the project.
- Stakeholder communication — board updates, internal team coordination, vendor escalation.
Why DPI-DC is different
Most integrators sell you the entire chain — diagnostic, design, equipment, install — as a single package. Convenient for them. Problematic for you: how do you know the diagnostic is honest if the same company profits from the recommendation?
DPI-DC separates them explicitly. The diagnostic is yours, with no commercial interest in the outcome. The bidding is transparent, with full visibility into vendor comparison. The PMO is independent, representing your interests.
It’s the model we wished existed when we were on the client side.
Uptime Sostenible
Every DPI-DC project incorporates our Uptime Sostenible methodology: maximum uptime with minimum environmental impact. That means:
- Energy efficiency as a first-class design constraint, not an afterthought.
- Right-sizing equipment to actual load — no oversized systems wasting capex and opex.
- Heat reuse opportunities where the workload allows it.
- Lifecycle analysis — not just first cost, but total cost of ownership over 10 years.
- Renewable energy integration planning where grid conditions allow it.
DPI-DC in the AI era: what changed
AI workloads changed data center design requirements. The four drivers are non-negotiable now:
1. Power density
GPU racks pull 30-50 kW per rack. Traditional data centers were designed for 5-10 kW per rack. Air cooling doesn’t cut it anymore — you need liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, or immersion. Your power distribution needs to evolve too.
2. Latency and sovereignty
Regulatory pressure is pushing workloads back on-prem or to regional clouds. Edge data centers are no longer optional — they’re required for latency-sensitive AI inference.
3. Total cost vs. inference cost
AI inference economics depend on utilization. A data center designed for AI workloads needs flexible capacity scaling — not the fixed-capacity model of traditional builds.
4. Shorter lifecycle
AI hardware generations refresh every 18-24 months. Your data center design needs to accommodate faster refresh cycles than the 7-10 year traditional cycle.
DPI-DC’s phased methodology naturally adapts to this: diagnostic identifies current state, bidding selects the right vendors for this generation, PMO ensures the next refresh happens cleanly.
Ready to start?
Tell us about your project — we design around your workloads, not a catalog.
