Glossary

Data Center Industry Glossary

Plain-language explanations of key data center industry terms for careers and hiring.

ハイパースケーラー Hyperscaler

Cloud/IT giants (AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc.) that build and operate their own ultra-large data centers — tens to hundreds of MW worldwide — driving DC construction/operations demand and high-class talent needs.

ファシリティマネージャー(FM) Facility Manager

The operations lead who keeps a data center's power, cooling and security running 24/7, meeting SLAs (e.g., 99.99% uptime) through maintenance, operations, vendor management and incident response.

特別高圧(特高)電力 Extra-High Voltage

Large-volume power supply at 2,000kW+ contract demand and 7,000V+ receiving voltage. Essential for MW-class DCs; substation design and safety supervision require a licensed chief electrical engineer.

コミッショニング(Cx) Commissioning

Staged testing/verification (L1–L5) before DC handover to confirm power, cooling and other systems perform as designed — including integrated system testing (IST) — ensuring a safe, outage-free go-live.

PUE(Power Usage Effectiveness) PUE

Power Usage Effectiveness — total DC power divided by IT equipment power. Closer to 1.0 is more efficient (typically 1.2–1.5); the global standard metric for energy efficiency and sustainability.

オーナーPM Owner's Project Manager

The project manager on the DC owner/operator side who directs designers, general contractors and vendors and governs quality, cost and schedule — the owner-side counterpart to the contractor's PM.

DCIM(Data Center Infrastructure Management) DCIM

Software/platform that monitors and optimizes power, cooling, racks, assets and capacity, giving visibility across facilities and IT to improve uptime and PUE.

メガワット(MW)クラス Megawatt class

The power-capacity unit for DC scale (1MW = 1,000kW). Recent hyperscale projects run tens to hundreds of MW; larger MW means greater demand for power and cooling specialists.

コロケーション(Colocation) Colocation

A service renting server space, power and connectivity in an operator's DC. Split into 'retail' (per-rack) and 'wholesale' (per-floor/MW, e.g., to hyperscalers).

エッジデータセンター Edge Data Center

Small DCs placed near users/devices. They support low-latency AI inference, IoT, 5G and autonomous driving, and their urban/regional distribution creates new construction and operations talent demand.

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