Before the first server is installed, data centers need floor space, electrical power and cooling. A power-efficient, services-efficient data center, however, requires expert design and construction expertise.

Customers can call on a variety of third-party designers and builders who offer a wide range of services to help get the data center off the ground. These range from companies who do nothing but design and manage data center builds to those who offer the gamut from assessment to design, construction and handover. In many of these cases, the designer or builder is an architectural firm or a real estate company that has found the data center business a good way to branch out into new markets.

Check out the designers and builders included in this year's Data Center 100.

CEO: Alan Mamane

42U develops vendor-neutral, energy-efficient best-practice and technology solutions for data centers, computer rooms and server rooms for clients with a focus on cooling, power, monitoring, KVM and rack PDUs.

CEO: Martin Holloran

AHA Consulting Engineers is a mechanical, electrical and plumbing design firm whose expertise includes designing and consulting on high-efficiency, high-performance, high-density and high-reliability data center facilities.

CEO: Allison Griffis

Alcatex is a woman-owned business specializing in the design and building of data centers, providing related services including migration, relocation, building and demolition, as well as help with power, fire suppression and cooling infrastructures.

CEO: Robert Cassiliano

Business Information Services, a.k.a. Biz, provides data center customers with engineering, networking, telecom, security and cabling infrastructure services; energy assessments; corporate relocation and technical recruiting services, and more.

CEO: Ted Reddicliffe

The U.S. office of U.K.-based Cannon Technologies, Cannon T4 offers turnkey data centers or elements including power and lighting, cooling and environmental, fire suppression, mechanical and security for building and running data centers.

CEO: Brian Lane

Heating, ventilation and cooling services company Comfort Systems USA provides construction, service and maintenance solutions across a wide range of customer types including data centers.

CEO: Roger Waesche

Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a real estate investment trust with 200 office and data center properties including six purpose-built data centers, develops, finances and operates mission-critical space and data centers on customer requirements.

President: Douglas Mass

The firm provides consulting, engineering design and commissioning services for data centers and mission-critical facilities, with expertise in designing UPS systems, central chiller plants and standby power plants to raised-floor distribution.

Partner: Stephen Madaffari

Data Centers Delivered, whose parent company Epsilon Industries is a developer of high-performance electrical and mechanical systems, designs, builds, delivers and installs custom modular data centers.

President: Vello Ehvert

A single-source provider of building and IT infrastructure services to public and private institutions, Ehvert offers a full suite of engineering and technology solutions from facility design and buildout to technology relocation and systems support.

President: Victor Weatherford

Facility Support Services provides installation, service and maintenance for data center infrastructures including generators, UPS and backup batteries, fire suppression equipment, environmental control systems, central plant systems and more.

CEO: Hassan Moezzi

Future Facilities provides companies looking to build data centers with consulting, support and training services based on its own data-center-simulation software, which tackles tasks related to designing, assessing and monitoring the various parts.

President: Tim Meier

IDC Architects provides services from site evaluation to design for customers building or renovating data centers to construction, including a full range of planning, architecture, engineering, construction management and facility services.

President: Pete McGurran

Imprint Data Center Solutions provides services for managing mission-critical facilities' power, cooling, security and physical infrastructure management, including assessments, project management, design, construction and implementation services.

CEO: Colin Dyer

The global data center practice of the real estate services and investment management firm has an integrated approach to the development, construction, relocation, leasing, management, operation, acquisition and disposition of mission-critical factilities.

President: Peter Sacco

PTS specializes in designing continuously available, scalable and fault-tolerant data centers, computer rooms and technical spaces via services including survey, assessment, planning, engineering, design, construction, monitoring and maintenance.

CEOs: Gary Brennen and Cyrus Izzo

The firm delivers engineering design, facility management consulting, structured cabling/audio visual/security design and commissioning services for clients building new, or renovating or upgrading existing, critical facilities.

CEO: Jerry Gallagher

The company's infrastructure design and support services include data center assessment and audit, design, construction, operations, maintenance and planning, as well as the design and implementation of modular data center solutions.

Principal: Lindon Hayes

Utilipath designs and deploys customized end-to-end technology solutions for infrastructure businesses including data centers, with expertise in data center design, redundancy, environmental and energy efficiency, electrical distribution and more.

CEO: Robert Axley

Wood Harbinger provides mechanical and electrical engineering, IT and commissioning services for buildings and the infrastructure and industrial systems that support them.