Data center demand is accelerating, but delivery teams are feeling the strain across labor, equipment, permitting, power access, and day-to-day coordination.
Between October and December 2025, Gatepoint Research invited selected executives to participate in a survey themed “Data Center Development Strategies.” Candidates from several industries were invited, and dozens of executives have participated to date.
What are the biggest barriers to scaling data center development right now?
When leaders were asked about the top barriers to growth or scalability, two issues stood out:
- Labor and equipment shortages (42%)
- Permitting or power-access delays (34%)
These aren’t “nice-to-fix” problems, they’re critical-path constraints. The results also point to additional risk drivers tied to unclear dependencies, misaligned procurement, and documentation challenges.
What it means: scaling data center construction and commissioning isn’t only about faster execution. It’s about reducing avoidable delays by improving visibility into interdependencies, procurement timing, and readiness milestones across stakeholders.
What are data center organizations prioritizing over the next 6 to 9 months?
Leaders were clear about what they want to improve soon:
- Accelerate project delivery (46%)
- Reduce operational costs (42%)
- Reduce risk (42%)
- Plus: scalability, budget control, and pipeline visibility
What it means: teams want speed, but they’re equally focused on predictability. Any initiative positioned as “faster” should also prove that it improves cost control and reduces risk exposure.
What tools are teams using today to manage the data center lifecycle?
Despite the rise of specialized platforms, the survey shows a very familiar reality:
- Spreadsheets (66%)
- Scheduling tools (50%)
- Generic project management software (36%)
- Custom-built tools (30%)
The throughline here is fragmentation. Many teams are still managing development pipelines and in-service assets across disconnected systems, which can slow reporting, create version control issues, and make cross-team handoffs more difficult.
What it means: if your “source of truth” is split across spreadsheets + scheduling + email + point tools, scaling reliably gets more difficult with every new site, phase, and partner.
What makes new technology most appealing to data center teams?
The survey’s answer is refreshingly practical: teams want tools that people will actually use.
- Ease of use and strong user adoption (34%)
- Integration capability with current systems (28%)
What it means: the winning narrative isn’t “more features.” It’s “less friction.” Tools that feel intuitive and connect cleanly into the existing ecosystem (ERP, CRM, scheduling, GIS, procurement, etc.) have a clearer path to adoption.
What prevents technology adoption in data center delivery organizations?
Even when teams want to modernize, adoption stalls for predictable reasons:
- Lack of executive buy-in / budget approval (36%)
- Past negative implementation experiences (36%)
- Plus: usability concerns and resistance to change
What it means: to win internal alignment, teams need a tight pilot scope, clear success criteria, and a credible implementation plan (including integrations, change management, and measurable outcomes).
How do organizations typically decide on new technology?
Most data center orgs aren’t making platform decisions in a vacuum:
- Cross-functional committees / steering groups (54%)
- Departmental pilots (38%)
What it means: your go-to-market (and your internal business case) should assume multiple stakeholders — construction, engineering, operations, procurement, finance, and IT — each with different definitions of “success.”
What are the practical takeaways for scaling data center project delivery?
Based on the survey patterns, here are three moves that map directly to what leaders say is slowing scale:
- Treat labor/equipment constraints like a system issue, not a staffing issue.
If shortages are the #1 barrier (42%), teams need stronger forecasting, standardized workflows, and earlier visibility into readiness risks. - Plan for permitting and power-access delays as first-class dependencies.
With 34% citing these delays, teams benefit from a centralized view of approvals, documentation, and milestone gates across the portfolio. - Reduce tool fragmentation to improve speed and risk control.
If 66% still rely on spreadsheets, there’s a real opportunity to centralize execution data, standardize reporting, and remove manual handoffs.
Where can you benchmark your team against the survey?
If you’re planning a scale-up (new builds, expansions, or multi-site rollouts), the full report includes charts and breakdowns you can use to benchmark your roadmap and business case.
Download the full Data Center Development Strategies survey research report (December 2025).
