Data Center & AI Infrastructure Strategy

When infrastructure decisions need senior ownership

• Your data center estate needs modernization or consolidation, and leadership needs a defensible direction.
• AI plans introduce new compute and capacity requirements without a clear infrastructure business case.
• A facility, colocation or cloud commitment is approaching, and the options need an independent review.
• Concentration risk, resilience gaps or migration dependencies could disrupt critical services.
• Technology, facilities, finance, security and service providers need one coordinated decision process.

What the strategy covers

• Workload placement. Compare on-premises, colocation, cloud and hybrid options against workload needs, data boundaries, service levels and operating responsibilities.
• Consolidation and modernization. Evaluate the current estate, application dependencies, lifecycle constraints and opportunities to simplify or replace infrastructure.
• Capacity and AI readiness. Translate proposed workloads into compute, storage, network and power requirements, with specialist validation of facility and hardware assumptions where needed.
• Location risk and resilience. Examine geographic concentration, dependencies, recovery requirements and operational exposure when evaluating sites and service providers.
• Investment and sourcing. Compare capital and operating costs, migration costs, utilization assumptions, contractual constraints and vendor proposals through a business case leadership can challenge.
• Execution oversight. Sequence migrations, decisions, acceptance criteria and operating ownership across internal teams and delivery partners.

A practical first engagement

1. Establish the decision. Agree on the business outcome, accountable owner, workload scope, constraints and evidence required.
2. Assess the current estate. Review capacity, dependencies, lifecycle, resilience, contracts and the operating model using the information available.
3. Compare viable options. Develop an options assessment and business case that make assumptions, tradeoffs, risks and unresolved questions visible.
4. Set the roadmap. Prioritize investment and execution, identify owners and validation gates, and define the next decisions leadership needs to make.

Depending on the agreed scope, outputs can include a current-state assessment, workload-placement options, capacity assumptions, an investment business case, a provider evaluation and a phased roadmap. Timing and fees follow the scope, complexity and access required.

Experience behind the advisory

Will Lassalle brings prior career experience in data center strategy and infrastructure decisions at Iron Mountain and Citigroup.

Iron Mountain

His earlier work involved data center buildout and data center strategy.

Citigroup

As an SVP, he worked on data center consolidation strategy and new data center development, including location-risk considerations and compute and power capacity planning.

These are Will Lassalle’s prior career roles, separate from JLS client engagements.

How we work with your team

JLS provides enterprise strategy, decision support and oversight alongside your technology, facilities, finance, security and procurement teams. We define who owns each recommendation, who validates technical assumptions and who performs the delivery work.

Detailed facility design, electrical and mechanical engineering, specialist AI hardware design and construction delivery need appropriately qualified specialists with explicit responsibilities. We incorporate their validated findings into the enterprise decision and roadmap.

Related capabilities

Connect infrastructure decisions with Fractional CIO leadership, Fractional CTO architecture and delivery oversight, AI Adoption Strategy and AI Governance. The starting point is the decision your organization needs to make.

Frequently asked questions

Does an AI initiative require a new data center?

That decision should follow the workload and operating case. We compare existing capacity, colocation, cloud and other viable options before recommending a facility or expansion commitment.

Can you support an existing consolidation or modernization program?

An engagement can focus on options review, investment decisions, vendor evaluation, sequencing or executive oversight within an existing program. Responsibilities and outputs are agreed at the start.

Is this an engineering or construction service?

The offer focuses on enterprise infrastructure strategy and oversight. Detailed engineering and construction responsibilities are assigned to qualified specialists through the agreed delivery model.