New data center builds typically include hundreds of expenses, starting with power infrastructure, cooling systems, cabling, security, networking equipment, and, of course, all the racks and servers that will eventually sit on the floor. Unfortunately, most data center builds don’t include a crucial piece of equipment in the Bill of Materials (BOM): a industry-standard data center lift for moving and installing heavy IT equipment.
A ServerLIFT® data center lift belongs in the BOM because the facility cannot safely install, replace, maintain, or move heavy IT equipment without one. Here’s why this decision should be made during the build design stage rather than tacked onto the expense sheet as an afterthought once the build is complete.
Why should my data center build Bill of Materials include a data center lift?
1.Data center lifts protect technicians from serious injury.
Modern servers, UPS units, and AI-ready hardware often weigh hundreds of pounds apiece. Having data center technicians move and install that equipment by hand is more than inefficient. It also presents a serious risk of muscle strains, joint and back injuries, and crushed fingers and toes. These not only leave you with less technicians, but it also incurs a financial toll (workman’s comp), as well as an OSHA inspection of the data center.
OSHA guidance for data centers is explicit: Use mechanical assistance to lift heavy objects whenever feasible. Choosing not to use mechanical assistance (in this case, a purpose-built data center lift) opens you up to an investigation that could be a huge setback for your brand-new facility.
Purchasing a data center lift on day one keeps your workers and your operation safe from preventable incidents. Data center lifts carry the load during transportation, positioning, installation, and removal of IT equipment, so technicians don’t have to put their own bodies on the line with manual lifting.
Including at least one data center lift in your BOM means you’ve acted at the earliest possible opportunity (before the first server enters your building!) to protect your employees and build a defense against future OSHA investigations.
2. Data center lifts also protect your expensive investments from damage.
A dropped server is a terrible outcome in any scenario, but for a new data center that’s just beginning operations, it can be catastrophic. Let’s say you’ve got the skeleton of your storage, compute, power, and networking infrastructure online and running, but you haven’t yet built in redundancy in case of incidents.
Technicians are rearranging some equipment to make space for a new piece of hardware, and then the server is dropped. This is an expensive loss in both time and money.
A data center lift supports and controls the load from the moment it leaves the staging area through the final rack installation. Continuous mechanical support, instead of manual lifting, eliminates instability points where drops (or even something as simple as misalignment leading to rail damage) are most likely to occur.
A data center lift removes the need for a team to manually lift and hoist expensive IT equipment around sharp corners, down narrow aisles, and from the floor to the rack.
3. Planning for a data center lift now helps avoid deployment delays later.
Procurement timelines for a new data center build can depend heavily on several factors. If one line item is missing from the BOM, adding it later isn’t simple. You often have to expedite it at a higher cost, which can disrupt the schedule and create a ripple effect across the rest of your deployment.
Think of it this way: If you don’t specify that you’ll need a data center lift during the build phase, your servers will arrive before you have a safe way to transport and install them. Now you either delay your installation to wait for the lift to arrive or proceed with manual lifting and accept the injury and IT equipment-damage risks that come with it.
Including a data center lift in your BOM ensures it’s purchased, delivered, and ready when you need it.
4. With a data center lift, you can support heavier, wider AI infrastructure.
The weight and dimensions of rack-mounted IT equipment have increased substantially in recent years, and that trend appears to still be accelerating. High-density AI servers, GPU platforms, and accelerator systems commonly exceed the safe handling capacity of generic warehouse lifts.
This IT equipment also exceeds the weight technicians can safely lift by hand. This means if you don’t have a data center lift capable of handling servers up to several hundred pounds, you’re limiting your facility’s functionality. You simply won’t be able to safely transport and install the infrastructure needed to support high-powered AI systems.
By specifying the data center lift and attachments you want during the build phase, you can match your expected capacity and configuration to the equipment you’ll need.
In practice, that means you can compare your desired data center lift’s capacity against the heaviest system you plan to install, confirm your attachments enable moving wide or deep AI hardware, and ensure your chosen lift can reach the highest and lowest rack positions.
It’s far easier to plan these specifications during the design phase than to discover a mismatch after your IT equipment arrives and realize you can’t move it without risking your team’s safety.
5. A data center lift requires less staff to move IT equipment.
An industry-standard data center lift costs money upfront. Consider which costs more: paying once for a lift and then having one technician complete most major moves and installations from that point on, or skipping the lift and needing a whole team to chip in every time you move a heavy piece of hardware?
Multi-person manual lifts introduce many preventable risks. More people holding a heavy load means more timing variables, more grip changes, and more opportunities for miscommunication that can lead to mishaps.
Additionally, you may not have a team ready when an IT equipment move needs to happen. Coordinating a simple installation could require you to put off other tasks to pull the requisite number of people onto one lifting job.
A purpose-built data center lift allows a single technician to move and position heavy IT equipment safely. This eliminates the need for improvised team lifts and lets installations proceed efficiently whenever your tech is ready to go.
No more waiting for other people to arrive or planning for complex manual lifts around corners or to high rack positions. The data center lift handles it all, so your team can focus on their primary tasks.
6. Data center lifts improve installation precision.
Installing IT equipment into racks requires precision. Technicians must lift heavy hardware and align it perfectly with the rack’s rails, often in narrow aisles that leave little room for repositioning. If techs do this manually, it’s very hard to achieve the fine positioning control needed to slide equipment onto the rails smoothly. Unfortunately, misalignment can range from bent rails to a broken server on the floor.
Using a gold-standard data center lift gives techs precise positioning control throughout the installation process. ServerLIFT® data center lifts make fine-tuned adjustments easy with sensitive platform controls that allow techs to tip and tilt the edges to fit into rail slots.
Instead of several techs manually positioning a 200-pound server, a technician using a ServerLIFT® data center lift can, with a few button presses, place the server exactly where it needs to go and move on to the next job. Simple, easy, and safe!
7. Putting an industry-standard data center lift on your BOM means prioritizing safe IT equipment handling as an integral part of your facility operations.
Your build BOM likely already includes the systems the data center needs to operate safely: fire suppression, physical security systems, power redundancy, and environmental monitoring, among other things. Heavy IT equipment handling deserves the same treatment.
Including a purpose-built data center lift during the design phase ensures you have a solid plan to keep your workers and IT equipment safe.
It also lets you plan ahead to ensure your building accommodates the data center lift. Take time to evaluate your aisle widths, doorway clearances, floor load ratings, and lift turning radius so you aren’t faced with unpleasant surprises when it’s time to move your first server into place.
Catching a clearance problem during design is no big deal, but discovering it after your building is complete and your data center lift doesn’t fit down the aisle is much more costly and inconvenient to fix.
If your data center will host heavy equipment, you must have a safe, controlled way to move that equipment.
Leaving a data center lift out of your BOM doesn’t eliminate that requirement; it just defers it to a moment when your options will be more limited, your timeline will be stricter, and the cost of a mishap will be at its highest.
Including a ServerLIFT® data center lift on your BOM during the design phase is a simple way to prioritize worker safety and help moves and installations run as smoothly as possible.
If you’re wondering which ServerLIFT® data center lift and attachments your facility needs, ติดต่อเรา. Our Client Experience Team will be happy to help you find the best configuration for your needs!
FAQ
Why should my data center build Bill of Materials include a data center lift?
Because heavy IT equipment cannot be safely moved, installed, repositioned, or maintained without one. Including a data center lift in the BOM ensures it is available before servers arrive, specified correctly for the planned equipment, and validated against the facility layout during construction.
When in the build process should a data center lift be specified?
During the design phase, alongside other operational infrastructure. Specifying early lets teams confirm data center lift capacity against the equipment roadmap, validate aisle widths and doorway clearances, and avoid procurement delays that happen when the data center lift is added as an afterthought.
What happens if we don’t include a data center lift in the BOM?
The gap doesn’t disappear. It surfaces at the worst possible time. Teams either delay installation while waiting for the data center lift, or they proceed with manual handling and accept the associated injury risk and IT equipment exposure. Neither outcome is acceptable during a commissioning-critical deployment window.
Do AI servers require a different lift specification than standard rack equipment?
Often, yes. High-density AI servers and GPU platforms are frequently heavier and wider than traditional rack equipment, and may require specific attachments for safe handling. Specifying the lift against the actual equipment roadmap, including planned AI infrastructure, ensures the configuration is correct before you need it.
Can one technician operate a data center lift safely?
Yes. ServerLIFT® purpose-built data center lifts are designed for single-technician operation. The lift handles load support and positioning; the technician controls the process. This eliminates the coordination risk and staffing overhead associated with multi-person manual lifts.
Does the facility layout need to be designed around the lift?
It should be considered during design. Aisle widths, doorway clearances, floor load ratings, and turning clearances all affect how a lift moves through the space and which configuration is appropriate. Validating those dimensions during the build phase is far easier than discovering a clearance problem after construction is complete.
