Physical IT Infrastructure & Mission-Critical MEP
You manage the network. We manage the physics.
Your Head of IT is a network and systems expert. They should not be calculating BTU cooling loads, arguing with electricians over UPS panels, or navigating fire-life safety codes for badge readers. Base Layer FM acts as the physical extension of your digital IT team — the Owner's Rep who builds the room your gear lives in.
When companies call us
Relocation
New HQ Move-In
The lease is signed, the move date is set, and the server room has to be powered, cooled, and certified before a single employee badges in.
Build or Upgrade
MDF/IDF Build-Out
Your compute footprint has outgrown the converted closet. You need a real room: dedicated circuits, precision cooling, and proper fire protection.
Close Call
After the Near Miss
The AC shut off over a holiday weekend and the rack hit 95°F. Or the "UPS" turned out to power three outlets. You got lucky once — that's the budget for fixing it.
Bridging the gap between IT and Construction
When moving into a new facility or upgrading an MDF/IDF server room, the biggest failure point is the handoff between the IT department and the physical contractors. We speak both languages. We step in as your Owner's Rep to manage the MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) requirements specific to high-density compute environments.
Mechanical
Precision Cooling (HVAC)
Standard office air conditioning shuts off on weekends. We engineer and oversee the installation of dedicated CRAC/CRAH units, calculate sensible heat loads, and ensure 24/7 redundant cooling so your servers never melt down.
Electrical
Mission-Critical Power
We manage the electrical contractors to ensure your racks have dedicated 208V/220V circuits, integrated UPS battery backups, Automatic Transfer Switches (ATS), and properly grounded isolated receptacles.
Plumbing
Risk Mitigation
We protect your hardware from the building. We oversee the routing of condensate lines, install under-floor leak detection systems, and navigate pre-action dry-pipe fire suppression to prevent catastrophic water damage.
The Line of Demarcation
We establish a strict boundary between facility infrastructure and IT operations. We build the physical room and pull the cables; your team racks the gear and provisions the software.
- Installing precision CRAC/HVAC cooling
- Overseeing UPS electrical panel & circuit installs
- Managing low-voltage cable pulls & pathways
- Physical mounting of security cameras & badge readers
- Fire-life safety & fire marshal integration
- Managing all physical construction contractors
- Racking and stacking servers & switches
- Configuring network topology & firewalls
- Provisioning software & assigning IP addresses
- Managing active directory & user permissions
- Configuring access control software (e.g., Okta/Brivo)
- Managing cybersecurity & data integrity
Low-Voltage & Security Vendor Management
Pulling fiber through a drop ceiling and mounting cameras is a construction project, not a software deployment. We manage the physical installation of your network and security ecosystem.
Low-Voltage & ISPs
We oversee your cabling contractors. We manage cable trays, coordinate ISP fiber entry points into the building (MPOE), and ensure all firewall penetrations are legally fire-stopped.
Access Control Integrations
Installing systems like Brivo, Kisi, or Verkada requires tying magnetic locks directly into the building's main fire alarm panel. We manage this highly-regulated integration with the fire marshal.
How an engagement runs
01
Assess & Calculate
We survey the space and the building's actual capacity: available amperage at the panel, cooling headroom, pathway routes, and fire code constraints — all measured against your real equipment list and 18-month growth plan, not a guess.
02
Design & Contract
We translate IT requirements into MEP scopes of work, competitively bid the trades, vet insurance and licensing, and lock pricing before a single wall is opened. Your IT lead reviews one coherent plan instead of five contractor proposals.
03
Build, Commission & Hand Over
We manage the construction, witness the failover and load tests, close out fire marshal sign-offs, and hand your team a finished room with as-builts and a maintenance playbook. You rack the gear. It just works.
Pricing & Engagement Structures
This is our Fractional Facility Leadership practice, specialized for the physical IT layer — so the engagement structure is the same. One important distinction: server room and MDF/IDF build-outs are not part of a monthly retainer. Build-outs are standalone projects, priced per job as a percentage of total project cost based on scope. The retainer covers operating the environment after it's built.
60-Day Engagement
Stabilization Sprint
For companies whose physical IT environment is running on luck. We audit, stabilize, and hand off a controlled environment — no long-term commitment.
Fixed Fee
$8,500 – $15,000
Scoped by facility size & complexity
- Baseline audit incl. server room & MEP assessment
- Electrical capacity & cooling headroom verification
- Vendor & service contract audit
- PM schedules for CRAC, UPS & fire systems
- Compliance & safety remediation
- Executive handoff briefing & playbook
Book a 20-Minute Call
Ongoing Operations
Monthly Retainer
Fractional Facility Director
We operate the environment your gear lives in — so an overheated rack or a dead UPS is our 2 AM problem, not your IT lead's.
Monthly Retainer
$3,500 – $8,000 / mo
Scales with footprint & involvement level
- Everything in Stabilization Sprint, plus:
- Dedicated fractional executive on retainer
- 24/7 emergency escalation & vendor dispatch
- CRAC / UPS preventative maintenance enforcement
- Ongoing SLA enforcement & COI tracking
- CapEx forecasting for IT infrastructure
- Build-out oversight (billed separately, see right)
Book a 20-Minute Call
Project-Based
MDF/IDF Build-Out Direction
Owner's Rep oversight for server room construction and upgrades — a standalone project engagement, never bundled into a retainer.
Project Fee
Custom
Priced as a % of total project cost, scoped per job
- Owner's Rep from design to commissioning
- MEP scopes of work & competitive trade bids
- Contractor milestone & budget tracking
- Fire marshal & code sign-off management
- Failover & load test witnessing
- As-builts & maintenance playbook handover
Book a 20-Minute Call
* Build-out project fees are scoped as a percentage of total project cost based on size and complexity. High-density compute environments, labs, and multi-site rollouts are scoped individually. Contact us for an exact proposal.
Bay Area Coverage
We provide physical IT infrastructure management and server room build-out oversight across the primary Bay Area tech and biotech corridors:
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you configure our network switches or servers? +
No. We stop at the rack. Our job is to build the secure, cooled, and powered physical environment. We hand over a pristine, fully operational MDF/IDF room so your IT team can simply arrive, rack the gear, and provision the software.
Can you assess a building's IT readiness before we sign the lease? +
Yes — and that is the cheapest moment to find out. Our pre-lease audits include a full electrical panel survey and cooling capacity analysis measured against your planned compute loads. We have caught 400-amp switchgear that could not support planned lab equipment and backup generators with zero capacity for critical loads — before our clients signed.
Learn more: Pre-Lease Audits →
Do you provide the low-voltage cabling contractors? +
We can manage your existing IT vendors, or we can bring in our vetted network of Bay Area low-voltage, security, and electrical contractors. We act as the General Contractor and Owner's Rep for the physical build.
Why can't we just use the building's standard AC for our server room? +
Standard building HVAC is designed for human comfort, not hardware. It introduces humidity and often shuts down on weekends or holidays. Servers generate massive sensible heat and require 24/7/365 precision cooling (CRAC units) to prevent immediate hardware failure.
What is a pre-action dry-pipe fire system? +
Standard fire sprinklers hold pressurized water directly above your servers. If a pipe leaks, your hardware is destroyed. A pre-action system keeps the pipes dry until a smoke detector confirms an actual fire, adding a critical layer of protection for high-value IT assets.
Who maintains the room after the build is complete? +
Your choice. We hand over a complete maintenance playbook with every build — CRAC service schedules, UPS battery replacement cycles, and fire system inspection dates. Most clients retain us as their Fractional Facility Director, so the same operator who built the room owns its uptime: preventative maintenance, vendor dispatch, and 24/7 escalation.
Learn more: Fractional Facility Leadership →
Let IT handle the cloud. We'll handle the concrete.
Whether you are moving into a new headquarters or upgrading your critical infrastructure, let's get the physics right the first time.
