From data centre infrastructure efficiency (DCIE) to power usage effectiveness (PUE) there are many considerations for data centre providers that impact the cost to build, operate and scale a facility. However, while many strive to become more effective, efficient and environmentally responsible, not all providers look holistically at optimising data centre lifecycle end-to-end. To achieve optimum performance, providers must embark on a journey from design and construction through to deployment, operation and optimisation, leveraging emulation, automation and analytics to ensure their customers’ needs are met. This is particularly crucial for operators seeking to harness high performance computing (HPC) to cope with a rapidly growing influx of data.