Why 90% of Data Center Projects Still Run Late

TL;DR

While external disruptions trigger delays, the underlying reasons 90% of projects run late are internal issues like optimism bias, weak governance, and fragmented accountability.
Modern hyperscale data centers are too complex for traditional, spreadsheet-based tracking, which often obscures critical delays until recovery options are limited.
Organizations need to govern time as strictly as capital, introducing centralized leadership and rigorous schedule controls to protect project timelines.

# # #

Written by iMiller Public Relations on behalf of Foresight.

Approximately 90% of data center projects suffer from schedule overruns, with average delays approaching 20% to 30%. While external bottlenecks like power availability, permitting, and supply chain disruptions are commonly blamed, research indicates that the true root causes are internal, driven by optimism bias, weak governance, fragmented accountability, and ineffective risk management. As hyperscale data center builds grow increasingly complex with thousands of interconnected activities, traditional project management tools like spreadsheets fail to surface schedule slippage until it is too late to easily recover.