Nobody does IDF closets anymore?

Wanted to throw this out there to see if you've seen the same thing recently.

Several of our customers have constructed new buildings or done massive renovation to existing buildings. By massive, I mean that they gutted in the inside of the building, no interior walls left, totally new floor plan.

In initial planning (which we were thankful to be included in), we gathered requirements on number and location of devices and came up with a port placement diagram and proposed IDF closet locations.

However, none of our customers have ended up giving up the square footage for an IDF closet. In every case, they've said "construction is expensive. We're paying XXXX dollars per square foot and we can't afford to add a closet just for networking stuff." That, or they offer to add a 3ft by 3ft closet kind of like a broom/mop/janitor closet. With no cooling of any kind.

I guess we could've insisted, but several customers have told us that we'd lose the bid if we "made" them include an IDF closet. They simply weren't doing it. In speaking with the engineers and architects and asking why they aren't including more data closets, they said the same thing. Customers just don't want them anymore. Because "everything's on Wi-Fi nowadays" nevermind of course that the APs have to be patched somewhere .

For small/medium buildings, what we've had to do instead is to get a 12 or 18 or 24U rack from Navepoint or whatever and tell the customer that this HAS to go somewhere relatively centrally located, on a dedicated electrical circuit. It will make fan noise so whoever works near it is going to just have to deal with that. For larger buildings, we have been able to insist on an 8ft by 8ft central "data room." And then plan to put a bunch of 18U racks around the building for the bulk of the copper ports.

But as soon as that "data room" appears on the plans, EVERYONE wants to pile all of their crap in there too on the walls. Access control, burglar alarm, fire alarm, PA system, main breaker panel(s), etc. We have limited success arguing that stuff out of the space so we actually have room to work in there. Customers have usually accepted since they don't have to eat square footage on it.

"Back in the day" when I first started doing campus networking, we got IDF closets that were minimum 8ft by 8ft so we could fit at least a couple 2 post racks for switches and patching and UPS gear. But that doesn't seem to be considered anymore...