Emerson Network Power Asia Pacific vice president for modular solutions Steve Shelley explains why companies are shifting to prefabricated data centres.
Prefabricated ‘containerised’ data centres have made quite a splash in Australia since they were first sighted as part of the construct for the National Broadband Network a couple of years ago.
Many people picture a containerised data centre as a shipping container which is fitted out with racks, cooling, and even power. But that picture is incredibly limiting, and companies are seeing and ordering the containerised, prefabricated data centre in more dynamic forms than previously imagined.
Companies can now order prefabricated data centres and have them shipped in a ‘flat pack’ and put together – like a Meccano set – on-site.
Prefabricated data centres can also be built to specification in a modular fashion, shipped to site and then have the data centre equipment fitted on-site. It’s this design which the NBN chose when it deployed 10 data centres to act as aggregation nodes around Australia, and in the process put the technology on the map.
But the many advantages of these data centres – flexibility, scalability and rapid deployment – often miss the fact that they’re also prefabricated and configured off-site. This means they can be constructed while civil works are being undertaken, while leases are being negotiated for a site, and while councils are making decisions.
Once the site is ready, the prefabricated data centre will be ready simultaneously, thus shrinking the lead time to get the site up and running. Fabricating data centres elsewhere can also minimise site-specific OH&S obstacles, and they’re designed to be portable.
From an ROI perspective, deploying a prefabricated modular data centre means a company is meeting its current needs, rather than building a huge data centre in the hopes of filling it. If they need more capacity, they can order and add another module.
But above all, it’s the portability of prefabricated containerised data centres that makes them so appealing.
It’s not unrealistic to imagine a prefabricated data centre installed on site one day, only for the company to up and leave to a new state-of-the-art office. Being able to move the data centre to that site at little extra cost and with minimal impact on the operation is where its real value lies.
Best of all, asset portability doesn't mean having to compromise. On the contrary, virtually every component of a data centre's physical infrastructure is now available in a modular design.
Modularity can be applied to specific infrastructure equipment such as UPS systems that can be expanded by adding power cores, or rack power distribution units that snap together to add or change power strip receptacles. Modularity can also be achieved by quickly adding containerised enclosures to a data centre when capacity is being added on a large scale.
But a data centre is only as good as its reliability. In other words, it needs to stay on. The key ingredient to reliability is not so much equipment, but rather management. Employing sophisticated data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) and monitoring tools – especially those that can do so remotely – is essential.
However, monitoring alone is no longer enough to adequately ensure the availability of data centre infrastructure. A more rounded approach to DCIM is required, encompassing all power, cooling, IT and support equipment to optimise capacity planning, resource allocation and equipment management.
Integrated solutions – ranging from single row deployments to modular data centre enclosures – are preconfigured with power, precision cooling and management infrastructures in accordance with design best practices and optimised for the efficiency and availability needs of the site in question.
Building in line with business needs and growth, more than anything, is why the data centre of today is being built ahead of the data centre that might be needed tomorrow.
About the author
Steve Shelley oversees the region-wide Modular Solutions team and develops multi-faceted capabilities to pursue, win and deliver large projects using integrated modular solutions.