modular systems
A modular data centre
in a nutshell
Modular data centres are (as you’d
imagine) modules that can be set
up quickly in the form of building
blocks across key components,
such as racks, power distribution,
cooling, security and monitoring,
and remote management.
They permit flexible scaling, total
cost of ownership, and can readily
support or even drive business growth.
They can be permanent or temporary,
and the relative speed and ease of
their deployment – in any environment
– means they are getting increasingly
popular. They also provide substantial
capex and opex savings over traditional
data centre designs.
Not surprisingly, they have been
widely adopted across all industry
sectors, for a variety of reasons.
It may be institutions that need to
scale resources quickly and flexibly
to handle increasing data volumes
from business applications and Big
Data analytics. Or, it may be midsize manufacturing companies that
cannot afford a traditional data centre
but want to keep sensitive data inhouse. There are also location based
scenarios required by the oil/gas
sector and the military.
However, it remains the case that
reducing costs is the main reason for
switching to modular facilities mainly
because the exponential growth
in data volumes that data centres
handle in recent years has applied
significant pressure to IT budgets.
You also get better energy efficiency
with modular systems.
Modular products can be supplied
within shipping containers or premanufactured steel rooms. They can be
deployed or assembled on a customer
site for external use, or supplied as
building-block style designs for use
within data centre buildings, effectively
replacing traditional raised floor and
purpose-built facilities.
They can function as stand alone
structures or inside existing facilities,
which may be the data centre itself
or any other building such as a
warehouse or factory. Essentially,
a modular approach does not mean
you have to abandon an existing data
Modular data centres permit
flexible scaling, total cost of
ownership, and can readily support
or even drive business growth.
to design, implementation and
operation complex, made-tomeasure approaches dominate. This
has led to a growth in so-called
modular data centres which provide
users with greater flexibility, agility
and scalability.
These modular data centres allow
for shorter IT product lifecycles,
allowing the rapid commission of new
systems or implementation of new
regulations as required.
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