If you’re in the market to build your own, new data center, you have two options: You can either go the old-fashioned route and take the stick-built approach to construction, or you can opt to build a modular data center instead.
We might be a bit biased, but we believe that the modular approach makes the data center purchaser’s job that much easier. Here are five reasons why.
1. Turnkey
When you take the traditional approach to construction, there are many moving parts. You have to enlist the services of architects, engineers, contractors and more. You also need to procure parts, supplies and equipment yourself.
On the other hand, modular data centers bring a turnkey experience to the purchasing process. Simply contact the modular vendor, tell them what performance characteristics you need and let them do their job. This way, your data center needs can be fulfilled via a one-stop shop, and there’s much less for the purchaser to manage.
2. Flexibility
At the same time, modular solutions don’t have to be turnkey. Modular vendors can bring even more flexibility to the process—if the client prefers it. For example, if you have an existing vendor relationship, there might be elements of the scope that you can do in-house, to save your organization money for use elsewhere.
A good modular partner has flexibility in scope. Whoever is able to do so best—either the client or provider—can be given specific tasks to ensure a cost-effective project that meets your specifications, build schedule and organizational goals.
3. Speed
When you take the traditional approach to building a data center, you need to enlist the services of engineers, architects and general contractors. They will need to look at the design, come up with proposals and costs, source the necessary equipment and set up contractors to put the full package together. There are a number of moving parts here to manage. What’s more, the construction process takes longer in the COVID-19 era, adding more factors to consider for your data center construction project. With resource constraints in architecture and engineering, lead times can be even further out than normal.
By utilizing the modular approach, getting capacity online is quicker and much easier. There are fewer layers—to the point at which the process becomes more like buying a large piece of equipment, versus a construction project. Leading vendors can turn around a quote in less than a week, and upon budget proposal, can get to work right away.
The installation process is quick too, and gives you multiple options. You can drop your newest data center in a parking lot, an unused piece of property on your premises, next to your building or maybe even inside your building, which ensures your operations never miss a beat!
4. Minimal amount of disruption
Speaking of your operations, when data center construction takes place on-site, your employees will quickly learn what it’s like to be on a construction site. When they’re concentrating on their jobs, they will hear the thud, thud, thud of the hammer, and they’ll also hear noises coming from heavy-duty construction equipment. This, of course, doesn’t make work any easier.
With the modular approach to construction, the data center is built off-site, and it can be installed outside of work hours or on the weekend. As a result, this reduces the amount of disruption to the workday, enabling your team to stay productive.
5. It’s scalable
A modular data center can grow alongside your business. Due to these data centers being scalable by design, you are given the freedom to choose between multiple different configurations. For example, modular data center components can be stackable, enabling you to add capacity as you scale your operations, while keeping your footprint small.
With modular, you don’t need to buy or build everything that you’ll need in the future on Day 1. Instead, you can buy what you need and leave ample room to grow as your organization does. This enables you to keep your capital expenses low, instead of buying in advance and having a bunch of stranded capacity and extra expenses added on.
Ready to build a modular data center?
If you’re a purchaser who’s tasked with buying a data center, the modular approach will undoubtedly make your life easier, while providing the most beneficial data center solution for your organization. To learn more about modular data centers and how they can help your organization spin up servers quickly and cost-effectively, check out our free guide: The Complete Guide to Modular Data Center Solutions.
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