Modular Construction & Data Center Design Blog

Designing any type of data center is a collaborative process. It requires careful preplanning with input from the information technology (IT) team, engineers, architects, electricians, contractors and others. This collaboration ensures the final construction conforms to specifications and meets both current and future data processing needs. Even with input from so many stakeholders, the needs of the engineer responsible for managing the data center can be overlooked. However, with modular data centers, the compartmentalized design can simplify day-to-day operations and maintenance.

When it comes to data center design, construction, and operation, the goal is to create a scalable, high-performance data center while expediting time-to-revenue. However, cost considerations will vary depending on where you are in data center deployment. You want to minimize construction costs, only if cutting construction costs will not negatively impact operational costs later. By deploying a modular data center, you can benefit cost savings in both construction and operations, ultimately minimizing total cost of ownership (TCO).

When it comes to data centers, how much capacity is too much? That’s like asking, “how high is up?” Capacity requirements are going to differ for every organization, and even after adding more computing power, it may seem that you still don’t have enough. The challenge for data center architects is designing an infrastructure that has scalable capacity without overprovisioning or breaking the budget. That’s why more enterprise data center designers, especially within the colocation space, are turning to modular data centers to help them scale their operations.

Data center design, engineering, and construction professionals are under increased pressure to build hyperscale data centers faster than ever before. The longer it takes to bring new data center capacity online, the longer the time to revenue. The ongoing challenge is to deliver more, scalable capacity in a shorter period of time, which is why systems architects are embracing modular data centers as the solution.

Demand for new data center construction is on the rise, as corporations struggle to harness the growing flood of data needed for business analytics. While cloud computing services continue to prove valuable for data storage and remote processing, some computing tasks have to be handled closer to home. This is done to accommodate real-time data analytics, reduce latency delays, and address security concerns. 

Nothing seems to change as fast as technology, and that includes data center trends. As demand for more analytics, data processing, and storage increases, data center infrastructures have to adapt. As a result, we are seeing new developments, such as modular micro data centers (MMDC), hyperscale data centers, and new modular data center designs. Here are just a few of the data center trends we see coming in 2020.

“We can’t solve the problems of today, with the solutions of 100 years ago,” proclaims PCX’s sales and marketing director, Rob Coyle. “Meeting with industry leaders face-to-face and learning about operator’s challenges, are some of the best ways to solve these problems, with modern solutions.”

Those solutions, however, could be just an engagement away, thanks to national conferences like Data Center Dynamics, where growing data center companies, providers and thought leaders congregate to discuss the future of digital infrastructure in colocation, cloud and managed service provider spaces.

Grant Smereczynsky, CEO at Modular Building Systems Network LLC, writes in his blog that "using modular does not change the design, structural system, or finish materials options available to the owner and architect. The only difference is in the method of construction.”  Modular is equally applicable for industrial applications, and increasingly used in electrical power distribution and data center construction.