These days, many organizations are opting to build modular data centers instead of taking the traditional stick-built construction approach. Not only does the modular approach help organizations save time and money, but it also enables them to ensure that employees remain productive during construction—instead of being constantly interrupted by the thud, thud, thud of a hammer.
There’s a reason more and more companies are opting to go with modular data centers: They just make sense.
It used to be that if you needed a data center, you had one option: the traditional stick-built approach. When it was time to break ground, construction companies and contractors would show up on-site and get to work. As the project moved forward, you’d cross your fingers and hope there wouldn’t be any major delays—and that the data center that was ultimately built would actually meet your requirements, keep to your schedule, and fit within your budget.
In some ways, it’s hard to believe, but massive organizations like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are still scaling. These hyperscalers continue to bring more products and services online and deliver them to an increasing number of users scattered across the globe.
Every commercial construction project has specific requirements and unique design challenges. There may be space limitations, scheduling issues, difficulties acquiring building materials and other concerns; and almost every construction project has to deal with limited budgets, tight deadlines, quality control and environmental regulations. Applying off-site construction can address all of these issues and more.
The data center industry is experiencing explosive growth, as more businesses harness more information than ever before for data-driven decision-making. Data is accumulating faster than ever, and with increased business data, the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is generating additional machine data that has to be monitored and processed in real time. In addition, the boom in 5G mobile networking is driving demand for increased data capacity, as wireless and mobile users contribute to data center traffic.
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.
