FACILITIES topic
new building blocks and 15 reference designs, Schneider Electric has given choice back to the data centre designer. “We’ve taken the view that it is for the equipment manufacturer to provide solutions which answer designer’s requirements and solve his problems - not to make it incumbent upon the designer to change his or her way of working. So we’re giving choice back. And by providing an extensive range of solutions, we’re also removing questions about interoperability. These solutions are designed with open interfaces so that they can be easily integrated, and they come with DCIM pre-installed so that the prefabricated modules can be easily brought into the management system from day one.”
Matthew Baynes says that the new announcement has been received enthusiastically. “What we’re hearing from our customers is that they are very excited about Prefabricated Data Centre Modules - for the first time they can see how their organisation can realise the benefits of prefabrication without having to make
construction cost of a data centre, and were able to make a like-for-like comparison between modular and traditional builds, in almost all cases the Prefabricated, Pre- assembled approach would show some cost savings. However, the reality is that there are no tools which allow customers to make such a comparison currently – an effective tool would have to account for the total installed cost, including all of the installation services and site work during the build. These are costs which are complex for customers to account for - which is why Schneider Electric is working to develop an online Trade-Off Tool to help make this comparison possible.”
“What I can say is that where organisations like BSRIA have done extensive studies of modular building constructions, they have found the approach to be significantly more efficient than traditional builds. However, in our conversations with customers we focus very much upon ease of the design phase, the fact that the infrastructure is an agile solution which can be adapted throughout the lifetime of the facility, and the advantages
end user requirements. “Today’s business environment demands data centres that are increasingly more flexible and scalable with an emphasis on deployment speed,” says Matthew Baynes.
“Prefabricated data centres enable data centre managers to maximize the speed of business through rapid installation, easy expansion and improved cash management. This prefabricated approach inherently increases the predictability of the build process, since most of the construction occurs in a factory instead of in the field.”
As flexible capacity becomes critical to data centre operations, modular expansion is becoming a compelling option for data center and facilities managers. With Schneider Electric’s announcement of the industry’s first complete library of prefabricated data centre reference designs, data centre managers looking to optimize deployment speed, performance, reliability and cost have a pre-engineered starting point to realize significant improvements. Those
The Prefabricated Data Centre Modules also answer the questions of organisations which have globalised operations. “What we’re able to
provide is a step and repeat approach to data centre design and builds, with enough breadth in the offering to adapt to different geographic and climatic requirements anywhere in the world
significant compromises in the way that they have in the past. We can show them how we can help them to achieve their goals, and we’ve put in place a structured offering which can accommodate their design preferences and overcome some of the constraints which they might be facing”.
The Prefabricated Data Centre Modules also answer the questions of organisations which have globalised operations. “What we’re able to provide is a step and repeat approach to data centre design and builds, with enough breadth in the offering to adapt to different geographic and climatic requirements anywhere in the world. The benefits of predictable performance together with a standardised approach to operations and maintenance, provides better reliability and a basis for higher capacity utilisation and energy efficiency,” says Baynes.
Does modular mean cost saving? “The subject of cost savings is an interesting one,” says Matthew Baynes. “The reality is that if you take into account the entire
50
www.dcseurope.info I Winter 2013
of prefabricated modularity during the construction phase. In addition, with standardised building blocks, it becomes easier to train people to operate the data centre. If you look over the whole lifecycle, you have a much simpler process which is in turn less expensive and more efficient,” says Matthew Baynes
The Schneider Electric offering In November 2013, Schneider Electric set a new standard in prefabricated data centres with the introduction of 15 prefabricated data centre modules and 14 new prefabricated Data Centre Reference Designs. The reference designs detail complete data centres scalable in 250kW to 2MW increments and meet Uptime Tier II and Tier III standards. The new prefabricated modules deliver IT, power, and/or cooling integrated with best-in-class data centre infrastructure components and StruxureWare™ Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software for an easy-to- deploy, predictable data centre. Prefabricated modules range in capacities from 90kW to 1.2MW and are customizable to meet
improvements include speed of deployment - prefabricated modules are delivered on-site preconfigured and pretested for an easy installation with a lead time of 12-16 weeks, depending on the level of project complexity. Site preparation and module production can be completed concurrently, resulting in minimised on-site construction and deployment time. In addition they offer flexibility and scalability with various module options and configurations enabling the infrastructure to be deployed and scaled as needed to meet demand.
Capital spending reductions result from eliminating complicated new construction or expensive building retrofits. A further improvement lies in the predictability of the data centre. Prefabrication and factory testing reduces human error and on- site construction risks while improving compliance, safety, and efficiency. Design and manufacturing are closely coupled to greatly minimise uncertainty, which results in more predictable performance of the data centre infrastructure.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72