FOCUS DATACENTER DISCUSSION
Issue 18, October/November
Q
GEORGE SLESSMAN ASKS:
What do you see as the single most significant barrier to adoption of a modular data center 2.0 strategy by enterprise data center users?
Guy Ruddock Answers: Image is a big part. Many data centers are used as both housing for important equipment and as a ‘tourist location’ for executive teams and customers.
Often these teams are unfamiliar with modern data center design, but are aware of traditional monolithic halls with rows of identical cabinets and hence expect to see exactly that. As many of these people have a very strong impact on the funding of data center projects, it is inevitable that the CIO will wish to see something that meets these additional corporate requirements. As many modular data centers tend to use shipping containers these will always have an image problem in those critical high level meetings.
Functionality, flexibility and accessibility is critical to the on-site engineers and data center managers. In the Colt product this was one of the design briefs — the data center must look like a traditional data center to the casual onlooker — alongside that we needed to make them flexible to cater for a wide range of customer requirements — as a result the visitors to our data centers are wowed when they walk in. The expect a container, they get a traditional look and feel and more options than you can shake a stick at.
Peter Gross Answers: There is no secret that the data center industry has always been extremely risk averse which unfortunately has, to a certain degree, stifled innovation. Modular and containerized data centers are relatively new and many decision makers in the data center space want more validation before making a decision, and that only comes with time. However, compared to other developments that took a very long time to gain acceptance, the pre- fabricated modular or the containerized solutions have had a rapid favorable reception. After all, in today’s environment, it is difficult to reject a solution that costs less, is more energy efficient, more flexible and has a much shorter deployment cycle.
Ultimately though, all three options, conventional brick and mortar,
prefabricated modular and containerized will have a place in the data center spectrum. The decision will be driven by the solution that is best aligned to the business needs.
Q GUY RUDDOCK ASKS:
With the simplification of the data center product, will we see the advent of a move from ‘beautiful’ to ‘functional’ data centers?
Peter Gross Answers: It is a bit difficult to assess the importance of the facility look, although historically, there are many examples of data centers expected to also make an architectural statement. Things are very different today; users want anonymity and security, in addition to performance and functionality. They don’t want the outside world to look at their data centers or even know they exist. The data center of the future will be industrialized and highly standardized. That’s the only way to reduce costs and delivery cycle. Whether this trend will translate into an esthetically pleasing facility is a highly subjective matter.
George Slessman Answers: We should aspire to elegance in engineering and design no matter what the delivery method for IT infrastructure. I would be surprised that the right answer to this problem would be anything but elegant and beautiful.
Q GUY RUDDOCK ASKS:
Will the speed and efficiency of new data center delivery models, change the way the clients consider the purchasing process, specifically the speed of the decision-making and how they plan for future capacity?
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Colt Modular Data Center
Peter Gross Answers: Yes, the fundamental difference is that the modular and the containerized data centers are essentially products, which changes drastically the way they are purchased. Instead of going through some form of the traditional design- bid-built, they will be purchased based on a specification that documents the performance requirements. Ultimately, these types of data centers will be purchased very similarly to the way servers or other infrastructure components are bought.
As Guy mentioned earlier, some customers are keen on preserving the general attributes of a conventional data center; others don’t seem to care, as long as the main objectives-cost, speed, energy and flexibility are met. Either way, standardization will drive the emphasis towards supply chain management and logistics.
George Slessman Answers: Absolutely yes. Otherwise we have not solved the real economic problem of data centers: they take too long to deploy and they cost too much.
Q PETER GROSS ASKS:
In terms of power and cooling, what are in your opinion the best suited technologies for the modular, pre-fabricated solutions?
Guy Ruddock Answers: The real core of this question is in fact the reverse, specifically what you can not use!
All of the usual suspects work just fine, free and fresh air cooling being the most obvious, with dx or chilled water backup probably the most common. As a strategy adiabatic requires great care, you never get something for nothing and with careful engineering this environmentally dubious technique is unnecessary.
We should not ignore some of the more unusual approaches either, ground water and river or industrial water cooling all of which we have used in the past work just fine.
Power tends to be more mainstream (for those modular builders who supply it with their product) but even here the form of the equipment is likely to change-monolithic switchboards are ripe for change
As for ups and generation, fuel cells may finally get the power high enough to meet the reduced requirements and that could see the advent of the mechanically driven ups units, probably flywheels, again as the power needed to maintain the facilities reduce
In short, any flavour but be prepared for change.
George Slessman Answers: Today, due to practical constraints, it is difficult to move away from systems that can provide for a targeted service level objective of 100%. Currently, the best technology for cooling is still a chilled water solution utilizing hydronic economization and modified air-to-air economization to drive
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