FOCUS MODULARITY UPDATE
Issue 19, January 2012
FOCUS UPDATE: MODULAR
I
f looks could kill, Jon Karlung’s creations would dominate the world of data centers. What techy would not want to work inside a structure looking as if it were straight out of a James Bond film or an episode of Star Trek? The CEO of Swedish Internet Service Provider Bahnhof — the son of a Swedish fi lmmaker and actress — certainly has been getting attention around the world for making data centers look as sci-fi as they sound, going beyond the colourful neon lights of Equinix and Legoland feel of Switch’s SuperNAP to fulfi l his dream of making data centers sexy.
“Who would want to put their valuable
machinery inside ugly containers — it is so stupid,” Karlung says to me when I meet him for the fi rst time at Pionen White Mountain, which sits beneath a church. “I went to ask them if they wanted heat from below — they just looked at me strange,” Karlung says after a visit above, highlighting that almost everything he does not only comes with a sense of the theatrical, but also a sense of humour. Karlung really wanted to offer the church some district heating, but due to technical issues it was decided to heat nearby homes instead.
INSIDE PIONEN
I had seen numerous shiny images of Pionen — Karlung’s data center inside a nuclear bunker in Stockholm — and on entering had the same blue and green backlights with a waterfall, carpet that looked like the galaxy, and asteroid-style seats. It did actually look like something straight out of James Bond — inside a cave, with steam billowing outside. I have also seen numerous videos online showing data centers with a backdrop of hard techno, and this was the real deal. As a result, much of the video taken is inaudible.
Karlung’s latest project is now gaining similar attention
(think international space station
meets the modular data center). At the time of writing, Karlung said he had taken his new modular data center solution, designed with Swedish Steel with the help of Schneider Electric, Eaton, Vattenfall and MTU, to Facebook for consideration for its new Lulea
40
www.datacenterdynamics.com
MAKING DATA CENTERS SEXY Will data centers one day be worthy of the design museum? Penny Jones goes underground with Swedish ISP Bahnhof in Stockholm to fi nd out
Above: MDC’s modular data center. Below left: Karlung’s concept for the design. Right: The ‘steel city’ concept
data center in Sweden. “The proposal is half the price and twice the coolness factor,” Karlung said.
Modular Data Center Stockholm is the name of the company set up to sell the product of the same name. It is also building a new colocation center that will act as a working model selling colocation space. “Imagine a city growing of steel,” Karlung says.
Each container has 35 high-density racks built in that can be powered by 11kW each. The containers are constructed with a bullet- proof metal material (Karlung says he was conducting weapons testing on the containers after I left Stockholm). The containers balance a separate container for a built-in cooling solution on top. “Basically, we vent out the heat by pushing air down in the center of the container. It is free cooling and can be used anywhere in the world,” Karlung says.
As for power, the container comes with a separate purpose-built module, or companies have the fl exibility of choice. If more than one container for compute
is required,
customers can stack them side by side, and walls between both can be removed to create a more workable space. These will sit around
an igloo-like structure used for workspace made of the same material used for military aircraft hangars. Karlung is promising a PUE of between 1.2 to 1.15 once live-tested, but he says the most important thing is that these modular solutions look “cool”.
“It will look very futuristic,” Karlung says of the new colo facility. “We are building this fi rst data center to look like a space station. This whole area (just near Arlanda airport) will have a cool look. The idea came from a space station, with some of the drawings and language derived from science fi ction books. It is not just a picture, though, as the idea is also based on how you actually build stuff in space. You don’t ship out the international space station in one piece, you do it module by module.”
It is novel, and according to sources it could turn out to be a winning recipe. If anything it will put a smile on the face of some less traditional passing motorists, and for those who are indifferent, a modular approach will allow them time to get used to it. As for winning contracts, watch this space. In the meantime, Karlung says he is not throwing up his design shoes. The next transformation could possibly involve a boat. n
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