Deploying and using containerized/modular data center facilities

by
Ron Bednar, Emerson
Buster Long, Cisco Systems
Suzen Shaw, Microsoft

Executive Summary

The rapidly maturing containerized and/modular data center facility (CMDF) platforms offered within the industry today can enable organizations to realize significant and demonstrated technical and business value when properly applied. This value comes from the repeatable, pre-engineered, prefabricated, and qualityassured set of building blocks that together bring online the necessary amount of IT capacity. This new containerized/modular approach to the construction and deployment of a data center can be expected to be rapidly deployed, have lower operating and capital costs, and be equipped with higher density and energy-savings targets. CMDF architecture has become an increasingly viable and robust alternative when considering a data center build, with multiple implementation approaches from various suppliers in the industry.

Conclusion

The CMDF approach can enable organizations to deploy IT equipment, capacity, and services in less time, for less cost, and under new and more business-appropriate delivery and costing models. The prefabricated and pre-engineered nature of a module can significantly reduce the potential quality and time risks typically found in traditional fixed-facility, site-constructed approaches. The CMDF architecture has become an increasingly viable and robust alternative when considering a data center build, as long as organizations take into account a CMDF’s particular needs and engage proper expertise and capabilities from trusted partners. Organizations should carefully weigh their needs against the advantages, risks, and challenges that a CMDF deployment may present.

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