The Modular Data Center Market: A DCK Guide

With the modular market developing in the industry, there has been some tremendous innovation and engineering design efforts put into solutions. The modular market is maturing with even more large enterprises actively deploying the modular data center platform.

To further illustrate the traction in the modular industry, a recent Uptime Institute 3 survey showed that 41% of their respondents are already considering modular, pre-fab data centers or their components.

Modular Products

Many of the major server vendors have modular data center products and while they are optimized to work with their hardware, will typically support anything a standard rack supports. Vendors worldwide have engineered their own version of a container or module and incorporated a variety of unique capabilities into their solution. Having one vendor supply all components for and within the rack for a module enables them to engineer it as a complete solution that can then have modular power and cooling products complement the IT module. Modular data center products, including containers, are available from: IO, HP, IBM, SGI, Dell, Cisco, Cirrascale, Google, Elliptical Mobile Solutions, IPSIP, Toshiba, Bull, AST, Schneider Electric, PDI (acquired by Smiths Interconnect), Emerson Network Power, Silver Linings, Telenetix, and Active Power.

Modular Providers

Within the everything-as-a-Service model, a modular provider is able to offer the entire data center as a service, by quickly adding a module of IT with all supporting power and cooling infrastructure. The idea is to deliver a data center-in-a-box solution. Quickly built-out and provisioned, the data center can be made operational far faster than a standard bricks-and-mortar solution.

The entire module is available as a package, integrating all aspects of the IT within and subsystems through DCIM or other management tools, such as DCOS (data center operating systems). Modular data center Providers include: IO, NxGen Modular, mSun Modular Data centers, IBM, COLT, Toshiba, Cannon, Pacific Voice and Data, BladeRoom, Pelio & Associates, Dock IT, Lee Technologies (acquired by Schneider Electric), Datapod and Turbine Air Systems (TAS)/ Celestica (CLS).