Emerson Deploys 1.1MW Modular Data Center for T-Systems

T-Systems, the IT services subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has deployed a 1.1 megawatt modular data center in Barcelona to support its cloud services in Europe. The data center, designed and built by Emerson Network Power, consists of 38 modules.

The main advantage of modular data centers is being able to add data center capacity quickly. Modules are usually pre-fabricated at a factory and shipped to user’s site, where they are assembled and plugged into network, power, and chilled water.

It took nine months to design and build the data center, which, according to Emerson, would have taken two to three years to build using the traditional construction approach.

This is a second announcement of a modular data center deployment this month, albeit a much larger one. The first one was deployment of a CommScope data center by the University of Montana.

Other recent deals include Chinese search giant Baidu’s installation of Schneider Electric modules, and Australian data center services provider Red Cloud’s planned expansion using T4 data center modules by Cannon Technologies.

The T-Systems project in Barcelona is unusually large for a modular data center deployment – the method is typically used to deploy smaller amounts of capacity – indicating that T-Systems is seeing a lot of opportunity for cloud services in the region.

The data center supports about 300 racks and has received Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute. The Tier certification is an official third-party confirmation of reliability of the facility’s infrastructure.

T-Systems has been expanding its data center capacity in Europe rapidly. In July 2014, the company announced launch of a large data center in Biere, Germany.

Raul Saura, head of dynamic platforms services at T-Systems Iberia, said the Barcelona facility played a key role in an ongoing consolidation and transformation program. “It was absolutely strategic to quickly and successfully deploy this data center to fulfil T-Systems- vision of the future,” he said in a statement.