i/o Anywhere: New Modular Data Center

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An early look at the i/o Anywhere modular data center introduced this week by i/o Data Centers.

i/o Data Centers has announced the launch of i/o Anywhere, a modular data center platform that allows customers to rapidly deploy new data center space. With Monday's announcement, the Phoenix-based colocation provider makes a major move into the evolving market for modular designs that can be designed and built offsite and rapidly deployed at a customer premises.

Most of the major players in the U.S. commercial market for containers and modular data centers have been equipment vendors, such as server makers like HP, IBM and Dell and power equipment manufacturers like Active Power. i/o Data Centers appears to be the first colocation provider to develop in-house modular designs as a way to bring the data center to the customer.

"It is no longer necessary for customers to buy power, cooling, and network connectivity ahead of known requirements or in a location that is not ideal," said George Slessman, CEO of i/o Data Centers. " i/o Anywhere gives enterprise customers the ability to deploy operational data center capacity wherever and whenever they need it, in or out of a building, on or off the utility grid. Our enterprise customers can now acquire data center capacity the same way they do processing, storage and network – when they need it."

The company says i/o Anywhere will include primary and backup power generation, power conditioning, cooling and network connectivity. Significantly, it also offers the "i/o OS" – a fully-integrated data center monitoring, alarming, remote control and management operating system.

i/o Data Centers says the new solution goes beyond a re-purposed shipping container, describing it as an enterprise-grade data center solution that will include a 100% uptime Service Level Agreement. The platform's modules can be configured, delivered and brought online in "a matter of weeks," lowering costs and time to market, the company says. Additional details are expected in coming weeks.