What Is a Modular Data Center? A DCK Guide

Data centers of the future are letting go of long-held traditions for design — with modular products and providers ushering in a new era. A modular data center is an approach to data center design that incorporates the use of a factory-built module or a method for delivering data center infrastructure in a modular fashion.

Modular solutions take the best ideas for design, reliability, and efficiency and package them into a prefabricated, repeatable, and operationally optimized module.

The modular market started with an international standard approach in the shape of an ISO (International Standards Organization) shipping container and has evolved to a fledgling market of vendors that produce everything from containers to a variety of modular designed products and solutions for IT, power and cooling.

In some ways, the shift in IT such as cloud computing has been in parallel with modular data center approaches.

Data Center Containers vs. Modular Data Centers

Often, there is confusion between "data center containers" and "modular data center" terms.

A data center container is a particular package that is engineered and delivered as such — in an ISO shipping container. A modular data center, on the other hand, references a deployment method and engineered solution for assembling a data center out of modular components in, many times, prefabricated solutions that enable scalability and a rapid delivery schedule.

While a container is not the same thing as a modular data center, a container can be a part of a modular data center.

Data Center Container

A data center product incorporating customized infrastructure to support power or cooling infrastructure, or racks of IT equipment. Containers are built using an ISO (International Standards Organization) intermodal shipping container.

Modular Data Center

An approach to data center design that implies either a prefabricated data center module or a deployment method for delivering data center infrastructure in a modular, quick, and flexible method.

Types of Modular Solutions Available

To build on terminology that has grown around container and modular, Jason Schafer from The 451 Group categorized the types of modular solutions available:

Of the four categories, only three meet the definition for modular. The fourth type, a phased approach, may be conceived of as modular in that it is built-out gradually, but is not truly modular.

Modular 1.0

A number of innovations marked the beginnings of the modular products and ideas:

After the early development of containers, theories evolved and the hype cycle played out for a data center in a box. Numerous hardware vendors, independent companies and data center providers embraced the modular concept and presented their own engineered solution.

Additional Modular Data Center Resources