Executive brief and playbook explore new data centre deployment approaches

Prefabricated data centres transform traditional data centre construction practices by manufacturing and testing an entire facility offsite in modules before shipping and assembling those modules onsite. The result is a state-of-the-art, tightly integrated facility that can be deployed faster and at a lower cost than a similar facility using traditional construction practices.

“Prefabricated data centres are part of the natural evolution of unified infrastructure,” said Viktor Petik, managing director, Integrated Modular Solutions for Emerson Network Power in EMEA. “The modular approach has been available for a number of years in limited sizes and configurations, but we are now finally seeing its full potential and benefits. These include speed of deployment, scalability, design flexibility and cost control applied to facility-scale, fully customisable data centers, as well as telecommunications infrastructures.”

The business case for prefabricated data centers is explained in the Executive Brief, “Prefabricated Data Centers: Are They Right for You?” In the Playbook for Change, “Evaluating and Deploying Prefabricated Data Centers,” Emerson Network Power takes a closer look at executional considerations. Some potential advantages to the approach, examined more closely in the two pieces, include:
- Speed of Deployment: Prefabricated data centres cut months off the time to deploy and should appeal to any organisation seeking to accelerate data centre deployment.
- Scalability: Because prefabricated data centres take a modular approach to design and fabrication, they are inherently scalable, allowing streamlined, on-demand capacity expansion.
- Cost Control: Prefabricated data centres leverage economies of scale and streamlined processes made possible by offsite assembly to enable lower total cost of ownership.
- Design Flexibility: Prefabricated data centres are custom designed to a site and have no inherent limitations in terms of functionality or aesthetics.
- Performance: Assembly in a factory-controlled environment enables more control over fit, finish, and quality of workmanship, plus thorough testing and optimisation prior to delivery.
- Intelligence: Integrated components, managed together, enable higher IT productivity and more dynamic capacity adjustments
- Project Management and Service: Preassembled, integrated systems — featuring components from a single vendor or chosen for their compatibility — simplify project specification and execution and ensure more efficient service and maintenance over the life of the deployment.

“When deciding whether to expand an existing facility or go ahead with a new build, prefabricated data centres offer a highly attractive solution,” said Luka Gaspar, vice president Business Development for Integrated Modular Solutions, Emerson Network Power in EMEA. “Today, CIOs and other decision-makers have options that simply weren’t conceivable a few years ago. These new tools, such as the emerging category of unified infrastructure, mean that innovative solutions are now available to efficiently manage and optimise data centre growth.”