Data Centre Module Myths

Fiction:

Due to their steel construction, modular DC solutions have a limited lifespan and should only be used as a temporary measure. Steel will rust, like the containers you see on ships, trains and trucks.

Fact:

When building a modular DC, a key consideration is to understand what environmental conditions the DC will be exposed to and prepare for that from the start. For example: to protect against high levels of humidity and salinity, such as a location at sea, a C5 coating on a steel structure would be applied. For areas with a medium corrosion risk including industrial and coastal areas, a C3 coating will do the job. With the right protection in place, there is no reason why a modular DC can’t be in service for 40 years or more.

Fiction:

Moving modular data centres requires special equipment and processes and can often be logistically challenging. This increases both installation time and cost, especially when compared with traditional construction methods.

Fact:

Most modular data centres are built at a specialist offsite factory environment, using a repeatable process that allows for flexible and cost-efficient future expansions. They undergo rigorous pre-testing and quality assessment to facilitate quick delivery and ensure they are fit-for-purpose. It’s more logistically complex to build a traditional data centre because of the constant deliveries of heavy equipment and materials to site. And they take years to build, not months.

Fiction:

Additional costs such as installation challenges, shipping costs, and import duties make prefabricated modular data centres so much more expensive to construct than brick and mortar facilities. In addition, they require a specialised workforce to be present on site.

Fact:

With modular data centres the individual components and the building processes are standardised. The overall capex for a prefabricated solution can be in the range 10-20% less than a bricks and mortar build. In addition to reduced capital expenditure, modular data centre solutions are designed with lower operating costs per rack. Pre-testing capabilities and higher quality control also help to reduce overall risk, providing greater control over the project duration when compared with traditional construction methods, which can positively influence the overall project cost.

Fiction:

Modular data centres are considered temporary installations that don’t meet acceptable requirements for redundancy, security and availability and as such cannot get an independent design or construction certification. 

Fact:

Prefabricated modular data centres can be designed to meet any availability level required and customers can tailor both environmental and physical security to suit their needs. As a construction methodology, prefabrication has been fully accepted by all independent data centre bodies and is acknowledged by many as the way most data centres will be built in the future.

Fiction:

In terms of future scalability, there is no benefit in building a prefabricated data centre versus using traditional construction methods.

Fact:

Modular data centres allow customers to take a building block approach and simply add another block when they need to. This helps to meet a key challenge in the market; the ability to respond to unprecedented surges in growth in a more efficient manner than ever before. They can scale as necessary with no risk to ongoing operations and ensure resources can be efficiently used over time. Traditionally built facilities require companies to deploy capacity before it is needed —creating risk and stranding capital— or constantly stay a step behind their capacity requirements, limiting growth. Not to mention exposing facilities to extreme operational risk, should expansion be required for a live DC.