The Frame Group

ICT and digital transformation services

  • Home
  • Capabilities
  • Industries
  • Case studies
  • Insights
  • About
  • Contact

Why containerised data centres are in demand

Written by Arsalan Shahlaee

solution graphic
In recent years there has been much deliberation in the data centre industry on whether the legacy approach to build a data centre is the best decision.

The sorts of issues which must be addressed when considering the build include:

  • the rapid progression of technology
  • application requirements
  • geographical challenges
  • demographic change and demand for IT
  • site constraints for construction
  • flexibility and scalability of the data centre facility
  • expected lifecycle of the facility
  • construction time to build data centres and their cost.

Because of these issues, it’s no surprise there’s been a significant shift in the mindset of data centre managers and operators. The purpose-built portable approach of a containerised (or modular) data centre is now considered a serious alternative to the traditional bricks-and-mortar facility.

Containerised data centres were originally used only in emergencies

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the containerised data centre, in a commercial market, was initially conceived to address disaster recovery and emergency deployment; for example, to quickly replace space lost in a fire.

Typically, this was in the form of a prime mover truck, where the trailer carried a containerised data centre. The trailer was parked and left on site to operate until the primary facility was up and running again.

These trailers supplemented a mandatory permanent data centre facility.

From circa 2000s, commercial containerised data centres became viable and practical

Google has been one of the pioneers in shifting to the containerised data centre solution in lieu of traditional data centre build.

There have been numerous reports from Green Grid, Longhaus institute and MarketsandMarkets which suggest that containerised data centre applications will exponentially grow until 2020. According to MarketandMarket, the containerised data centre market will be worth $35.11 billion by 2020.

With the current trend in demand for connecting devices to the internet — as mentioned in my article about the Internet of Things — and the fact that mobile connectivity is becoming most organisations’ number-one priority, there’s been an increasing movement in the international and Australian markets to quickly, simply and cheaply deploy technology assets.

This will enable multi-tenant buildings, shopping centres, airports, train stations, hotels, hospitals, etc. to provide seamless coverage of mobile technology to their customers, and technology-based productivity services to their employees.

To enable quick and cost-effective deployment, the containerised solution for housing of technology assets has become feasible and more common.

What are the advantages of a containerised data centre?

There are nine key advantages:

  1. Scalablity, within a repeatable and defined (hence standardised) approach
  2. Agility if change is required
  3. Mobility, transportability and ease of placement in almost any situation
  4. Quick procurement and deployment times
  5. No design required by the client
  6. Makes best use of real estate assets of the client
  7. Delivers very good energy efficiency
  8. Can provide medium or high power density and low PUE
  9. Fast to commission

Other advantages are specific cases for containerised data centres, such as High Performance Computing (HPC) or clustering.

There are at least two examples in Australia of containers being used for HPC cases, as reported by Science Network Western Australia and Tech Research Asia: iVec in Western Australia uses a HP POD, and Animal Logic uses an IBM PMDC. Also DSTO has looked to house its HPC in ISO containers.

As more and more organisations look to out-compute to compete through HPC-like use cases (including big data workloads), more deployments of containerised facilities will be seen across the country and also across the Asian region.

A containerised data centre approach is the future

The containerised data centre solution has become an increasingly feasible and robust replacement for data centres, when considering their fast procurement, deployment and commissioning.

In addition, the prefabricated and pre-engineered nature of a containerised data centre can alleviate potential risks associated with conventional bricks-and-mortar facilities.

Take a look at module48, Frame’s data centre in a container solution.

About Arsalan Shahlaee

Arsalan is a data centre consultant specialising in facility environmental design, mechanical engineering, green energy and energy efficiency. His skill set covers project management, consultancy and modelling, as well as providing support to facility construction disciplines in relation to ICT environments.

Read more articles by Arsalan Shahlaee.

Other articles you might like

  • advice graphicHow to ensure your projects deliver maximum value and benefits
  • solution graphicHow to get effective in-building mobile coverage for your business
  • solution graphicTech.Bit: What's the deal with internal VLANs?
  • solution graphicMobilising healthcare: the disruption of health collaboration

Choose a topic

  • Australian Privacy Act
  • business and ICT operations
  • business process; customer experience
  • cloud
  • connectivity; mobility; the IoT
  • Data breach notification
  • data centres
  • Data privacy
  • Data Protection
  • Data regulation
  • digital; the web
  • EU-GDPR
  • general data protection regulation
  • governance
  • projects; programs
  • Risk and Compliance
  • security
  • strategy
Advice, integrated solutions and services for ICT and digital transformation

Understanding what matters most to your organisation, The Frame Group provides clarity, insight and hands-on delivery of ICT and digital services for better ways of doing business.

Man focusing
Frame makes a difference because we cut through the noise and zero in on what you need.

That’s the advantage of clarity.

Explore Frame’s capabilities

ADVISORY SERVICES
Business consulting
Customer experience
Digital strategy
Governance, risk management and compliance
Process management and optimisation
Smart communities
Strategic portfolio management
ICT consulting
Disaster recovery strategy and planning
Enterprise architecture
ICT frameworks
ICT outsourcing optimisation
ICT sourcing and procurement
ICT strategic planning
ICT AND DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
Cloud solutions
Migration
Orchestration and automation
Strategy
Connectivity solutions
Audio and video
Collaboration
ICT infrastructure
Software-defined X
The Internet of Things
Wireless and mobility
Data centre solutions
Data centre solutions overview
Implementation, relocation, migration and transition
Management and policy
module48 — modular data centre
Sourcing and selection
Strategy and design
Thermal modelling and airflow studies
Information solutions and analytics
Application development and integration
Big data and analytics
Dynamic digital signage
Occu-Pi — meeting room booking system
Security solutions
Assurance strategy
Policy and guidelines
Risk and threat assessment
DELIVERY SERVICES
Managed services
Managed services overview
ICT and digital operations optimisation
ICT and digital support services
Network as a service
Video meeting room as a service
Solution delivery
Program management
Project management
Solution implementation and deployment
Contract Staff
Frame logo

construction icon defence icon education icon finance icon government icon health icon transport icon

Call1300 252 789
Connectlinkedin icon twitter icon mail icon
Careerspeople icon

© The Frame Group Pty Limited 2013–2022   |   ABN 48 095 369 403   |   Privacy statement    |   Terms of use

  • Home
  • Capabilities
  • Industries
  • Case studies
  • Insights
  • About
  • Contact