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Enterprises should start looking at Modular Data Centers - Better Secured DCIM Practice

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Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director – Sales & Support, NetRackOver a decade, data centers have changed dramatically and evolved into physical and virtual infrastructures, driving the demand for fast, inexpensive and secure data storage. Many businesses run hybrid clouds and require a combination of both types of data centers. The role and contribution of the data center has changed significantly. Earlier, building the data center was a 25+ year commitment that had inefficiencies in power& cooling, no flexibility in cabling and no mobility within or between data centers. But in the present scenario of DCIM, companies have started looking out for an infrastructure which is a composition of speed, performance and efficiencies.

Considering Modular Data Centers: What is it for Businesses?

The ideal approach to meet the emerging demands of businesses is Modular Data Center solution, which is designed to increase installation and management efficiencies of data center hardware infrastructure. Additionally, it provides the flexibility needed by data center users through provisioning of separate modules on-demand and also enables deployment of custom-made solutions to customers.

Endorsing the Scalable, Agile, Efficient Parameters
The major forces driving the modular data center adoption across various verticals are its increased flexibility in mobility and deployment, higher efficiency and greaterscalable factor. With its customizable standardized design, it is easy to fulfill the requirement of customers and scale the infrastructure quickly. The modules can be easily added & replaced if there is any update in the technology. Thus, organizations can forecast technological developmentsin advance and quickly address the evolving business needs by adding the resources without any further expenditure.
Every module of a modular data center is engineered such that the internal subsystems are tightly integrated which results in efficiency gains among power and cooling of the data center cabinets. Considering the space parameter, introduction of building blocks enables us to use the space efficiently and also assist in easy relocation or expanding of data centers. Also, in a modular solution PUE’s can be as low as 1.1 -1.4.

Beat the Heat Wisely

Data centers require specialized cooling solutions to handle the heating load from IT equipment.The increasing computing capacity of new servers of greater power density has created the need to cool the hot spots in the data center more efficiently. This has become more crucial to a company’s operation. Heating issues, if ignored affects the performance of the whole unit.
Organizations opting modular data centers can address the challenges in cooling. They offer rack level and row level cooling solutions and air flow management components such as air seal kits and blanking panelswhich push cold air in to the racks. Hence, intelligent monitoring and management of the temperature of the data center cabinet can be achieved.

Disaster Recovery Solution: State-of-IT-Resiliency

Despite the uncontrollable natural disasters occurring such as fires, earth quakes, hurricanes and tornado- induced floods, an organization must be prepared to protect their data centers to ensure that the data is safe. A research conducted by data center market experts say that almost 50% of surveyed companies are looking at disaster recovery solutions as a main part of their purchasing plans. Modularity will be the perfect solution to deal with disaster recovery plans/strategies.

Modular enclosures can be insulated and built with heat-resistant material, are equipped with fire suppression unit, a non-toxic and eco-friendly substance to deal with internal fire calamities. Also, theycan be designed to withstand the jarring and shaking force of earthquakes. The rigid & retrofit manufacture design provides maximum protection against rain, dust and flood water during disaster event.

Hence, considering the modular data center cabinets is a wise solution to reduce the OPEX and can assure that the datacenter infrastructure is future-proof.