Will the data center be like this in the future?

A few years ago, LexisNexis, a supplier that provided legal resources to lawyers, needed to expand its business on the West Coast. In the past, Terry Williams, vice president of managed technology solutions at the company, was looking for a hosting provider, renting some space, buying servers and configuring them. While hosting facilities provide power, cooling, and infrastructure, Williams says it still takes several months to configure the system in the correct way. If you need to change it, you may need to rent more space or reconfigure the system.

Williams thought that there must be a better way.

Williams discovered IO, a company specialized in modular data centers. IO's units built at its Arizona plant are about the size of the trailer's containers and are all built in the same way. Customers like Williams will purchase these containers and place them in any technical equipment they like.

Unlike most hosting facilities, IO modular data centers can be dynamically changed based on workload requirements. For example, Williams sets some units for high-density workloads, which requires additional power and cooling. Another part of this modular data center is used for low-density workloads and does not require backup power or cooling. IO's modular data center allows a single unit to support both environments at the same time, and can control these units through software in the system, which allows Williams to make changes at any time according to their company's needs.

"This modular data center provides you with higher flexibility," he said ." For traditional data centers, it may take about four months from the ordering system to production.

Williams believes that this is what the future data center looks like: these modular units are stacked together, each meeting the specific needs of their internal workloads, and can be customized according to the resources required at that time.

Will the data center be like this in the future? Not everyone is as optimistic as Williams and modular data center Manufacturers (such as IO). Gartner data center analyst David Cappuccino said that modular data centers have attracted attention more than a decade later. "In the past eight years, I have never received a call asking about this method," he said. "In the past few years, people have begun to be interested in this modular data center ."

IO modular data center: IO uses trailer-sized containers, each of which can accommodate 18, 36, or 50 server cabinets. Some customers arrange these containers in sequence and add new containers at any time according to the data center expansion needs.

Modular data centers provide unique advantages for data center operators of large enterprises. Most specifically, such data centers can be quickly deployed. "You no longer need to spend 15 to 20 months to build a new data center. Now, 15 to 20 weeks will allow you to get more capacity ." This is very attractive to customers. For example, colleges and universities with grants-funded research can quickly obtain the required capacity, and enterprises with many remote sites can quickly increase the capacity as needed. Ultra-large-scale data center operators can also use such data centers.

For example, Microsoft uses Dell's modular data center to provide more capacity in the data center based on the customer's service needs. These modular data centers are pre-configured with thousands of servers and can be enabled at any time. IO only provides "containers", and the customer needs to put the resources they need. "The real driving force here is whether you need to scale quickly," Cappuccino said ."

Williams liked the fine-grained flexibility they provided to control the operations of the data center. High-density workloads can have redundant power supplies. as developers adjust resources, the sandbox environment may get more power and cooling. For example, in the hot summer, if you want a bottle of beer in Ice Town, you will not turn on the air conditioner, but put the beer in the refrigerator. In a modular data center, you don't need to provide high-capacity cooling and dual-source power for the entire facility, but you just need to provide the units you really need.

IO. OS (I/O operating system) is a software interface that controls the regions in the data center to obtain the resources. It can also monitor exceptions in the system and remind users of potential security vulnerabilities. "The data center has always been a very stupid component in IT. IT basically refers to the hardware ." The intelligent data center design and software allow these systems to quickly respond to enterprise needs. The IO data center can be shipped to the customer's site, or the customer can choose to host in the IO campus.

Cappuccino believes that the emergence of modular data centers shows a trend in the development of data centers, that is, a more responsive data center design trend. "The data center design has finally caught up with the development of reality," he said ." There is a similar system that has specific areas dedicated for high-capacity workloads, provides additional cooling and redundant power supplies, and can also be built in traditional data centers; IO only uses the container method. He said that, in general, this modular data center does not have a significant cost advantage over the data center built by the enterprise itself, because power and cooling infrastructure must also be provided to these units, he believes that the discounts offered by suppliers are attracting customers to the market. IO did not disclose the price details of its modular data center. In addition, IBM, HP, and Dell all have modular data center products.

Modular data centers are expected to become part of a broader data center construction strategy. Enterprises may have a traditional data center, which may adopt new design components. Enterprises may also use cloud computing or host hosting services to meet extremely dynamic workloads. modular data centers may be used for remote sites. Cappuccino said: "people are beginning to realize that there is a more effective way to build a data center ."