Prefabricated modular data center transforms machine room construction into customization

Shenzhen Yantian Port Data center of the actual construction cycle of only 3.5 months, although the construction speed, low cost, but the quality is not discounted. All of this is due to the building of a new data center built by factory Prefabrication. Can the growing popularity of prefabricated modular data centers abroad withstand the test of Chinese users? Let the designers and builders of the Yantian port data center tell you in person.

3721.html ">2014 year March 29, Shenzhen Cloud base and China's first prefabricated modular data center was officially opened. The first phase of the data center project from September 2013 to January 2014 the entire project completed smoothly, less than 4 months, one of the most talked about is a "fast" word, and this "fast" word just highly summarizes the advantages of prefabricated modular data center.

Factory prefabrication feasible

For the first time, the reporter consciously focused on the prefabricated modular data center before the spring festival, when Schneider Electric had acquired a European professional prefabricated modular data center vendor AST, and was preparing to introduce a new approach to building the data center into China. Coincidentally, the reporter had just visited a large data center in the north of Sidney, Australia, which consisted of multiple micro modules.

Prefabricated modular data centers, as the name suggests, first, it follows modular data center design and building ideas, while modular deployment is undoubtedly the mainstream of data center building today; second, it uses factory prefabrication, that is, in the factory to complete the data center related infrastructure assembly, connection and testing, Minimizing the amount of work in the data center, thereby shortening the construction cycle of the data center and improving the quality of the project, can also reduce the cost.

The Shenzhen Cloud Base data Center, located in the modern logistics center of Shenzhen Yantian Port Group, is said to be the first large data center to be built in China using the prefabricated method of a base-type plant. The total building area of the data centre is 60,000 sq m and is scheduled to be completed in three phases within a few years. The first phase of the project has been completed, the total area of 5000 square meters, the existing cabinet of 680, and also reserved 158.

Base-Type Factory Prefabrication method It is easy to understand that a large data center is segmented into the appropriate module, each module is assembled on the base and tested in the factory, then the modules are transported to the data center construction site for stitching and installation. The traditional data center construction is a huge field project, which often requires dozens of or even hundreds of people of different jobs to cross work to complete the building of data center. The base-type factory prefabrication method turns a difficult data center project into a prefabricated product, not only accelerates the construction speed of the data center, improves the quality, but also effectively lowers the construction cost.

Shenzhen former Hai Tianyun Data Center Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Cloud Data center technology) chief executive Hu Yin said: "Data center construction from engineering to product transformation is the current global data Center building a major development trend." Yantian Port Data Center is a benchmark for prefabricated modular data centers. Its successful construction has proven that it is possible to build a high level data center that meets the full needs of large data center users through factory prefabrication. It gives the vast data center users and data center designers, builders to provide reference and inspiration. ”

The first phase of the Shenzhen Yantian Port Data Center project has been put into operation, and the operation of the data center is under the responsibility of the cloud Base's professional services company, which is said to have been leased by corporate customers. The Shenzhen Yantian Port data Center is the same as the "crab-eating Man", and its launch shows that the prefabricated modular data centers that have become popular abroad can also meet the needs of Chinese users.

Data Center Engineering Product

Rapid deployment, flexible scaling, high availability, and low cost have been the core requirements for users in designing and deploying data centers. In today's China, where cloud computing and big data are growing, the demand is more pronounced, and modularity and factory prefabrication are clearly better at meeting these needs.

In fact, factory prefabrication is not a patent of the data center industry. Hu Yin said that in the pharmaceutical industry, some large pharmaceutical companies in the construction of production lines and plants are also used in factory prefabrication this way, that is, the product line required to produce the equipment or modules, and then to the site to install. Hu Yin Another example in the area of renewable architecture. One of the major core businesses of broad air conditioning is renewable buildings. That year, the reason for broad air conditioning in the 15 days in Shanghai Expo Park to build a building, because the use of factory prefabrication, all parts are produced in the factory, and then to the construction site to assemble. It is said that broad air conditioning in the construction of a giant factory in Hunan, as well as a hotel next to the factory, are built by the factory prefabricated way. All of these buildings are made of steel girders, and if one day a building needs to be demolished, the steel beams removed can be recycled and no construction waste will be available. Factory prefabrication This approach can greatly speed up the construction of a project and reduce costs, so it has been applied in many industries. Because of the special application requirements, the data center industry may be more complex than other industries in adopting factory prefabrication.

In foreign countries, prefabricated modular data centers have been popular for nearly two or three years. Through in-depth research, especially the past year's practice, Hu Yin has a deeper understanding of prefabricated modular data centers. He summed up the advantages of prefabricated modular data centers in the following four areas.

First, the production of data center engineering. This is the most profound impact and change that the prefabricated modular data center brings to the data center industry. The prefabricated modular data center of Yantian Port transforms the computer room engineering into a customized product, product external material selection, internal equipment selection and assembly methods have to undergo repeated optimization design, technical evaluation and system testing, to ensure that users deliver reliable, safe and highly available data center products. Product-oriented modular data center, internal and external firmware are standardized structure, mainly including fire, lighting, maintenance sockets, equipment support structure. These parts are all produced and assembled on the factory line. A very complex need to distribute the implementation of the Machine Room project now become as simple as the block, construction difficulty greatly reduced, the construction cycle is also shorter. Typically, the construction cycle of a large data center is 1.5 to two years, and the construction cycle of the prefabricated modular data center in Yantian port is only 3.5 months, which is enough to make Hu Yin and his team proud.

Second, the function of modularization. The Modular data center product is to separate the relative independent unit in the Data center infrastructure system, and to reorganize the module, and to ensure the stable output of each module through the system redundancy, backup and fault tolerance. These encapsulated modules are connected through limited cables and pipelines, thus constituting a complete data center system. The concept of prefabricated modularization makes the deployment of the data center in Yantian port more flexible, more convenient and more economical to operate.

The production of standardized modules is Schneider Electric's strength. Schneider Electric can provide modules such as refrigeration, power distribution and so on that are necessary for modular data centers. Schneider Electric is the main equipment supplier of Yantian port data center, including cabinets, power distribution cabinets, UPS units and batteries, precision air-conditioning, dense bus and medium voltage switch, etc., all of the equipment are provided by Schneider Electric. "Schneider Electric is our main supplier of prefabricated modular data centers," said Hu Yin. ”

Third, deployment is quicker. Data centers usually include 9 major systems, namely, construction, decoration, electrical, refrigeration, security, fire, fresh air, transportation and peacekeeping management. Traditional data center in the design phase, each system must be detailed design, reasonable research to determine the final implementation plan, the design cycle of at least 1/3 of the overall construction cycle of the data center, coupled with equipment selection, the project before the implementation of a number of reviews, etc., further extended the data center construction cycle. The Yantian Port Data Center employs modular products that have been optimized, tested and evaluated, dramatically simplifying the design process and shortening the construction cycle.

Four, green operation. In the design process, the data center of Yantian Port considers green energy saving as a key factor. Sometimes, the key equipment in the room, such as electrical, refrigeration and other equipment can not be fully utilized, the low efficiency caused by the low load is the traditional data center is the main reason for inefficient energy. Follow the modular design concept, Yantian port data Center in the various modules to form a complete data center, while abandoning the traditional planning idea of reserving 3-5 years of capacity to achieve on-demand expansion, thereby improving the electrical equipment and mechanical equipment use efficiency, reduce the overall energy consumption.

Yantian Port Data Center in the local has achieved a hot channel closed environment, innovative use of cloud data center technology development of refrigeration system-cold wall. "In the hot Channel closed environment, the use of cold wall can reduce wind speed, improve refrigeration efficiency, and even replace the precision air-conditioning." Some of the big internet companies abroad have adopted the cold wall system. "Unlike standardized precision air-conditioning, cold walls are not standardized products and must be tailored to the different needs of each data center project," Hu Yin said. In the fourth generation data center, the cold wall is becoming the standard, can reduce the PUE value effectively. ”