Portable Modular Data Center

Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) is new approach to the modular and efficient data center solution and is the part of the IBM Data center family. This is done by taking the entire data center and building it inside the containers following ISO standard. It can be shipped easily across the countries or to other countries by truck, ship and in some unique cases through plane. Main reason to build it inside the container is it can be stored in controlled environment, thereby making its installation easier and also provide versatile movement for any purpose. This solves the problem to temporarily provide support to data center which might need expansion, recovery or replacement.

An example of PDMC is shown, which is 20 x 20 x 8 feet of dimension, but also has an expandable option to fit more IT equipment inside the container based on client’s requirements. The entire container is well insulated and fire protected, RF insulated and electromagnetic insulated, thus protecting the data from the devices and the equipment from damaging. The sensors inside the container also record data of people entering, the temperature, and humidity. They are built using the rack system on the rail for maintaining and accessing the devices, cables and equipment. It has open IT architecture which enables to install any IT equipment and it doesn’t need to be IBM equipment alone. There is a separate chiller equipment, UPS and separate heat exchangers which fits in nicely in the container which provide the adequate temperature for the devices. Traditionally it was possible by a separate device but IBM managed it by partnering with other leading suppliers to fit into this new integrated concept of PMDC.

The detection and suppression system helps taking the air samples constantly that checks for particles in air which might cause fire and if it senses it release the gas to avoid it. On the other side we see the main power panel which contains main circuit breakers and its branches, transient voltage suppressor to tap the incoming power supply for its performance to the UPS. All these helped in developing the turn-key data center within the container. Originally this solution was intended towards small market such as oil exploration, military operation but found people required this during temporary space during expansion or repair time smoothly. In order to operate this PMDC, three essentials are needed – electric power to operate, water source for the humidifier and the network connection to connect to the outer world. The typical design of this PMDC has PUE of 1.3 when compared to the traditional ones which has 2.5 to 2.7. The cost of 17 racks container would be around 500-600 thousand dollars.  

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJGHMa20M_0