I chanced upon this scene (below) on the way out for lunch over the weekend. While the bank branch was under renovation, they placed a few containers outside and created a make-shift containerized temporary banking center outside. Innovative use of containers.
Actually, there are many many ways to make use of containers. Currently, approximately 90% of all non-bulk cargo worldwide are moved by containers stacked on transport ships. Although ISO standardized containers into five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6.1 m), 40-ft (12.2 m), 45-ft (13.7 m), 48-ft (14.6 m), and 53-ft (16.2 m), we usually hear of just the 20-ft and 40-ft versions.
One of the many creative way of using a 20-ft standard sized container is to turn it into a compact data center facility. Sun Microsystem did just that, designing two different models, with the S20 model being able to accommodate up to 305 RU of IT equipment in eight (8) standard 19″ racks of 30.75″ depth, with a maximum 25kW payload per rack. The D20 model has 4 of the 8 racks converted into three (3) deeper racks that could accommodate equipment up to 45.25″ depth. The beauty of the Sun Modular Data Center (Sun MD) is its patented cooling architecture and design. Through intelligent placement of the heat exchanger cooling system, Sun is able to effectively create a circular airflow within the container, removing heat from one rack and pushing conditioned cool air into the next rack.
More information about Sun MD is available here > http://www.sun.com/products/sunmd/s20/index.jsp
You may ask, why would anyone want to own a datacenter of only 8 racks housed inside a container? There are quite a number of reasons, and depending on what are the pain points of the customer, their reasons may differ. Some of these reasons are:
- The business requires a data center facility that is mobile or able to be transported anywhere easily. This could be for disaster recovery purposes, or could be for physical security purposes or even for national security reasons. As the form factor of a Sun MD is a standard ISO 20-ft container, it is easily transportable. In fact, even more transportable than the 40-ft version, which some other vendors have used as their equivalent product (do consider the narrow roads in some of our cities and how much turning angle you need to get a 40-ft container + truck through those roads).
- The next possible reason is the density and efficiency of the Sun MD itself. With a maximum 25kW/rack density, compressed within that small footprint, it is a very efficiency use of space to support such high densities. It is estimated that Sun MD is 4 times more effective, and in 1/8th the size of a typical data center that can support such densities.
- Designing and building a brick-and-mortar data center would likely require 10 times longer in duration that deployment of the Sun MD, given that in some jurisdiction, securing permits, zoning approval, meeting local regulatory requirements, etc. will take time.
- Estimated 40% lower cooling capacity given its efficiency in heat removal, as compared to a typical data center.
Of course, there are other reasons, but the above are usually the key ones.
Sun even tested the Sun MD in an earthquake simulator. Check out the video here.
Tags: Container, Data Center, Efficiency, Emerging trends