Data Center in a Box

By Greg Cornfield | Jan 9, 2009

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Many vendors today offer what is generically referred to as a Portable Modular Data Center. While this seems like a solution that may be useful in the US, I really couldn't imagine the need in Asia, especially in the large, generally overcrowded cities. Imagine a container truck pulling up in front of HSBC along Queens Road Central in Hong Kong, unloading a 20 foot container and plugging it in. There would be a lot of unhappy commuters on the trams and buses.

Then a few weeks ago a press release caught my eye. It was titled Sun announced Tuesday that it has donated Sun Modular Datacenter (Sun MD) to the China National Disaster Reduction Center (CNDRC) [8].

So I thought that maybe there is a use for these Portable Modular Data Centers after all and contacted three of the major vendors: Sun, HP and IBM for their comments.

Thanks to Gan Boon San, President of Sun Microsystems, Asia South; Arun Natarajan, Director of Scalable Computing & Infrastructure, HP Asia Pacific and Japan; and Glen Yuan, Services Product Line Executive, Site & Facilities Services, Global Technology Services, IBM Asia Pacific for their input.

First of all what is a portable modular data center (PMDC)?

A portable, modular data center is rapidly deployable, secure, modular data center that provides the convenience and flexibility of a data center whenever and wherever it's required. It has all the elements of the secure operating environments found in traditional "raised-floor" data centers, including protection from fire, smoke, humidity, condensation and temperature changes. Simply put, it is a comprehensive data center delivered in a shipping container.

Vendors will support other vendors' equipment within their PMDC.

Sun provides the option to rent or lease in the case of a disaster. IBM does not and HP is working on it!

Who would use it?

All types of businesses and industries face skyrocketing energy costs, environmental concerns and corporate sustainability requirements.

The largest opportunity lies with customers who require additional data center capacity, because they have reached their limits in power and cooling capacity and physical space. In addition, customers who need a temporary or transitional data center for the duration of a project or while a new data center is being built or upgraded will benefit from these data centers. Lastly, opportunities for modular data centers are seen as part of a disaster recovery plan.

Why would they use it?

Modular data centers are primarily designed for customers who need additional data center capacity using limited power and cooling capacity, and physical space. Customer environments, such as Web 2.0, cloud computing and scale-out computing, are ideal for modular data centers.

According to IBM their clients see significant benefits that include:

Reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership by 30 percent to 70 percent.
Increased server utilization rates of up to 80 percent-in contrast to the more typical 5 percent to 15 percent.
Consolidation ratios ranging from 8:1 to 30:1.
Lower power and cooling costs of between 10% to 30%.

Deployment for a PMDC takes from several weeks with HP to several months with IBM. It is also significantly less expensive than building a brick and mortar data center.

Any interest in the Asia Pacific region?

IBM claims that since they launched the product in June 2008, mining companies in Australia have shown great interest, and also some interest from ASEAN and India.

HP told me that they are already seeing a lot of interest, especially in countries where space and infrastructure are issues, for example India. They can't release customer names at this time, as they are actively engaged in POD (Performance Optimized Data) conversations with customers across a broad range of market segments.

As I mentioned earlier Sun donated a Modular Data Center (Sun MD) to the China National Disaster Reduction Center (CNDRC) to help the Chinese Government build a satellite disaster reduction system.

The Sun MD will be employed as the backup subsystem in order to meet its reliability and security requirements. The CNDRC also plans to deploy the new datacenter to manage severe disasters and provide platform support for strategic decisions at the disaster control command center

So maybe there is a use, in the right circumstances, especially with the rapid growth in the region and also the risk that many countries have in the region from natural disasters.

There is also the opportunity to expand into other directions. Maybe EMC could provide their new Cloud offering Atmos in a PMDC format - then you would have a Cloud in a Box. Red Hat could also deploy PMDC's with an Open Box. Hitachi could deploy a Bento Box, the possibilities are almost endless.

So if you are still stuck for a Christmas gift, and if you have the money then order a Portable Modular Data Center, wrap it up and give it to the one you love.

If you want me to tackle a particular storage topic, or just want to talk direct, e-mail me at gcornfield@questexasia.com [9].

About the author
Greg Cornfield runs a management consultancy firm based in Hong Kong. He has 40 years' experience in the IT industry. Most recently he was the Asia Pacific Vice President for COPAN Systems (one of the early developers of MAID technology). Prior to COPAN, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager for Hitachi Data Systems' Asia Pacific and Latin America business. Prior to that, he was an Advisory Systems Engineer at IBM.

Orignal Author:

Greg Cornfield