An early model of the Sun Microsystems “Black Box” IT container.
Major IT equipment vendors created MDC’s for various use cases. IBM launched a green initiative to reduce data center energy consumption. HP jumped in as well, with its POD (Performance Optimized Datacenter). HP also introduced Thermal Zone mapping in 2007, which reportedly helped to reduce energy costs by up to 45 percent.
All of this was a great start and a necessity to the growing demands of businesses and exponentially growing amounts of data being processed. It wasn’t until 2008 that a IO created their patented software defined modular data center, that a the market had a product that was agnostic to the IT infrastructure inside the unit and dedicated to the best data center infrastructure solution outside.
Present:
Modular data centers have come a long way in the last decade. From what was an ISO container focused on incremental energy savings and convenience of location, now has evolved into rapidly-deployed, right-sized, just-in-time pieces of Infrastructure technology. MDCs can now provide up to 1MW of critical IT power and cooling for up to 110, 52U racks in a single open floorplan. With breakthroughs in technology (and the right environmental conditions) you can use outside air to cool your modular data center if you want to save even more money and become increasingly energy efficient.
Today’s modular data centers are also driven by global infrastructure management software, take advantage of big data analytics, and meet a range of capacity requirements. Best of breed modular products are IT agnostic (pick your own IT hardware and cabinets), and in concert with the right software, can dynamically manage IT assets, cost optimize based on energy usage, and work with IT orientation engines to give users an unparalleled view of their critical infrastructure.
Today’s modular data centers are being installed at the edge of the network to give providers a scalable way to deliver content. They are also being deployed directly on the power grid to eliminate the need for components such as UPS or batteries (lowing the overall total cost of deployment).