Networks Europe Jul-Aug 2015 | Page 12

M O D U L A R D ATA C E N T R E S The Future xxxxxxx of Modular Data Centres Make Mine Modular By Leo Craig, General Manager, Riello UPS Ltd Introduction According to new research, the worldwide market for modular data centres is set to treble in size by 2020. The report from Markets and Markets predicts growth from $8.37 billion in 2015 to $35.11 billion in 2020. So, what does the future hold for this trend? The Cloud Revolution Leo Craig outlines a favoured solution to the traditional data centre. Some say the 1970s and 1980s were the era of electronics development and the 1990s the age of software development. So, what do we call the 2000s and beyond? Many believe this is the era of cloud data as we live in a world with vast amounts of information being stored, managed and processed in the cloud. Consumers are becoming more information hungry than ever devouring social media applications, shopping, banking and working online, but as the sheer amount of data increases, so does the strain on the data centre. Today’s data centre must provide a robust infrastructure to handle this information while remaining flexible, resilient and reliable enough to cope with demand. The Future Data Centre The UK will be the biggest market in Europe for data centres by 2020, according to a report by the Tariff Consultancy Ltd. It also predicts that data centre space and power in Europe will increase by almost 20 per cent from 2015 to 2020. The surge in the number of data centres makes it even more essential to have the right mix of cutting edge design and technology to ensure constant availability. Ultimately, data centre owners are looking for the best solutions to help them achieve their three main driving factors - flexibility, efficiency and availability. Innovation is key, as Google demonstrated by building a $600 million data centre on the site of a recently closed coal-fired power station in Alabama – making use of some of the power lines left by the station and buying renewable power. So, in a scenario of data centre space, the ability to deploy smaller scale, but highly reliable data centres will become more important. IT managers increasingly demand powerful servers and on demand scaling. These demands, particularly for scaling, have led to the development of new technology such as modular design data centres and related equipment such as Uninterruptible Power Supplies. Why Modular Design? By simple definition, a modular data centre is a portable method of deploying data centre capacity and offers an alternative to the traditional data centre because it can be placed anywhere data capacity is needed. So, what is it about modular that’s so popular? The Markets and Markets report goes on to say: “A modular data centre helps businesses and organisations increase their overall computing performance by optimum utilisation of storage elements, network resources, virtualisation A surge in the number of data centres makes it even more essential to have the right mix of cutting edge design and technology. 10 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 4 2015 www.netcommseurope.com