Dell Joins Modular Data Centre Movement

Dell has joined the list of vendors making modular data centres, as a way of giving customers quick solutions to a need for more efficient facilities for their servers.

Dell’s modular data uentre units, made in its Texas factory,  can be built with one or two rows of servers and storage. Various modules are also available for customised cooling system and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) architecture.

According to Dell, the MDC shortens deployment time for data capacity by shifting the racking and testing of servers from the customer premises to the manufacturer. The units can be placed indoors or outdoors, and users can add extra units for further expansion.

Test facility for big orders

Each Dell Modular Data Centre can accommodate 12 racks with up to 2,500 servers. It can also support up to 500 kilowatts of power capacity.

During the installation, workers test servers and load them into racks before networking cables are plugged in. Folded custom cardboard sheets are then inserted into the rack, creating a channel that converts the side-to-side airflow of network gear to a front-to-back airflow.

Modular data centres generally have a small number of customers, as they are more specialised than the commoditised container data centreds which are othersise similar. Dell says MDCs havea  strong selling point, in allowing “right-sizing” of server capacity.

“We’ve been very successful with a very small number of customers. Right-sizing is the driving principle behind modular data centres,” said Ty Schmitt, the lead architect for modular infrastructure at Dell told Data Center Knowledge. Schmitt also explains the benefits in a Youtube video.

Among the first customers is Australian hosting provider Tier5, which has used Dell MDcs to build a shared data centre in Adelaide.