I work for a company based in Ireland who specialize in Modular construction projects primarily for the residential market. We are looking at exploring the DC market, as we feel we have numerous offerings and advantages to 40ft containers. We can certify our units to be “stacked” to 24 storeys, and have fully air tight solutions. We can custom make our modules to facilitate various needs and designs, i.e wider aisles, containment with a factory finish.

I have planned several large DC’s to 50,000 sq. ft, and do feel given the chance, this solution will far outweigh the restrictions of 40ft solutions. Units can be insulated, built taller to facilitate 52u cabs, wider aisles so not cramped, better hot-aisle cold-aisle containment, and better security when needed.

There are others – namely single tenant vs. multi tenant deployments. Single tenant acquisition and deployment is simpler. The customer has full control of the design and deployment and overall project plan. In a multi tenant site, that is far more difficult. The customer needs to purchase the container with ~4000 square feet of equivalent gear. They need to get a place to plug it in.

Before the plugging in happens there is the zoning and permitting issues that are by no means simple. I think Digital Realty Trust will help with the place to plug them in, as will other vendors, however the notion of having to eat an elephant in two bites – by purchasing and standing up a container – is daunting for most.

The other piece to this whole discussion is around time to market/deployment. Data center greenfield, retrofits, refurbs whatever you want to call them happen in months vs. weeks for a container. Colo providers have been reluctant to spend money on spec projects for containers so customers are caught in the middle:

‘My rep says that I can get a container deployed in 8 weeks, and I looked at providers and they cant give me anything for 16-32 weeks’

It is akin to buying a boat without having a slip for it.

The other point I will make is that there are standards for the container today – ISO standards. There are standards for the components of the stuff that goes in the containers. Do customers really want to give up design flexibility to support a business need to save a couple of bucks and have an unsuccessful project? I think not.

I personally believe that you take the time to design a standard BUILD – one for compute and one for storage – and work with the vendor to manufacture those vs trying to get vendors who love the idea of standardization – so long as it’s theirs.