Stick-Build or Prefab Data Center?

Emerson Network Power has explored the options for prefabricated data centers in an executive brief and playbook released recently. The pieces delve into the emerging approach to data center deployment and are designed to help IT and telecom leaders better understand the landscape when considering new data center investments.

Prefabricated data centers transform traditional data center construction practices by manufacturing and testing an entire facility offsite in modules before shipping and assembling those modules onsite. The result is a state-of-the-art, tightly integrated facility that can be deployed faster and at a lower cost than a similar facility using traditional construction practices. “Prefabricated data centers are one natural evolution of what we have seen happening in the area of unified infrastructure,” said Steve McKinney, Vice-President & General Manager, Integrated Modular Solutions and Outside Plant, for the Energy Systems business of Emerson Network Power. “Available for years in limited sizes and configurations, we are now seeing the benefits of unified infrastructure – most notably cost control, scalability and speed of deployment – applied to these facility-scale, fully customizable data centers and similar deployments in the area of telecommunications.” The business case for prefabricated data centers is explained in the Executive Brief, “Prefabricated Data Centers: Are They Right for You?” In the Playbook for Change, “Evaluating and Deploying Prefabricated Data Centers”, Emerson Network Power takes a closer look at executional considerations. “Under the right circumstances, the economics of a prefabricated data center are so attractive that they may even change the cost-benefit analysis regarding expanding an existing facility versus a new build,” said Eric Wilcox, Vice-President of Engineering and Operations, Hyperscale Solutions, Emerson Network Power. “Unified infrastructure is an emerging category, and these pieces are designed to be tools CIOs and other decision-makers can use when considering building a new data center. The reality is there are options available that did not exist just five years ago.”