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JP Prefab Data Center, or prefabricated modular data center, is an innovative way to build data centers. It has revolutionized the construction process of data centers through prefabrication, modularization, and standardization. Simply put, it involves prefabricating the various subsystems required by the data center, such as the building structure, electrical system, refrigeration system, monitoring system, etc., into standardized modules in the factory and then transporting them to the project site for rapid assembly.
During the prefabrication stage in the factory, technicians will refine production and comprehensively test each module by strict standards and specifications. For example, the electrical module will accurately configure the power distribution equipment, cables, etc., to ensure the stability and safety of the power supply; the refrigeration module will integrate efficient refrigeration equipment and intelligent temperature control systems to ensure the constant temperature environment of the data center. These modules are like components for building blocks, each with specific functions and standard interfaces.
Advantages of Prefab Data Centers
The reason why Prefab Data Center has attracted much attention in recent years is that it has a series of significant advantages compared with the traditional data center construction model, which can bring higher value and stronger competitiveness to enterprises.
1、Quick deployment
One of the outstanding advantages of Prefab Data Center is fast deployment. Since most components are produced in the factory, on-site construction is mainly for module assembly. In the factory environment, the production conditions are stable and controllable, and technicians can focus on the refined production of components and use advanced production equipment and mature processes to complete the production tasks of each module efficiently. For example, the server cabinet module has all the servers, network equipment, etc., installed and debugged in the factory and can be directly transported to the site.
This method greatly reduces on-site construction time. Compared with the traditional data center construction, which often takes months or even years, a Prefab Data Center may only take a few weeks or months to complete the deployment, quickly meeting the needs of rapid business launch. For example, some emerging Internet companies have rapidly expanded their business and need to quickly build data centers to support new businesses. Prefab Data Center can enable them to achieve this goal in a short period and seize the market opportunity.
2、Flexible expansion
The modules of the Prefab Data Center have the characteristics of being addable and replaceable, which enables it to easily achieve flexible expansion when facing business growth. When the business volume of the enterprise increases and the demand for computing, storage, and other resources in the data center increases, just add the corresponding modules. If the capacity of the existing storage module is insufficient, directly adding storage modules can quickly expand the storage capacity without the need for large-scale expansion of the computer room, rewiring, and other complex projects like traditional data centers.
Moreover, when the technology is updated, the performance or function of some modules cannot meet the needs, and they can also be easily replaced. When more efficient cooling technology emerges, directly replacing the cooling module can improve the cooling efficiency of the entire data center, ensure stable operation of the equipment, always keep the data center in the best operating state, and adapt to the ever-changing business needs of the enterprise.
3、Efficient operation and maintenance
The standardized module design of the Prefab Data Center provides strong support for efficient operation and maintenance. Standardization means that the structure, interface, configuration, etc., of each module are uniformly standardized, which makes maintenance and management easier. When facing standardized modules, operation and maintenance personnel do not need to spend a lot of time familiarizing themselves with the complex characteristics of different equipment and can quickly locate and solve problems. For example, when troubleshooting power failures, due to the standardized design of electrical modules, operation and maintenance personnel can quickly determine the module where the fault point is located and repair it according to the standard maintenance process.
At the same time, standardized modules also facilitate the management of spare parts, reducing the difficulty and cost of operation and maintenance. Because the modules are highly versatile, the types and quantities of spare parts can be relatively streamlined, reducing inventory costs. Moreover, when a module fails, spare parts can be quickly replaced, shortening downtime, improving the overall operation efficiency of the data center, and ensuring business continuity.
Application of Prefab Data Center
Prefab Data Center has been widely used in many fields with its unique advantages, providing efficient and reliable solutions for data processing and storage needs in different industries.
1、Internet companies
The business development of Internet companies is often extremely rapid, and explosive growth in business volume is the norm. Take ByteDance as an example. Its products, such as Douyin and Toutia,o have a huge user base worldwide. With the continuous increase in the number of users and the continuous expansion of business functions, extremely high requirements are placed on the computing, storage, and processing capabilities of data centers.
ByteDance adopted the Prefab Data Center solution when building a data center. Through prefabricated modularization, a data center that meets the initial needs of the business can be quickly built. As the business grows, server modules, storage modules, etc., can be flexibly added to quickly expand the scale and performance of the data center. This method not only allows the data center to be quickly launched in a short period, meeting the data processing needs brought about by the surge in users, but also in the subsequent business development process, it can always flexibly respond to the changing business scale, ensuring the stability and efficiency of the service, and winning the first opportunity for ByteDance in the fierce competition in the Internet market.
2、Financial institutions
Financial institutions’ businesses involve a large amount of capital transactions and sensitive customer information, and they have extremely high requirements for the stability and security of data centers. Any data loss or system failure may lead to serious financial risks and customer trust crises.
For example, the Jinan Branch of China Minsheng Bank adopted a modular data center solution when building a new data center. This solution modularizes and standardizes IT equipment, air conditioning, power supply and distribution systems, and implements green energy-saving strategies by building modular data centers. The PUE value of the data center computer room has been reduced from 2.1 to 1.4, and the annual power consumption has been reduced by more than 50%. At the same time, the modular data center has the characteristics of flexible and rapid deployment. The on-site assembly and debugging took only about 10 days, which played a good supporting role for business systems that need to be deployed quickly. In addition, through multiple power supply guarantee measures such as multi-level mutual investment equipment, backup diesel generators, emergency power generation vehicle interfaces, and a complete safety protection system, the power supply reliability and data security of the data center are ensured, meeting the stringent requirements of financial business for stability and security.
3、Edge computing scenarios
In the 5G and IoT era, a large amount of data is generated at the edge of the network, which poses challenges to the real-time processing and low-latency transmission of data, and the importance of edge computing is becoming increasingly prominent. Prefab Data Center plays a key role in edge computing scenarios.
In smart factories, a large number of IoT devices will collect various data on the production line in real time, such as equipment operation status, product quality parameters, etc. These data need to be quickly processed at the edge location close to the equipment to achieve real-time monitoring and adjustment of the production process. Prefabricated modular data centers can be deployed inside the factory to quickly build edge computing nodes. It can quickly process the data generated by IoT devices, reduce data transmission delays, and improve production efficiency. Moreover, when the factory is expanded or the production process is adjusted, and there are new requirements for edge computing capabilities, prefabricated modular data centers can be easily expanded and upgraded to meet the ever-changing production needs, providing strong support for the efficient operation of smart factories.
Challenges and responses faced by Prefab Data Center
While Prefab Data Center has shown many advantages, it also faces some challenges in the actual application process. We need to actively find response strategies to give full play to its potential.
1、Difficulty of technical integration
Technical integration between different modules is a key challenge in the construction of a Prefab Data Center. Since data centers involve multiple subsystem modules, each module may be provided by different suppliers, and the adopted technical standards, interface specifications, etc., are different, which easily leads to compatibility issues. For example, when the electrical module and the refrigeration module are integrated, the operational stability of the entire data center may be affected due to incompatibility in power matching between the power supply and the refrigeration equipment, interaction of control signals, etc.
To solve this problem, it is first necessary to clarify unified technical standards and interface specifications during the project planning stage and require each module supplier to strictly design and produce by the standards. Establish a complete testing mechanism, conduct comprehensive compatibility tests on each module during the factory prefabrication stage, simulate actual operation scenarios, and promptly discover and solve potential compatibility problems. A neutral third-party testing agency can be introduced to conduct strict compatibility tests between modules to ensure that each module can work stably and collaboratively after integration.
2、Initial cost investment
The initial construction cost of a Prefab Data Center is relatively high, which is also a factor restricting its widespread application. In the construction of prefabricated modular data centers, advanced production equipment and technical processes need to be invested in the factory to carry out refined production and testing of modules, which increases production costs. Transportation and installation also require professional equipment and personnel, which further increases construction costs.
However, from a long-term operation perspective, Prefab Data Center can achieve a cost-effective balance. The rapid deployment feature enables the data center to be put into use earlier, creating revenue for the enterprise and shortening the investment return cycle. Moreover, its efficient operation and maintenance and energy-saving features can reduce long-term operating costs. Standardized modules facilitate spare parts management and fault repair, reducing operation and maintenance costs; advanced energy-saving technologies and equipment reduce energy consumption and save energy costs. Therefore, when evaluating Prefab Data Center, enterprises should comprehensively consider the initial construction costs and long-term operating costs and measure its cost-effectiveness from the perspective of the entire life cycle.
Development Trend of Prefab Data Center
Technological Innovation
In terms of technological innovation, Prefab Data Center is moving towards a more efficient, green, and intelligent direction.
The innovation of the cooling system is one of the key areas. Traditional data center cooling mainly relies on air cooling, but with the increasing density of data center equipment, the efficiency of air cooling is gradually unable to meet the demand. Liquid cooling technology came into being, which can take away heat from the heat source more directly and efficiently, greatly improving the cooling efficiency. Immersion liquid cooling technology completely immerses the server in a special coolant, which can quickly take away the heat generated by the server, achieve efficient heat dissipation, and at the same time increase the density of the server and save space.
In terms of energy utilization, the application of renewable energy has also become an important trend. More and more prefabricated modular data centers are beginning to introduce renewable energy, such as solar energy and wind energy. By installing solar panels on the roof or periphery of the data center, solar energy is converted into electrical energy to power some equipment in the data center; in areas with abundant wind resources, small wind turbines are used to generate electricity to supplement the energy needs of the data center. The application of these renewable energy sources not only reduces the dependence of data centers on traditional power grids and reduces carbon emissions but also reduces energy costs to a certain extent.
Intelligent management technology is also developing. By introducing technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, Prefab Data Center can realize real-time monitoring and intelligent control of the operating status of equipment. Using artificial intelligence algorithms, the power and operation mode of refrigeration equipment can be automatically adjusted according to the load and ambient temperature of the data center to achieve optimal use of energy; through big data analysis, equipment failures can be predicted in advance, preventive maintenance can be carried out, downtime can be reduced, and the operation stability of the data center can be improved.
Market Prospects
With the acceleration of digital transformation, the market prospects of Prefab Data Center are very broad.
In terms of market demand, the demand for data centers in various industries continues to grow. The development of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence has led to an increasing demand for data processing and storage capabilities by enterprises, and data centers that can be quickly deployed and flexibly expanded are needed to support business development. The rise of edge computing has also spawned a large number of demands for small and distributed data centers. Prefab Data Center can meet the needs of these scenarios and quickly build edge computing nodes.
In terms of the competitive landscape, many Prefab Data Center suppliers have emerged in the market, and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Huawei, with its years of technological accumulation and innovation capabilities, has launched a series of FusionDC products that occupy a leading position in the global market; internationally renowned companies such as Schneider Electric also provide high-quality prefabricated modular data center solutions with their advantages in the fields of electrical and energy management. Some domestic companies such as ZTE and Inspur are also actively deploying, increasing R&D investment, and launching competitive products. The intensification of market competition will drive companies to continue to innovate, improve product quality and service levels, and reduce costs, thereby promoting the healthy development of the entire prefabricated modular data center market.
In the future, Prefab Data Center will usher in more vigorous development driven by both technological innovation and market demand and provide solid support for the digital transformation of various industries.
Why Choose CIMC TLC|RYC
As an innovative solution in the field of data centers, Prefab Data Center has shown strong application value in many fields, such as the Internet, finance, and edge computing, with its significant advantages, such as rapid deployment, flexible expansion, and efficient operation and maintenance. It not only meets the needs of enterprises for rapid construction and flexible adjustment of data centers but also reduces operating costs for enterprises and improves the overall performance and stability of data centers.
CIMC TLC|RYC|XLC is a leading manufacturer of prefab data centers and various other standard and special logistics equipment. With years of experience in the industry, it focuses on the design, production, and distribution of high-quality innovative products that meet the specific needs of customers.
If you need high-quality and innovative logistics equipment, including refrigerated containers, cold chain equipment, containerized equipment integration, modular buildings, etc., CIMC TLC|RYC|XLC is your best choice. We welcome inquiries from customers all over the world and look forward to the opportunity to cooperate with you.