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Five Reasons to Consider
Prefabrication vs. Stick-Build
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The IT industry is ever-changing, constantly creating the
next big challenge for the data center manager. It’s the
nature of the beast – and it is what drives engineers,
architects and technology vendors to create the next big
solution.
One of today’s industry challenges is the need for data
centers to quickly and cost-effectively meet changing
capacity demands. Prefabricated data centers are
emerging not only as a viable solution, but as a
fundamental change in data center construction practices.
Instead of a stick-build process, prefabrication allows for
critical infrastructure systems to be assembled and tested
as a complete sub-system in a manufacturing and
controlled environment that are then deployed to the
installation site. The result is a state-of-the-art, tightly
integrated facility that can be deployed faster and at
lower cost than a similar facility using traditional
construction practices.
The benefits are numerous, but here are five of the top
reasons data center managers should consider
prefabrication vs. stick-build.
Speed of Deployment
– The biggest driver of
the move to prefabricated data centers is
speed of deployment. Prefabricated data
centers cut months off the project timeline and
should be strongly considered by any organization seeking
to accelerate data center deployment. The approach has
proven to allow organizations to bring new capacity online
30 to 60 percent faster than traditional stick-builds. And
since this speed is attained in a controlled manufacturing
environment with the appropriate tools and expertise,
quality is improved in the process.
Scalability
– Because prefabricated data
centers take a modular approach to design and
fabrication, they are inherently scalable and
may create opportunities to delay some portion
of the capital investment required for a new data center
until additional capacity is required. With a prefabricated
solution, the growth plan is literally designed into the
solution from the beginning. When additional capacity is
needed, new modules can be added with minimal
engineering and without disrupting existing operations.
Design Flexibility
– Prefabricated data centers
are not LEGO-like stacks of containerized IT,
rather they are custom designed to a site and
have no limitations in terms of functionality or
aesthetics and can be as individualized as any business
might prefer. A prefabricated data center will take
advantage of the speed and economy of modular design
and can be custom designed to match variables such as
geography, climate, technology profile, IT applications and
business objectives. It also includes an integrated
approach where a lead technology vendor, architect,
consulting engineer, contractor and supporting technology
vendor(s) are brought together at the beginning to take a
collaborative and holistic approach to the design.
7X24 MAGAZINE SPRING 2015
by
Eric Wilcox