The data center industry is continually looking for ways to improve efficiency, reduce energy costs, and maintain uptime. A range of emerging technologies promises to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Enter prefabricated modular (PFM) data centers. Rather than relying on on-site construction like conventional data centers, PFM involves assembling units or modules of data center infrastructure in factories and then shipping them to the site. This was introduced to the industry at least 10 years ago, but the technology itself has been around for a lot longer. Even so, it continues to evolve and grow.
Disruption in the data center industry brings a multitude of challenges, but one primary concern is universal: how to manage unpredictable growing demand today while remaining flexible for tomorrow. Growing edge compute use cases potentially require vast volumes of medium to small (or even micro) data centers to manage the workloads associated with an explosion in demand related to the IoT. Edge site deployments could range from a 5-MW facility in a city to a single, hardened rack next to a 5G mast on a building rooftop.