Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

The actual construction period of Shenzhen Yantian Port data center is only three and a half months. Although the construction speed is fast and the cost is low, the quality is not discounted. All this is due to factory prefabrication, a new way of building data centers. Can the prefabricated modular data center which is becoming more and more popular abroad stand the test of Chinese users? Let the designers and builders of Yantian Port data Center tell you in person.

On March 29, 2014, Shenzhen Cloud Base and China's first prefabricated modular data center was officially launched. The first phase of the data center project took less than four months from the introduction of equipment in September 2013 to the successful completion of the whole project in January 2014, of which the most interesting word is the word "fast". And this "fast" word highly summarizes the advantages of prefabricated modular data centers.

Factory prefabrication is feasible

The reporter first consciously focused on prefabricated modular data centers before the Spring Festival this year, when Schneider Electric had acquired AST, a professional supplier of prefabricated modular data centers in Europe, and was preparing to introduce this new method of building data centers to China. Coincidentally, the reporter had just visited a large data center north of Sydney, Australia, which was made up of several micromodules.

Prefabricated modular data center, as its name implies, first, it follows the idea of modular data center design and construction, and modular deployment is undoubtedly the mainstream way of data center construction today. Second, it adopts the way of factory prefabrication, that is, to complete the assembly, connection and testing of the infrastructure related to the data center in the factory, so as to minimize the amount of engineering on the data center site, so as to shorten the construction cycle of the data center and improve the project quality. it can also greatly reduce costs.

The Shenzhen Cloud Base data Center, located in the modern logistics center of Shenzhen Yantian Port Group, is said to be the first large-scale data center in China to be built with a pedestal factory prefabrication method. The data center has a total floor area of 60,000 square meters and is scheduled to be completed in three phases within a few years. At present, the first phase of the project has been completed, with a total area of 5000 square meters and 680 cabinets.

The pedestal factory prefabrication method is easy to understand, which is to divide a large data center into appropriate modules, assemble each module on the base and test it in the factory, and then transport these modules to the data center construction site for splicing and installation. The traditional data center construction is a huge on-site project, which often requires dozens or even hundreds of people of different types of work to work together to complete the construction of the data center. The base factory prefabrication method turns a difficult data center project into a prefabricated product, which not only speeds up the construction speed of the data center, improves the quality, but also effectively reduces the construction cost.

Hu Yin, CEO of Shenzhen Qianhai Tianyun data Center Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tianyun data Center Technology), said: "the transformation of data center construction from engineering to production is a major development trend of global data center construction. Yantian Port data Center is a benchmark for prefabricated modular data centers. Its successful construction has proved to the world that through factory prefabrication, it is possible to build a high-level data center that can meet the full range of needs of large data center users. It provides reference and inspiration for the vast number of data center users and data center designers and builders. "

The first phase of the Shenzhen Yantian Port data center project has been put into operation, and the data center business is operated by the professional services company of the cloud base, and it is said that some enterprise customers have rented the data center. The Shenzhen Yantian Port data center is no different from the crab eater, and its opening shows that the prefabricated modular data center, which has become increasingly popular abroad, can also meet the needs of Chinese users.

Production of data center engineering

Rapid deployment, flexible scaling, high availability, and low cost have always been the core requirements of users in designing and deploying data centers. In today's China with the rapid development of cloud computing and big data, the above needs are more prominent, and modularization, factory prefabrication and other ways can obviously better meet these needs.

In fact, factory prefabrication is not the monopoly of the data center industry. Hu Yin said that in the pharmaceutical industry, some large pharmaceutical companies also use factory prefabrication when building production lines and factories, that is, the equipment or modules needed for the product line are produced in advance and then installed on site. Hu Yin gave another example in the field of renewable architecture. One of the core businesses of Broad Air conditioning is renewable buildings. At that time, Broad Air Conditioner was able to build a building in the Shanghai World Expo Park within 15 days because it adopted a factory prefabricated method, in which all the parts were produced in the factory and then assembled at the construction site. It is said that a huge factory built by Broad Air Conditioner in Hunan, as well as a hotel next to the factory, are all built by factory prefabrication. These buildings are all constructed with steel beams. If the buildings need to be demolished one day, the steel beams removed can all be recycled and there will be no construction waste. Factory prefabrication can greatly speed up the construction of a project while reducing costs, so it has been applied in many industries. Due to some special application requirements, the data center industry may be more complicated than other industries in adopting factory prefabrication.

In foreign countries, prefabricated modular data centers have only become popular in the past two or three years. Through in-depth research, especially the practice over the past year, Hu Yin has a deeper understanding of prefabricated modular data centers. He sums up the advantages of prefabricated modular data centers in the following four areas.

First, the production of data center engineering. This is the most profound impact and change that the prefabricated modular data center brings to the data center industry. The prefabricated modular data center of Yantian Port has transformed the computer room construction into customized products, and the selection of external materials, internal equipment and assembly methods of the products have to go through repeated optimization design, technical evaluation and system testing. ensure that reliable, safe and highly available data center products are delivered to users. The production of modular data center, its internal and external firmware are standardized structure, including fire protection, lighting, maintenance sockets, equipment support structure and so on. All these parts are produced and assembled on the factory production line. A very complex computer room project that needs to be distributed and implemented is now as simple as inserting building blocks, the difficulty of construction is greatly reduced, and the construction cycle is shorter. Normally, the construction cycle of a large data center is one and a half to two years, while the construction cycle of Yantian Port's prefabricated modular data center is only three and a half months, which is enough to make Hu Yin and his team proud.

Second, functional modularization. Modular data center products separate and reintegrate the relatively independent units in the data center infrastructure system, and the modules form their own system, through a variety of equipment redundancy, backup and fault tolerance in the system. ensure that each module can be output stably. These encapsulated modules are connected through limited cables and pipelines to form a complete data center system. The concept of prefabricated modularization makes the deployment of the Yantian Port data center more flexible, the expansion more convenient and the operation more economical.

The production of standardized modules is Schneider Electric's strength. Schneider Electric can provide modules such as cooling, power supply and distribution necessary for modular data centers. Schneider Electric is the leading equipment supplier to the Yantian Port data center, including cabinets, distribution cabinets, UPS units and batteries, precision air conditioners, dense busbars and medium voltage switches. "Schneider Electric is our main supplier in prefabricated modular data centers," says Mr Hu. "

Third, deployment is faster. Data centers usually include nine major systems, namely, construction, decoration, electrical, refrigeration, security, fire protection, fresh air, operations and management. In the design stage of the traditional data center, each system has to go through detailed design and reasonable research to determine the final implementation plan, and the design cycle accounts for at least 1x3 of the overall construction cycle of the data center. In addition, equipment selection and multiple reviews before the implementation of the project further prolong the construction cycle of the data center. Yantian Port data Center adopts modular products that have been optimized, tested and evaluated, which greatly simplifies the design process and shortens the construction cycle.

Fourth, green operation. Yantian Port data Center takes green energy saving as a key factor in the design process. Sometimes, the key equipment in the computer room, such as electrical and refrigeration equipment, are not fully utilized. This low efficiency caused by low load is the main reason for the low energy efficiency of traditional data centers. Following the modular design concept, while forming each module into a complete data center, Yantian Port data Center abandons the traditional planning concept of reserving capacity for 3 ~ 5 years, and realizes capacity expansion on demand. As a result, the use efficiency of electrical and mechanical equipment is improved, and the overall energy consumption is reduced.

The Yantian Port data center has also creatively used the cold wall, a refrigeration system developed by Tianyun data center technology, in an environment where hot channels have been partially closed. "in a hot channel closed environment, the use of cold walls can reduce wind speed, improve refrigeration efficiency, and even replace precision air conditioning. Some large foreign Internet companies have adopted cold wall systems." "unlike standardized precision air conditioners, cold walls are not standardized products and must be tailored to the different needs of each data center project," Hu said. in the fourth-generation data center, cold walls are gradually becoming standard, which can effectively reduce the PUE value. "

The prefabricated factory is backed up.

In the past, the main product of Tianyun data center technology was container data center. However, the current Chinese container data center market is not mature and the demand is not exuberant. After Hu Yin took over Tianyun data center technology last year, he made decisive business adjustments, with container data centers retained as a product line, while the company's business focus shifted to building large data centers. Yantian Port data Center is the first T3+ data center built by advanced factory prefabrication after the transformation of Tianyun data center's science and technology business. On the basis of this successful practice, Tianyun data Center Technology is also preparing to apply this method to the construction of the data center of Ningxia Cloud Base. When the base is completed, it will welcome big international customers like Amazon AWS.

Some market analysis companies predict that in the next five years, more than half of the world's data centers, especially large data centers, will be built by factory prefabrication. "our idea now is to conform to the trend and build large data centers as our core business. Large Internet companies and IDC are our target customers." "there is no restriction on the customer base of factory prefabricated data centers, which can be used to build cloud data centers for Internet companies as well as data centers for commercial enterprises," Hu said. The essence of factory prefabricated data center is to turn data center engineering into a data center product. In this respect, Schneider Electric has gone to the extreme, turning all components into standardized modules. In addition to standardized components, sometimes we have to provide customized solutions according to the specific needs of our customers. "

Factory prefabrication and modular data center design ideas complement each other. The modules of the data center are independent of each other, and even if there is a problem with one module, the modules will not affect each other. In the fourth-generation data center, factory prefabrication and modular construction ideas have been accepted. "We find that the modules of data centers are getting smaller and smaller, for example, a data center built by Tencent in Shanghai uses micro-modules. Schneider Electric also has a very strong strength in micro-modules." "Factory prefabrication is very suitable for the rolling development of the data center," Hu said. "in the process of upgrading and expanding the data center, new modules can be added at any time, and more than a dozen cabinets are installed on a pedestal. You can push it into the computer room at once."

Tianyun data Center Technology has also built the first domestic and international leading new generation modular data center prefabrication plant in Yangzhou. The plant has been officially put into production recently, producing container data centers in addition to prefabricated components for modular data centers. Tianyun data Center Technology hopes to recruit more professional and technical workers, research and testing personnel, and strive to reach the scale of 500 people within a few years. By that time, the factory will become the world's largest modular data center prefabrication plant. " In fact, what we are targeting is not the domestic market, but the international market. We are still in the stage of accumulating technology, talents and experience. We must first have a successful factory prefabricated modular data center model, such as the Yantian Port data center, and then build a modular data center prefabricated factory to bring together professionals with rich experience in data center construction. embark on their own path of development. " Hu Yin said.

As to why the prefabricated factory was built in Yangzhou, Hu Yin said: "in the beginning, we planned to build this prefabricated factory together with Schneider Electric." Later, for various reasons, we decided to build the factory ourselves. The reason why the factory is built in Yangzhou is mainly because of Yangzhou's unique geographical location. Yangzhou is located in the Yangtze River Delta, on the one hand, the demand for data center construction here is very strong, on the other hand, Yangzhou has developed traffic and is close to the port, which is very beneficial for us to carry out international business in the future. Cost is a very important factor for the production of data center engineering. Our manufacturing cost is only half that of the United States. "

Find a breakthrough.

For the majority of Chinese users, factory prefabrication is still relatively new, and there is a process for users to accept it. For manufacturers such as Schneider Electric and Tianyun data Center Technology, which want to make a difference in the field of prefabricated modular data centers, the top priority is to find out the needs of users, at the same time, to find a breakthrough in the industry and find more model customers. let the customer convince the customer. AST acquired by Schneider Electric has been developed for many years and has accumulated rich experience and a wide customer base in the field of prefabricated modular data centers, covering the military, IT services, real estate, chemical, government, manufacturing, banking and many other industries. Nevertheless, if you want to introduce factory prefabrication into China, you should also pay attention to whether there is any disobedience. Schneider Electric is already trying to work with large Chinese Internet companies on prefabricated modular data centers.

The prefabricated large-scale high-end data center of Yantian Port Factory is the latest achievement of the strategic cooperation between Tianyun data Center Technology and Schneider Electric. Hu Yin believes that the construction process of the data center is very persuasive, it uses factory prefabrication to meet the needs of enterprise customers, fast construction speed, low cost and guaranteed quality. It is said that after the completion of the data center, many colleagues came to visit and fully affirmed it. " The factory prefabrication method is suitable for the new data center, but not for the transformation of the old data center. Although we strongly promote this way of factory prefabrication, it does not mean that all data centers must be built in this way. We just want to use the example of the Yantian Port data center to show that there is a better way to build the data center today. " Hu Yin said.

Yantian Port data Center is an example of strong scientific and technological cooperation and complementary advantages between Schneider Electric and Tianyun data Center. Hu Yin said: "our cooperation with Schneider Electric is a strategic cooperation, specific to each project, the cooperation will be different. In the Yantian Port data center project, we initially did a joint design, and the main equipment in the computer room was also provided by Schneider Electric."

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