ASIA NEWS WesTrac Picks IBM Modular Data Center for Australian Site
ABSTRACT
Last month, IBM, which has designed and built more data centers than any company in the world, said it had been chosen by industrial machinery supplier WesTrac Pty Ltd to design and implement a Portable Modular Data Center solution to provide a flexible,
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WesTrac Picks IBM Modular Data Center for Australian Site
By David Hamilton
January 07, 2010
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Last month, IBM, which has designed and built more data centers than any company in the world, said it had been chosen by industrial machinery supplier WesTrac Pty Ltd to design and implement a Portable Modular Data Center solution to provide a flexible, cost-effective data center that would meet its immediate business needs, but also support future IT growth.
Headquartered in Perth, Australia, WesTrac selected the PMDC as the solution for a facility housed within two 6.1-meter customized shipping containers, the PMDC solution provides a compact, fully functional, high-density and highly protected data center in a pod-like form. The IBM solution, due for completion in February, will allow WesTrac to avoid the cost, building time and space required for a new facility – and it simply makes sense given the geographic location of the site.
"Perth has no available capacity for hosting," WesTrac communications infrastructure manager Mark Curtis said. "Building a new center could not be accomplished in the time required to meet IT expansion plans. The PMDC met the needs of the IT expansion plans and was very cost effective."
The PMDC is customized to meet WesTrac's specific requirements and can support multiple technology vendors and multiple systems in an industry standard rack environment. Should additional capacity be required in the future, WesTrac can easily expand the PMDC solution by adding one or more containers.
Furthermore, the PMDC can also be relocated to any of WesTrac's Australian locations or wherever needed. For instance, it can be re-provisioned as a disaster recovery facility or as a live-live facility at any of WesTrac locations in Western Australia, New South Wales, or the Australian Capital Territory.
PMDCs designed and built by IBM are done so according to specific client requirements. There are six standard designs to start with, and they can be tweaked to meet specific client needs. WesTrac's PMDC solution comprises two containers: one purpose built for IT equipment, using IBM Rear Door Heat Exchanger cooling doors for the most efficient cooling solution and overhead cooling; and the other for services infrastructure including the uninterruptible power supply and batteries, chiller unit, cooling fan coils and electrical and mechanical distribution gear and a configured 400kVA engine generator.
"Racks of the appropriate size were fitted for IBM iSeries requirements," Curtis noted. "Two racks are fitted with rear door heat exchanger units to allow blade servers to be installed. Redundant chillers and UPS systems were supplied. WesTrac selected the external color of the units to fit with facility and council requirements."
Further, IBM will build a concrete slab on which the PMDC containers, generator and second chiller unit will be installed. An early warning fire detection system, fire suppression system, fingerprint access system and video surveillance were installed to provide added security.
"There are a few interesting properties that we've designed into the portable module data center that you don't find in any other solution: basically they're IBM exclusive," IBM global services executive Brian Canney said. "The first one is every one of our containers is fully insulated and sealed so you can put it in any type of environment – you can put it in harsh environments, you can put it in very cold regions, or very hot regions, desert-type regions, it doesn't matter what the outdoor temperatures are, it doesn't matter what humidity levels, rain, snow, blowing dust or sand, it doesn't affect the internal operation of the PMDC because it's fully insulated and sealed."
IBM's PMDCs use an R34 insulation, which has an extremely high thermal resistance, isolating the container from the outside environment. It also offers protection from humidity – and fire for a period of 120 minutes – as well as radio frequency interference and electro-magnetic interference of 22dB. "What it does is it really prevents any temperature changes internally, which makes it more efficient because you don't have your cooling systems over-reacting on say warmer days or when you get large temperature swings, which you certainly find in Australia and many places around the world," Canney said.
"Another unique quality that WestTrack really liked was the fact that all of our racks, the IT equipment racks inside the container are on a rail system, and what this allows us to do is move the racks forward and backward," he said. "So when you enter the container and close the door, basically you're providing physical security and environmental protection from the outside, but when you're inside, you can actually work on the IT equipment racks, both front and rear access from within that closed, secure container. And that's something you don't find anywhere else."
