IBM launches Portable Modular Data Center in Singapore

IBM has announced the Singapore launch of its Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC), a compact, portable, fully functional and high-density capable data center ‘in-a-box’.

 

The service is designed for organizations requiring immediate additional computing capacity in remote or temporary locations, such as construction and oil and gas companies, or even media companies. In addition, companies that have run out of space at their premises or that need to deploy computing power in the field, or as disaster recovery solutions that can replicate the company's computing environment in case of an emergency, would also find this offering essential.

 

Housed within a standard ISO shipping container, the PMDC allows organizations to avoid unnecessary costs, time and space required to build a new facility, often at short notice. The fully customizable, insulated and environmentally sealed containers can be custom-designed, built, shipped and deployed into any environment to any location in the world within 12 to 14 weeks. Its flexibility means the PMDC can act as a remote data center, temporary data center, mobile data center, and private or public cloud data center environments.

 

Unlike similar competitive offerings, IBM’s PMDC solution supports multiple technology and facilities, infrastructure vendors, and offers organizations a reduction in energy consumption by as much as 50% compared to accommodating IT systems within a traditional data center facility. Featuring complete physical infrastructure including power and cooling systems and remote monitoring, the PMDC has all the elements of secure operating environments found in traditional “raised-floor” data centers, including protection from fire, smoke, humidity, condensation and temperature changes. All IT equipment contained within the PMDC can be easily serviced and maintained from within a closed, physically secure and environmentally tight container.

 

"The PMDC presents an enormous opportunity in Singapore for various industries which play a significant role in the growth of this country and across ASEAN per se, such as the construction and oil and gas sectors, as well as the military, where the containers can be deployed at remote sites, and for banking and finance, to provide a flexible disaster recovery centre. IBM is also looking to film production, where companies could use the data centers on location to carry out computing-intensive tasks such as editing, without having to physically send tapes or data back and forth to other sites The system would also be suited to things like events and exhibitions, where the data centre could be used to provide computing services to multiple exhibitors,” said Linus Lee, Service Line Leader, Data Center Services, Global Technology Services, IBM ASEAN. 

 

According to Lee, the PMDC is environmentally robust and can withstand rain, dust and extreme temperatures. Importantly, unlike competitor offerings, the PMDC can be maintained without the need to expose the PMDC’s internal IT systems to damaging external conditions.

 

Other PMDC features include:

 

• Customizable to meet specific organizational requirements as IBM will consult with them to agree on design and configuration prior to build-up. Customers can configure the data centers as they like, with a mix of IT and utilities in each container, or IT in one and utilities in another depending on the needs.

 

• Provides a scalable platform. Should additional capacity be required in the future, organizations can easily expand the PMDC solution by extending to multiple containers.

 

• Highly flexible and can be reprovisioned as a disaster recovery facility or as a live facility for organizations.