Scalable Data Centres - Data Centre Growth

The global financial crisis has changed the way organisations are looking at new data centre projects.

With capital harder to obtain, businesses are having to move away from speculatively building huge data centres for future needs, instead looking for a scalable way to deploy facilities, matching growth to demand.

The BladeRoom system is uniquely scalable, providing facilities of any size from small 10 rack data centres to huge multi-storey facilities – with the ability to start small and grow over time.

The system can be used to unlock many potential sites that have gone undeveloped owing to the massive capital undertaking required.

The initial data centre requirement can be deployed quickly without spending on speculative future growth, with additional capacity delivered only when required, in as little as 12 weeks.

The BladeRoom scalability slideshow shows how this works:



BladeRoom scalable data centres comprise a series of standardised IT rooms with scalable Air Optimisers and power management rooms.

Delivering additional IT rooms, Air Optimisers and power management rooms can incrementally increase the size and capacity of the facility.

Data centres of any size can be provided

This allows growth of the data centre in line with the growth profile of the business, without needing to spend money until the point where expansion is required.

BladeRoom data centres can be supplied stand alone, side by side or in multi-storey formats.

They are designed with integrated M&E in each IT room or Air Optimiser module, zoned so that additional space can be quickly added and brought online with internal mechanical and electrical plant scaled to match IT demand.

One of the problems with a traditional bricks and mortar approach to data centre provision with lead times of up to 2 years the needs of the organisation have often changed before the data centre is operational.

The BladeRoom system offers users the flexibility and agility to respond to changes in requirements quickly whether additional racks or cooling capacity, with the entire facility growing and changing to meet current demands.

Busbars and control wiring along the hot corridor

The control and distribution systems are designed to connect with additional IT rooms, power management rooms and Air Optimisers when added, allowing seamless growth with zero downtime.

This allows growth to closely match business demand, expanding in small or large increments without putting live mission-critical facilities at risk.

The connecting cold corridor

The connecting corridor section of each BladeRoom module acts as the primary means of distributing air and incorporates connections to extend service and control distribution while in live operation.

The BladeRoom System's patent pending 'hot add' capability allows entire IT rooms to be added to an existing facility, commissioned and brought online without interruption to the airflow of the rest of the data centre.

Once online the new capacity is seamlessly integrated into the existing facility, merely extending the connecting corridor.

In larger configurations, additional BladeRoom data centres can be added either in single or multi-storey formats.

A single BladeRoom data centre can start as a 10-rack facility and, at a pace to suit your specific needs, additional IT rooms can be added to increase capacity.

The power and cooling systems are scalable to match the data centre as it grows. Capacity can start as low as 50kW of cooling and keep on growing.

BladeRoom data centres can seamlessly cope with a range of densities from 1kW to well in excess of 24kW per rack. The servers can be loaded in excess of 24kW per rack, and the BladeRoom control system will automatically provide the right amount of cooling to where it is needed.

Render of a 30-rack BladeRoom data centre on an exisiting campus

You can have a mixed density complex, mixed density aisles, mixed density racks within each aisle without any complication – the control system will automatically take care of the cooling load by assessing temperature, humidity and air flow rate.

A BladeRoom data centre, as a result of its modularity, can be increased in size without shutting down the current operation.

Individual BladeRoom data centres can be sited on any open space as well as being placed in courtyards, on roofs or gantries and infill sections of existing buildings.

An international patent pending 'hot-swappable' system uses blanking walls and the inherent properties of the cooling control system to balance air distribution while additional data centre space is added.

Scalability from tens to hundreds of racks makes the BladeRoom system an ideal low-cost start-up solution for small- to medium-sized data centre space.

Typical users of this size facility would be NHS Trusts and Universities or business users serving their own internal requirements. Larger users such as co-location providers may use a smaller BladeRoom data centre as a separate secure facility within a larger set up or as a contained area of specific density.

Multiple thousand rack 'mega' data centres can be quickly delivered using the BladeRoom system - with the advantage of allowing the size of the facility to grow at a rate to match demand.

This scalability allows capital expenditure to be 'drip fed' on a site and allow the controlled growth of a data centre over many years.

As the growth of the data centre itself can be rationalised so too can the site infrastructure.

Investment in power infrastructure and site services can also be deferred and brought online in an economic and structured process that will match the growth of the data centre.