Disaster Recovery Gains Modular Data Center Edge

Dubai International Airport has set its eyes on an ambitious goal—catering to 140 million passengers by 2025. The airport’s existing need to serve 2,40,000 passengers per day means facilitation of 1100 daily flights, retaining the title of world’s largest logistics hub, and optimal streamlining of 24x7x365 operations. A smart airport infrastructure blueprint that mandates zero tolerance for downtime is a prerequisite for this.

Opened in 2018, the first phase of Dubai International Airport’s tier 3 infrastructure is based on modular data center architecture. Sporting an “announcement to delivery” timeframe of close to 400 days, the airport’s primary data center hosts its private cloud for internal and external systems. Its next phase is a second modular facility for advanced backup and disaster recovery (DR). As similar rapid rollout success stories become mainstream, modular data centers show promise as a capable DR option in specific business continuity use cases.

Even though DR is a subset of enterprise business continuity planning (BCP), many Indian organisations still lag behind when it comes to disaster preparedness. It assumes serious proportions when we examine the small and medium business (SMB) space, especially in light of serious calamities in the recent past. These risks are highlighted by the FICCI-Pinkerton ‘India Risk Survey 2018’, which rates natural hazards (such as floods) as the second highest business threat to Indian businesses.

The National Centre for Seismology’s (NCS) classification of severe to very severe earthquake prone areas include 29 prominent Indian cities and towns. Delhi and several state capitals fall in seismic zones IV to V. It is important to note at this point that other calamities such as fires are common in several prominent business districts across India. Effective DR and BCP plans complemented by seamless execution can avoid business disruptions during such eventualities.

Unravel complexity

The primary setbacks for DR implementation in Indian SMBs include lack of in-house expertise, budgetary limitations and complexity. Real estate unavailability in metros and long drawn timelines that accompany traditional data center build outs further complicate matters.

Modular data centers can be beneficial for such SMB requirements. The pre-engineered nature of modular data centers ensure rapid deployment (often in weeks). These allow organisations to focus on core business rather than on intricate DR setups’ implementation and management aspects.

Compared to conventional room upfitting, modular data centers usher in a higher magnitude of cost efficiencies which justify DR deployment costs. Technology researcher Technavio’s findings indicate that implementation costs associated with a modular data center are typically 20% to 30% lower than those for a similar capacity traditional data center.

On the fly capacity addition is a boon for applications such as DR facilities. Such scalability also allows SMBs to opt for phased CAPEX and OPEX allocations that ensure further savings. It is also handy for market and regulatory compliance driven business environments that call for rapid scalability. Space savings from higher rack densities result in lower per square foot costs. Typically, these aspects ensure lower total cost of ownership (TCO) figures.

Modular data centers integrate power management, cooling, access control and cable management. These resultant capabilities ensure higher thermal efficiency on a per rack basis. Dedicated hot aisles or cold aisles can be created due to such design considerations. Low PUE figures in the 1.x range are also common in modular data center deployments which result in green DR deployments.

Most modular data center options also feature advanced management capabilities. In DR deployment use cases, this translates to significant reduction in integration, skillset and management overheads.

Ready for all odds

Earthquake and shock protected modular data centers are typically preferred for DR rollouts. Seismic protection for up to zone 4 (highest seismic risk areas) can be designed into modular data centers. Suspension and shock absorbing mechanisms built into the enclosures are called in for protection in such cases. Typically, GR-63 Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS) requirements for physical protection is used as the benchmark for earthquake protection.

Additional protection in the form of blast protection is possible for DR requirements. Larger deployments may comply with standards such as UFC 4-010-01 DoD Minimum Antiterrorism Standards. Water intrusion prevention (NEMA rating) and dust resistance are salient features of modular data centers.

Modular data centers often integrate active fire suppression systems using agents such as FM200, Novac 1230 or Ecaro to extinguish fires without hardware damage. Many modular data centers also rely on heat resistant enclosures. Common fire test standard compliances available on modular data centers include ASTM E119 and NFPA 252.

Ease in achieving facility robustness is a key advantage of using modular data centers for DR. The architecture’s pre-fabricated nature ensures end to end control over build quality and certification. These capabilities make it suitable for DR facilities in multiple SMB use cases. Proper requirement analysis and evaluation can help SMBs successfully leverage modular data centers as part of optimal disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.

By Prasanna Sarambale, CEO Data Center Business & Group Head- Business Development at Sterling & Wilson Pvt Ltd.