The modular data center from HPEHPE Flexible Data Center

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Externally mounted cooling containers

External power and generator containers

Quadrant 1

Quadrant 3

Quadrant 2

Quadrant 4

Core

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Figure 1. HPE Flexible Data Center (DC) uses standardized construction and a modular design, with up to four

quadrants for IT equipment around a central core.

Information technology today is a world whose watchword is speed. It’s an environment where everyone and everything is connected and eagerly waiting to Tweet the arrival of a new app, or blog about the Next Big Thing being rolled out. Whether you’re in business, government, or education, the race rewards those who are most agile and nimble.

Then there’s the data center—specifically the facility that houses critical IT equipment. With a long construction cycle and a lifespan of 20 years or more, the typical monolithic greenfield data center is antithetical to the agility demanded by today’s IT. Beginning with what is very likely a custom design, such a data center requires a dedicated plot of land and ties up inordinate amounts of upfront capital. It’s handicapped by rigid brick and mortar construction that leads to an inflexible footprint and a rigid interior layout. By their very nature, conventional data center designs lock the building and its IT infrastructure into an inflexible package.

Once the facility is built, it has an enormous appetite for electrical power and water. What’s more, CIOs often find themselves with a comparatively fixed density of IT equipment. And in too many cases, managers must soon confront severely limited capacity in the face of newer, more power-hungry IT hardware. Another problem is that conventional data centers often fail to take advantage of a region’s climatic conditions, incurring additional operating costs from the electricity and water used for cooling. As utility rates soar and resources become more scarce, the problem can only get worse.

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Regain control—with modularity

To regain control of both capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX), while providing faster deployment and more flexibility, data center developers are turning to a set of technologies and techniques that together fall under the general term of modularity. Modularity is characterized by greater industrialization and containerization of components, more effective climate control, better supply chain management, improved maintainability, and a more effective converged infrastructure, and cloud-computing model. Modularity is a perfect fit for the trend toward a more industrialized, factory-type environment and the new business paradigm that relies on cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service provisioning. That makes it a perfect fit for your IT equipment.

Rely on HPE Flexible Data Center

You’ll find no better example of data center modularity than HPE Flexible Data Center (also known as Flexible DC or FDC). This is truly an industry-changing solution that challenges conventional thinking in data center design.

An innovative modular approach coupled with industrial supply chain techniques help you roll out a flexible and scalable data center in half the time and at a fraction of the cost it takes to build a traditional monolithic structure. Once commissioned, your new data center takes advantage of progressive power and cooling design to keep operating expenses down throughout its lifetime.

Modularity means flexibilityAn HPE Flexible DC building consists of up to four quadrants, or quads, arranged around a central core. The quads are the data halls, housing IT equipment such as servers and storage. The core is a support facility, with networking, telecommunications, security, staging, and other functions.

You can start with a core and a single quadrant, and expand to two, three, or four quadrants later. This provides an avenue to build out your data center in phases. You can respond effectively to rapid changes in technology today while deferring remaining data center construction for the future.

FDC with 1 quadrant + core 500–1500 kW

FDC with 4 quadrants + core 2–6 MW

Multi-FDC campus Up to 50 MW+

Figure 2. Build small to start, and expand for future growth.

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1 The only requirement is to specify the future upgrade level (for example, maximum of 750 kW or 1500 kW) during initial design. This will allow provisioning the quad for future expansion to that capacity.

Up to 6 megawatts of power for critical IT loadEach quadrant is designed to hold racks of IT equipment, and can be configured for a critical load capacity of 500, 750, 900, or 1500 kilowatts. This power flexibility means a minimum configuration can be as small as a core plus a single 500 kW quad. And it means that with all four quads constructed and fitted out, the facility can deliver anywhere from 2 to 6 megawatts of critical IT power for your servers, storage, and networking.

Regardless of size, you get a complete package: a modular data center with a central area for offices and support; plenty of space for IT equipment; and standardized cooling and electrical power distribution that enhance energy efficiency and reduce total cost of ownership.

If desired, you can configure each quadrant to different levels of power density and redundancy—simply adjust the number of prefabricated power and cooling containers for each of the quads.

You can even upgrade power and cooling in an individual quad without modification to the rest of the data center, by adding more containers just for that quad.1

Expandable in larger campus deploymentsFor larger deployments, assemble multiple buildings in a campus configuration that can increase capacity many times over.

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Roll out in less than one year

HPE Flexible DC has revolutionized the way data centers are planned and constructed. As a result, you can build a data center from design to commissioning in less than a year. The secret? A perfect blend of design, technology, management, supply chain expertise, and construction techniques:

• Standardized architecture Yielding dramatically simplified bidding and rapid, repeatable, industrial-type construction

• Modular mechanical and electrical components Making it easy to add on in phases as needed for changing power demands

• Menu-driven option selection Providing selection of details, such as square footage and power and cooling levels—that’s as easy as ordering automobile options

• Prefabricated mechanical and electrical equipment Reducing on-site construction periods and weather delays by shifting labor from field to factory

• External power and cooling placement Simplifying installation, maintenance, replacement, and future modification

• Assigned customer representative Streamlining construction and commissioning with a single point of contact

• Supply chain focus Shifting emphasis from traditional custom design and construction to supply chain management—and leveraging the purchasing power of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Our standardized set of components, industrialized construction, efficient supply chain management, and prefabricated mechanical and electrical assemblies greatly reduce on-site construction time. And our menu-driven selection process can help simplify decision-making.

HPE Flexible DC can handle the same IT load with less power consumed and a lower PUE than a traditional data center.

Traditional data centerHPE Flexible DC

Compressors 1,326,928

Electrical losses 1,576,800

Scavenger fan 1,621,862

Supply fan 4,739,141

IT load 52,560,000

PUE: 1.17

IT load 52,560,000

PUE: 1.31

CW pumps 689,651CT fans 749,525

CHW pumps 1,304,149Electrical losses 3,153,600

Fans 3,922,855

Chillers 6,530,042

Figure 4. Annual power consumption in kWh for a traditional monolithic data center site in Charlotte, North Carolina (left) and HPE Flexible DC (right) at the same location.

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Restructure CAPEX

Besides optimizing the time to commissioning, the combination of modularity and standardized construction results in a data center with significantly lower capital outlay. Compared to an equivalent conventional data center, you can expect up to 40% lower construction costs for your HPE Flexible DC.

It’s more than just reducing your capital costs. You also gain flexibility in managing them. For instance, you can start small, with CAPEX allotments that align with your current needs, while maintaining flexibility for future growth—even if that growth is unknown or unpredictable.

Reduce OPEX

Perhaps the biggest advantage of this solution lies in its inherent ability to reduce operating costs right from commissioning, and to preserve those savings during the data center’s lifetime. Because most operating expenses—and environmental impact—stem from energy usage, we’ve incorporated energy-efficient best practices throughout the facility. Here’s the Flexible DC recipe for energy-saving, cost-effective success:

Simplified power chainWe’ve lowered electrical utility and distribution costs by employing more energy-efficient equipment, especially the UPS systems. We’ve also paid special attention to optimizing the data center for part-load operating conditions. And wherever possible, our engineers have excised equipment, conversions, and transformations from the power supply chain, resulting in greater efficiency.

Traditional data center

$0 $5,000,000 $10,000,000 $15,000,000 $20,000,000

$/MW

$15 million/MW

HPE Flexible DC $9 million/MW

Figure 3. Construction cost comparison for a 6 MW data center. You can build out a modular data center for as little as 60% of the cost of a traditional custom building.

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Smarter coolingHPE Flexible DC is designed to work most efficiently with the external environment. In fact, it meets the majority of its cooling needs by using the local climate to absorb and dissipate heat generated in the data center. In the past, such free cooling was suitable only for cool, dry climates. But the cooling concepts used in this modular data center enable good performance even where the climate conditions are not ideal; thanks to sensible heat transfer technology that counters the effects of humidity and varying temperatures.

Smaller carbon footprintHPE Flexible DC design lowers the facility’s water usage and improves its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). In fact, depending on the location of the data center, you can expect a PUE of 1.2 or better—which translates into reduced utility costs and a smaller carbon footprint. What’s more, the design also results in excellent maintainability, along with topology that meets standards equivalent to Uptime Institute Tier III+ level.

Respond to change

We’ve designed this modular data center solution to help you move forward in well-planned, phased construction, and to avoid stranded assets by responding rapidly to business needs. Thanks to its design innovation and modularity, you can specify an environment with mixed levels of power density and redundancy, even within the same building. This solution is particularly effective when you’re facing a demand for more IT capacity, and need to deploy infrastructure quickly.

HPE Flexible DC is a highly adaptable platform from which you can address future changes in technology, without the necessity to tie up precious capital by over investing in anticipated needs. Adding a new FDC building—or several—to an outdated monolithic data center is an excellent way to modernize without the need to rip and replace. You might begin by installing older IT equipment in a quadrant, then upgrade the quad with more robust electrical and cooling components when you deploy more advanced servers.

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Recruit expertise

HPE Flexible DC is based on strategies developed by HPE engineers and designers. The entire solution is delivered by HPE Critical Facilities Services, which specializes in aligning IT and data center requirements to create buildings prized for their high performance and cost efficiency. As trusted advisors to the world’s most prominent enterprises, including many Fortune 100 companies, we have a deep understanding of your challenges and can help you craft the best data center solution for your IT environment.

With Hewlett Packard Enterprise, you gain more than technological expertise. You also gain a partner. We’ll stand by your side as you map out a data center strategy that dovetails with your current and future business and technology changes. We’ll help you select the right site for your data center and plan your capacity according to your projected business growth. We’ll help you make and justify capital outlay decisions that can open up strategic possibilities for your business. You’ll be rewarded with a greenfield data center that’s up and running in much less time, at significantly reduced CAPEX, and with improved operational efficiency. You’ll have a future-ready technology platform in place.

Learn more athpe.com/services/flexdc

© Copyright 2010, 2012, 2015–2017 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA2-0621ENW, April 2017, Rev. 5