As a way to quickly deploy computing power, heavy hitters like IBM, Sun, and Google are all offering "data center in a box" products. The pre-configured IT equipment is delivered to the data center site in a standard shipping container, where it is typically parked outside the building and connected to the required power, communications and cooling systems. FIRELOCK® has been building, for several years, fireproof modular server vaults, but with the emphasis on protecting the mission critical equipment and data housed within the server room, rather than speed of deployment.

The driver for examining this modular approach is often the high costs for building-in the future cooling and UPS capacity for future expansion equipment. But an examination of this modular expansion concept reveals that, due to the inflexibility of the design module and the high incremental cost of each cubic foot of expansion, clients forego this common sense approach. The use of these add-on modules are almost exclusively used for disaster recovery situations, where the business continuity requirements outweigh the high incremental costs.

It makes sense to protect the mission critical server room with a data-rated fireproof server vault chamber. The advantages of phased expansion, fortunately, can be applied to fire protection by installing a FIRELOCK® modular server vault. The modular panel design allows data center operators to protect the server racks they have now, and expand the fireproof vault area as their server room footprint grows.

The "data center in a box" concept is well suited to applications such as data center migrations (for temporary use), military operations, disaster relief efforts, or rooftop deployment for facilities that run out of room. Critics of this concept have raised questions about physical security for containers full of IT equipment parked outside the facility. A single connection point for the dense power and communications services required is also cause for concerns about reliability. Then there is the question of what to do if you need to open the container during a rainstorm, or other adverse conditions.