Key CHALLENGES of Modular Data Center projects in UAE?

Why some of the UAE based data center customers prefer to go with traditional bricks and mortar construction approach?.

"Modular data center appears to be a promising technology in data center construction industry. But decision making between modular and traditional bricks and mortar type data center construction methodology is a complicated process. As an emerging construction model, the industry is lacking sufficient unbiased studies to facilitate critical decision making".

(This article is based on a recent research** conducted in UAE, which explored many thought provoking factors related to modular data center decision making.)

Thanks for reading my previous article “What are the key factors motivating customers to go with modular data centers in UAE?”. The second part of the series looks into the negative side of modular or pre-fabricated data centers.

What are the key challenges or uncertainty factors with modular data center projects in UAE?

According to the fact that open-ended questions allows participants to respond freely - the researcher** approached the participants with an open question mentioned above and the results are as presented.

Authority approval was on top of the list, followed by weather factors, high professional service charges and high cost. The factors such as the limitation of vertical build, difficulty in applying changes in the later stage, life expectancy concerns and logistic challenges were also identified as negative factors. 

Rejections can be expected from Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) in modular data center projects. AHJ of major UAE cities require specific test certificates for the materials, equipment and components used for the construction. Some difference on regulations can be expected in each Emirate of UAE. It’s a hurdle in many occasions when data centers are manufactured with different standards.

Structural design calculation format, non-recognition of the metal building in AHJ classification, certification on fire rating of door and wall panels, cables and electrical panels certification, fire fighting vendor certification etc are few on the list. There could be other challenges that may occur during the preliminary as well as at the final inspection stage of the project. Such obstacles may put the whole project and investment at risk, hence rigorous planning and investigations are required while going with fast deployment modular data center projects. Check with your vendor how they are going to mitigate these risks.

The second part of the study was conducted with a close ended question, where the respondents were asked to choose from a set of pre-defined answers.

Close-ended approach allows the respondents to assess their prior knowledge-base and feelings while answering. The second question is as follows:

What are the "Negative Factors" impacting modular data center decision making in UAE?

This question was presented with a set of negative factors, identified from previous studies, for the participants to choose. They pointed out the relative importance of these factors as depicted below in the chart. Interestingly they chose highest rating for "vendor lock-in and closure of the manufacturer business". How these factors could impact the business continuity of the organization?

Like it or not, modular data center customers are forced to enter a long term business relationship of 15 to 25 years with a specific vendor. It is an unavoidable risk, many of the components, controls and software used for the modular construction are proprietary. More the innovation, more automation and complexity - that means more dependency on the vendor.

There are nearly 150+ modular data center manufacturers in the industry, but how many of them can sustain in the future?. Scrutinizing the vendors based on their capability and core competence has to be an important factor in the decision making. There must be a mechanism to evaluate how the vendor can guarantee lifetime spare parts and maintenance support. In an unfortunate situation of business closure of the vendor, there should be a mitigation plan in place, such as spare parts stock, advanced level of training for the staff, service manuals, software backup etc.

The last question was in continuation to the above finding -

How the weighting applied (the level of importance) on the negative factors mentioned above can be varied based on the data center application?

Enterprise, colocation and cloud data center application are having different priorities and the above weighting of the negative factors potentially may vary depending on application. The research asked the participants to respond whether the identified negative factors will vary based on the application of the data center?

The finding on the chart exhibits the weighting of negative factors of modular data centers will vary based on the data center application. However the number of participants who opposed it was also very close.

"The study projected some conflicting information about the commercial factors of the data centers"

The previous article “What are the key factors motivating customers to go with modular data centers in UAE?” observed that the "cost effectiveness" is one of the key motivating factor of modular data centers. In contradiction, this article observes modular data centers are expensive!. This leads to an in-depth quantitative analysis to explore the commercial factors. We will compare the CAPEX of two modular data centers with similar capacity traditional data centers from UAE in the next article.

What is your opinion on these findings? If you like this article, please don't hesitate to like and share. Thank you.

** This series of articles are based on the research "factors impacting the modular data center decision making in the UAE" with the help of participants from various UAE based colocation, enterprise, consultants, contractors and solution vendors. This research was conducted under the supervision of a senior professor from Anglia Ruskin University, UK by the author. Contact the author for any additional information ([email protected]).

Juby Joseph, is the Data Center Division Manager of Mideast Data Systems (MDS), UAE. He is a seasoned data center infrastructure professional with more than 15 years of experience in providing consultancy, training, designing, construction management, commissioning and certifications. He provides support to many organizations in setting-up policies and procedures for data center operations in the region.