Finland's CSC taps CommScope for prefabricated modular data center

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. (CSC), a non-profit, state-owned company tasked with promoting the operational framework of Finnish research, education, culture and administration, has installed CommScope's Data Center on Demand (DCoD) prefabricated data center module. In fact, it has done so twice; it installed the first module in 2012 at its site in Kajaani, then added a second in 2014, CommScope says.

CommScope says it delivered the first module in approximately 16 weeks after order. Assembly and acceptance testing was completed within two weeks, the company asserts.

"IT technology and applications are changing very fast. So our data centers need to be able to adapt to those changes in a scalable and cost-efficient way. Customers, suppliers, owners and personnel alike must feel certain that we will fulfill our commitments and promises in an ethically sustainable manner," said Tero Tuononen, director ICT Platforms, CSC. "Right-sizing and delivery strategy are key factors when planning for data center capacity, which is why we decided on CommScope's Data Center on Demand solution."

CommScope Asserts that in the three years since the first CSC installed the first module, the organization has seen several benefits:

• Significantly reduced energy consumption and costs, compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar data center.
• Reduced water consumption; one DCoD at CSC consumes approximately 120 cubic meters of water each year, which is less than the 164 cubic meters a typical household in Finland consumes.
• Better power usage effectiveness (PUE) -- the average PUE for a typical data center varies from 1.8 to 2.9, and the DCoD installation at CSC averages 1.03 to 1.06.
• The DCoD is an expansion of the existing data center and forms a single expanded facility. Installation and integration were completed without interruption to the existing IT services.
  

"The concept of a data center has fundamentally changed. When considering the requirement for the physical space, traditional brick-and-mortar facilities may not be appropriate for all project scenarios," said Ciaran Forde, vice president, Global Data Center Solutions, CommScope. "The CSC project is a perfect example of where an organization, requiring more capacity, was able to expand in phases. The modular approach of Data Center on Demand enabled a phased capacity expansion from an engineering and economically sound perspective."

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