Do you remember when takeout apps started to make it easier for you to ask for various ingredients to be excluded from a meal? We went from having to ask a restaurant for no pickles in a comments section at the end of a form (or just hoping we’d remember to remove them ourselves when the meal arrived), to being able to check a box that asked us specifically if we’d like them to take the pickles out. It was a revelation.
The point is, customization is growing more and more popular in many ways/aspects of our lives. And in this blog, we’re talking all about customizing your cooling solution – even your entire data center – why you should do it, and how you can do it.
At CES Corporation, we’re very proud of our Intelliflex liquid immersion cooling solution, and of how our engineers work hard to adapt every installation to meet a customer’s needs. With the range of different applications for liquid immersion cooling technology, and the variety of environments that it can be deployed in, there’s really no such thing as a standard installation – so, when it comes to customized cooling solutions, CES Corp and Intelliflex are the people to call.
The benefits of customizable data centers
In one word, the benefit of customizable data centers is flexibility. A bit like your fast food order, being able to customize your data center and its cooling solution lets you create an installation that best meets your needs. Unlike your fast food order, though, the benefits of that flexibility can be very tangible and make a real difference to your business. The benefits of customization include:
- Optimizing use of real estate by reusing existing space for your data center, rather than building an entirely new structure. This is great for keeping costs under control and reducing the carbon footprint of your premises.
- Creating the most appropriate space for your business needs. You might need to go for maximum power density (we can manage 8.3kw/m2), but you might also need to include space for humans to work. You might have even more specialized needs. An off-the-shelf data center solution is unlikely to meet all these needs, causing you to either change how you work, or make additional investments to meet your needs.
- Scaling efficiently. If things go well, it’s likely that your data center and your cooling needs will grow. The last thing you want is to be locked into an inflexible solution that doesn’t give you room to scale your infrastructure (and so your business).
These principles were a major driving force behind the development of Intelliflex. Although we started out just trying to create a professional-grade cooling solution for our clients, as we learnt more about their needs and worked in partnership with them to build their solutions, we realized that Intelliflex gives companies like yours the power to build their very own modular data center, with all the facilities they could need. In that way, customization has been built into what we do from the very beginning.
Before we move on, it’s worth taking a moment to respond to a few of the common questions we get about this approach:
- Isn’t it more expensive than an off-the-shelf cooling solution or on-premises data center?
Yes it is – but the benefits it can bring you often outweigh those costs. Build cost is only one part of the equation, after all. Other costs include your power consumption, costs of additional services such as offices and facilities for employees, access controls, environmental controls, and so forth. Intelliflex helps you minimize the costs of all these other costs by providing you with a complete solution. - What about public cloud providers?
Public cloud may well be cheaper than a comparable on-premise solution – but it’s only appropriate for specific workloads. Crypto mining, for instance, can’t be done on the public cloud because the infrastructure is an integral part of the solution. Intelliflex is ideal for anyone handling their own hardware, whether that’s a crypto miner, or someone looking to start their own colocation data center. - This all sounds very complicated…
It can be – but that’s why CES Corp is with you at every step of the journey. Our engineers are used to customizing our base models to create bespoke data center solutions, so they know what questions to ask, what factors to consider, and can guide you through the whole process.
So – the next question is, how do you use Intelliflex to build a data center that’s customized to you? The first step is to choose your base model (or models), and then to step through our proven process.
How many base models are available to choose from?
There are three Intelliflex base models. They can be combined in whatever ways you need to create a solution that fits your existing space, or that meets your needs.
Base model 1: the 3MW module
This is a 30’ module that can house 3MW of IT equipment. It’s entirely self-contained, with everything you need to operate your technology, including:
- Our Smart Power Distribution Unit (SPDU) that drives Intelliflex and keeps everything running smoothly.
- Power supply for both Intelliflex and your equipment.
- A protected environment where you can easily maintain the temperature and humidity you need to keep your tech running at peak performance.
Base model 2: the 6MW module
Just like the 3MW module, but twice as big – and therefore able to take twice the load.
Base model 3: the 3MW hybrid
This is a 60’ module, with half the space dedicated to IT equipment (3MW of it) and half the space for whatever else you might need. People have asked us for offices and bathrooms before, making the module not just a space for your equipment, but the engineers that maintain it, too.
As well as combining these modules, you can also customize them to match what you need. We don’t pre-build our modules – they are all built to order, meaning that any customizations you might want are included from the very beginning, rather than retrofitted. We find it’s the best way to ensure high build quality, and therefore customer satisfaction.
How do I get started building an Intelliflex data center?
The very first step in your data center journey is to fill in the form on our website or give us a call. Once we’ve made contact, we sit down for a meeting with you to discuss your needs. Given how complex a data center build can be, we don’t like to rely on worksheets to get the brief, which tends to lead to disappointment for our customers and us.
In our meetings, we’ll get down into the technical detail of what you’re looking for – what equipment you have, what you want to do, your premises, and so forth. From that, we can plan your data center for you. We’ll recommend which modules will best suit your needs, and can even take a look at your premises and suggest a layout for your data center that makes the best use of the space.
In total, the lead time on your data center is 20-24 weeks – not bad for a data center that’s completely personalized to you.
FAQs About Intelliflex Data Centers
➔ How will I know if my data center will fit?
CES Corporation works closely with you to suggest a data center design that’s right for you. A major part of that, of course, is making sure the data center will fit in the available space. Our team inspects your site as part of the design process so we know what space we have to work with, so you can be confident that your data center will fit.
➔ How long does it take to deliver an Intelliflex data center?
The lead time on our data centers is 20-24 weeks, XXXXXXXX. That time includes planning sessions with you to design your data center, where we meet to discuss your needs, what facilities you want in your data center, and where we inspect your site.
➔ Are all Intelliflex data centers bespoke?
Our data centers are built on three standard modules, which can be combined however a client needs to meet their needs. On top of that, our hybrid module contains a 30’ space that’s totally customizable. So, while there are standard base elements to our data centers, we combine them and outfit them according to every client’s specific needs.
Kick off your custom data center journey
If this blog has helped you decide that a customized data center is the right place to house your IT hardware, that’s great. To get started with Intelliflex, all you need to do is contact us on our website – we’ll take it from there.