White Paper: Containerized Computing for Telecommunications Applications

The concept of modular deployment of equipment in pre-fabricated and pre-assembled containers or shelters has been familiar to sectors of the telecommunications industry and as a disaster recovery strategy for some time now, but this modus operandi has recently received wider publicity in the IT industry. Announcements by Microsoft and Google have brought the concept of a containerized or “modular” data center to a wider audience, and there is growing interest in this concept as a means of fast and efficient deployment of computing resources where they may be needed temporarily, or even as a cost-effective and speedy replacement for brick-and-mortar data centers.

Deploying any sort of equipment, let alone hundreds of highpowered servers, in an enclosed space such as a container or shelter is a big challenge for the power and cooling infrastructure. At the same time, there is a strong industry push for power and cooling to be more efficient in responding to society’s continuing demand for more computing and telecom resources to satisfy our “always-on” lifestyle aspirations.

As a leading supplier of power and cooling infrastructure, Emerson Network Power is at the forefront of providing solutions to these issues. At the NXTcomm 2008 industry show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Emerson displayed a range of capabilities for use in modular or containerized solutions, illustrating its ability to construct “a central office in-a-box.” This article explains the principal elements of a containerized system (for networking or computing) and identifies Emerson’s solution within each function. 

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