An effective modular data center architecture has the following attributes: - It defines a set of modules from which data centers are deployed. - It defines the modules as sets of subsystems that are linked together to the maximum practical extent in order to minimize complexity of deployment. - It is comprised of rules, tools, and devices that together prescribe how modules are deployed over time to support the growth plan for the data center. - The system is engineered to minimize the planning, installation, configuration, and programming work required to deploy a module. - The characteristics of the deployed system, such as capacity, efficiency, density, weight, etc are well defined in advance without further analysis. - The level or “granularity” of module sizes has been established to be an effective tradeoff between simplicity, cost, and rightsizing. - It ideally allows for future options related to availability (redundancy) and power density. - It is an open architecture that can accommodate new infrastructure products and devices from multiple vendors. It is important to understand that a modular data center architecture, as defined above, is not just a list of parts, but is itself a system that requires a significant amount of engineering and testing. While a modular architecture can be developed and defined for a specific data center, it is much more useful and efficient if standard architectures are defined in the industry. If a data center adopts a pre-existing standard architecture, then a considerable amount of engineering, specifying, planning, and testing cost (and time) can be avoided. As more data centers adopt standard architectures, industry cost reductions and quality improvements will occur. ![[Pasted image 20241013114343.png]]