Baselayer, the advanced data center technology company born of IO, today announced a contract to deploy modular data centers for Salt River Project (SRP) and deliver capacity at SRP power station facilities in central Arizona, where critical data center resources such as power and communications are abundant and highly reliable.
SRP intends to deploy Baselayer's modular data center technology outdoors and attach it directly to the electrical grid in the first-of-its-kind SRP DataStation. The SRP DataStation is a newly developed concept that would serve as a "docking station" for the modular data centers, providing it with direct access to the utility grid. The combination of the modular data center and a SRP DataStation that is ready to receive it aims to solve the time-to-market issues that the data center industry is currently facing. The combined solution eliminates the lead times associated with lengthy construction projects, which are typical within the industry.
Baselayer's innovative outdoor modular data center — known as the EDGE line — enables a more efficient use of the existing power grid infrastructure. It allows the power load of the data center to be located on the grid, where sufficient power exists today to meet current and future data center growth requirements. Additionally, these locations are engineered to deliver a high level of power quality and reliability. SRP and Baselayer believe this may remove the need for back-up generators and reduce the need for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices, which will reduce the cost required to achieve data center grade power. SRP anticipates that the solution will achieve "seven 9s" (99.99999%) of power reliability when configured with independent circuits.
In addition to reliable power, SRP will be providing its DataStations with access to one of the most reliable fiber optic networks in Arizona. SRP, one of the nation's largest public power utilities, owns and operates one of Phoenix metropolitan area's largest fiber networks, which will be used to serve the SRP DataStations.
"This modular data center will be the first of its kind to connect two energized power feeds from diverse locations on the grid directly to the IT equipment within the data center without UPS or generators," said SRP associate general manager and chief customer executive, Michael Lowe.
