WesTrac first to deploy IBM shipping container data centre

Industrial machinery provider, WesTrac, has become the first company to deploy a multimillion dollar IBM Portable Modular Data Centre (PMDC) in Australia.

The company will deploy the PMDC, which is essentially a modified shipping container hosting a range of IT equipment with fully redundant power and cooling, in the car park of its Perth head quarters.

While the value of the deal was not disclosed, it is understood the PMDC solutions can cost in the single digit millions of dollars range depending on the configuration chosen.

"This is going to be the first in Australia for us so we are very excited with this win," IBM site and facilities services business executive, David Yip, said. "This solution is not new in concept or in IBM's world – we do have many examples of these deployments around the world but for Australia it is the first."

"They [WesTrac] are undergoing quite a significant IT project and as part of that a number of new machines and old machines are going to be used which their current facilities can't accommodate," he added.

The solution deployed consists of two 6.1 metre insulated and sealed shipping containers modified with the vendor's Rear Door Heat Exchanger cooling doors, and including a UPS, batteries, chiller unit, and a 400kVA engine generator. Power will be drawn off the grid while a purpose-built concrete slab will be constructed.

The modular approach means WesTrac can expand with another container should it need to in future.

“This agreement provides us with a complete solution and, most importantly, enables all IT equipment to be easily serviced and maintained from within a closed, physically secure and environmentally tight container," WesTrac communications infrastructure manager, Mark Curtis, said in a statement.

More information on the PMDC solution can be found on IBM's website.

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