SETTING UP 11 REGIONAL DATA CENTERS ON A SINGLE DAY

Tech start-up SmartEdge Data Centers, has disclosed plans to deploy multiple 20-foot containerized data centers on an Edge network across the United Kingdom.

The company said it has selected locations in major towns of the UK’s 11 regions, each of which can host up to ten of these container-sized data centers, and the containers will house up to ten 21 kilowatts racks.

As the network spreads, SmartEdge plans to add multiple “E-PoP” locations, also with a single container, and the company promises an Edge network with sub-millisecond latency across the UK.

“We are following the model of the cell network. We’ll start with a physical working model of 22 containers. Eleven will be on sites where we can expand,” said Peter Hewkin, chief executive officer of SmartEdge.

According to the company, it will require 1,000 locations to fully cover the UK but SmartEdge surprisingly said it has identified 30,000 potential locations for these, which have electricity and fiber connections, as well as potential for heat reuse.

SmartEdge is already in the final phase of a demonstrator installation at Canary Wharf in London, where the service is been described as Virtual on Premises (VoP) Edge gateways, and the containers have been specified with Schneider Electric to include power and cooling in the build – a modular solution that Schneider has been offering since last year.

Hewkin said the regional Edge data centers will start with one container and can expand to ten, giving a total of 100 racks and 2100kW. They will have diverse power mains electricity supply and onsite standby generators.

Also, the E-Pops will be part of a local mesh, so their reliability will be delivered via distribution, instead of through backup generators.

SmartEdge plans to launch all 11 regional data centers and 11 E-PoPs on a single day in Q3 2020. Upon deployment, customers will be able to rent a whole container with ten racks, or a division of four or six racks.