New Omdia research has revealed the market for prefabricated modular and micro data centres will reach US$11.7bn by 2027, with growth peaking in 2023 and 2024, fuelled by the need to speed-up data centre builds in the wake of the AI boom.
The prefabricated modular data centres (PMDC) market comprises single and multi-module structures which can have one function (e.g. power, cooling) or all data centre functions (e.g. all-in-one).
Omdia expects US$8.6bn of PMDC sales in 2027.
The largest category in the market, prefabricated power modules, grew the fastest among all module types tracked by Omdia as it enabled both new data centre builds and the expansion of existing data centres’ power capacity.
Micro-modular data centres (micro-DCs) comprise single and multi-module designs, which are shipped pre-integrated by the supplier. Omdia expects US$3.1B of micro-modular data centre sales in 2027.
“Micro-DCs are appealing to both cloud service providers and enterprises” said Vlad Galabov, Cloud and Data Center Research Director at Omdia. “Hyperscale cloud service providers were early adopters of multi-rack micro-DCs. Offsite pre-integration sped up on-site installation.
“Following my recent visit to a Tencent data centre in Tianjin, China in 2018, the teams had already deployed multi-rack micro-DCs at scale and were eager to share learnings on their intentions to increase their use of PMDC and micro-DC solutions in the future,” added Galabov.
Huawei is a leader in the global PMDC market, followed by Schneider Electric and Vertiv. Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric and M.C. Dean are three of the largest vendors in North America, while Vertiv and Rittal are the two largest vendors in Western Europe, and Huawei is the largest vendor in Asia & Oceania and the Rest of EMEA.
The micro-DC market is significantly more diverse due to its lower entry barriers.
“We expect PMDC and micro-DC innovation to continue, with a focus on high power density to support highly configured servers optimised for AI workloads,” said Siraj Aziz, the analyst leading Omdia’s PMDC and micro-DC research. “Integration of liquid cooling and batteries are two key innovation areas we anticipate.”
