Since 2006 (if not earlier), IT heavyweights including IBM, Dell, Microsoft, and Google - along with companies representing a variety of industries - have embraced the modular-data centre concept. Now an upstart of sorts has entered the fray with a modular data centre design that could be a game-changer, if third-party tests are to be believed. Skanska USA, the American arm of the global construction and engineering giant, has announced a new modular data centre system called eOptiTrax that reportedly operates at a remarkably low mechanical PUE of 1.012.

It's a bold claim - one that Skanska is going so far as to nguarantee - and researchers from the University of Maryland are backing it. "We test systems from manufacturers across the globe," said Ming Zhang, who led the tests. "These PUE readings are at least four times more efficient than simply moving air under ideal conditions, and much more efficient than traditional systems designed to the same level of reliability."

Source: InfoWorld