In today's fast-paced, constantly shifting landscape, it’s evolve or be extinguished. Remaining stuck in your ways or exclusively relying on traditional methods to solve modern challenges isn’t an option for those looking to scale up and keep pace.

Staying competitive demands consistent focus on innovation, research and development (R&D), and an eagle eye on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

When it comes to the Edge, the route to scaling up for the new era of high-density workloads and complex cooling demands is packed with hurdles. Moving away from conventional design approaches towards modular, scalable, future-ready solutions is now mission-critical – but it requires a significant mindset shift.

That’s why Oper8 is focusing on educating customers at the Edge, and across the industry, to encourage operators to think differently about what’s right for them today, and for the demands of tomorrow.

In a recent DCD>Talks episode, Andrew Kernebone, technical director for Asia at Oper8, highlighted the importance of mindset shifts, education, and innovation in driving industry growth.

Knowledge is power

For Kernebone, opening up to new possibilities is the central starting block: “Quite often, what we find is that those making the decisions haven't thought about alternative approaches to the Edge of the network. And so there's an education approach simply in opening people's eyes to what the alternatives might be for how to approach the Edge.”

But championing education and encouraging conversations around the application of new, future-ready strategies isn’t without its challenges. It requires a comprehensive mindset shift, alignment across key stakeholders, and a mutual understanding of the shared benefits.

“It's often not necessarily a decision to transition,” adds Kernebone. “There’s generally a trigger point, such as an expansion taking place, or when taking on a new site where you need to solve new problems.”

Looking beyond traditional approaches to data center construction, being open to alternative solutions, and asking the right questions, can help speed up time to market and deliver a more efficient outcome.

Kernebone uses the example of enterprise projects where sites are often no longer fit for purpose, or require a significant amount of work and investment to be suitably expanded. These instances bring about the opportunity to look at the challenge from a new perspective and deploy alternative, innovative solutions that can help to avoid the cost and complexity of a full retrofit.

Fine tuning

A modular design approach underpins Oper8’s strategy for delivering bespoke, scalable data centers. From rack-based micro data centers (micro DCs), to pre-fabricated modular solutions, constructing the core building blocks in a factory setting delivers quality control, reliability, and on-site delivery of fit-for-purpose solutions.

“The challenge and opportunity is that every customer’s requirements are different, and they’re often looking for something quite unique,” says Kernebone. “So, we're not starting from scratch with every project, but we are fine-tuning every single time for the customer.”

Within a selection of core designs, Oper8 is able to balance the essential space, power, and budget requirements unique to each customer, all inside one uniform envelope.

That approach delivers on some more must-haves: speed and scalability. “The ability to alter modules means that, for example, if we have two sites that have the same physical footprint, but the power requirements per rack are vastly different, we're able to alter the components that we're using,” explains Kernebone.

Pre-installing select core components reduces time to deployment by a number of weeks or even months, bringing with it cost savings and the ability to get up and running at speed.

Efficiency over complexity

Budget will always be a key driver behind design decisions, but beyond that, is the carbon cost. Central to driving sustainability is efficiency. The two go hand in hand, but just like individual customer requirements, there are a range of perspectives to consider. Kernebone explains:

“Organizations may have an ESG requirement around sustainability, additional targets, or just a very sensible desire to reduce their ongoing costs. And so there are a few aspects within the design process where we were able to deliver a very efficient solution.”

For example, typical Edge sites are built as a server room or a small data center, and so cooling solutions and fire safety measures are usually designed to cool and protect the space as a whole.

Replacing that setup with a micro DC means only cooling the space inside the racks, rather than an entire room. Kernebone estimates that that can bring savings of 15-20 percent in terms of ongoing cooling costs.

“We're designing very specifically based on load because of that modular approach,” he adds. “Customers may have a requirement for only one or two racks on day one, but want the ability to add more. With a micro DC, we can start with a few racks and then add more on as they grow, and if they don't get to that point, there's no need to over-engineer the solution to meet that requirement.”

A look to the future

In the face of rising densities and an increasingly competitive, ever-changing landscape, building smarter and more efficiently is mission-critical. Today’s demands have forced a change in the way data centers are designed and operated, as well as bringing about a mindset overhaul. Key conversations concerning the most strategic route forward cannot be delayed. As Kernebone puts it:

“It’s about taking a step back, having a look at what your requirements are, and then thinking a little differently to decide if the way you're approaching it is the best solution, before looking at all the alternatives – because often there might be a smarter way to do it.”

Looking ahead, Oper8 is dedicated to expanding its modular and Edge capabilities by getting to the heart of important conversations and staying in tune with the real-world requirements of operators.

The company is focusing on keeping up with developments in technology, and staying ahead of emerging trends in order to continue posing the important questions when it matters most.

With strong momentum and consistent growth at the Edge thanks to increasing demand and growing adoption of hybrid approaches that utilize both cloud and on-premise, developing fit for purpose, efficient designs for Edge spaces is the core challenge and opportunity for companies like Oper8.

To hear more about smarter growth through innovation at the Edge, watch the full DCD>Talks episode with Andrew Kernebone, here.