Compass Datacenters, a wholesale data center startup that came out of the shadows in April, has shared details of its modular data center product Truly Modular – data center pods and pre-fabricated critical-power modules within a hardened building shell.

Chris Crossby, Compass founder who until recently was a senior executive at Digital Realty Trust – a wholesale-data center behemoth he helped create – said Compass is seeking to fill a void in the national US market industry culprits have failed to address.

“Until now, companies outside the industry's major markets that were seeking advanced data center facilities faced a decision with no attractive options,” he said. Those options include locating IT infrastructure far from corporate offices, building costly custom facilities or bolting together container-based solutions at the sites of corporate offices.

“T hose are equally poor choices, but we shatter that dilemma because with our solution we untether the geography and make the data center building the module,” Crosby said.

The solution consists of four basic building blocks, at the center of which is the CompassPod, a 10,000 sq ft column-less data room that provides 1-1.2MW of critical power with 2N distribution.

The room has above- and below-floor plenums, which enable high-density applications with up to 20kW racks without containment, while also addressing lower-density footprint requirements for network, patching and storage.

CompassPods are housed within a hardened shell, which provides secure structure that can withstand powerful hurricanes and earthquakes.

The facilities are powered by CompassPowerCenter – two pre-fabricated hardened-steel rooms that house UPS (2N), switchgear (2N) and mechanical equipment (N+1). Compass’ Always On Power cross-tie maintains power to both A and B sides event during maintenance.

The fourth component is CompassSupport, a module that provides space for operational staff and logistics, including a security center, lobby, office space, loading dock, break area and restrooms. This is key to Compass’ model, as the company wants to steer away from having multiple tenants at a facility share common support space. Each customer can have their own CompassSupport module.