Minkels expands micro data centre product line
Mon 14 Nov 2016
Minkels, a leading data center manufacturer owned by the Legrand Group has announced a new product offering in the micro data center market. The Minkels MiniCube will be available for purchase in the first quarter of 2017.
The company, which began micro data center product manufacturing with the MatrixCube earlier this year, is expanding the products in the micro-DC line to reach a wider audience. The MiniCube is comparable to the MatrixCube, but the MiniCube is intended to serve the small to medium enterprise market, where the MatrixCube is more appropriate as a solution for mid-sized businesses.
Bas Jacobs, product manager at Minkels, noted in an interview that four separate infrastructure developments are driving increased market demand for micro data centers; the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud adoption, efficiency requirements, and the need for an easy to use plug-and-play solution.
“The data landscape is changing completely, driven by, among others the Internet of Things,” Jacobs said. He noted that in the growing IoT market, with an anticipated 50 billion connected devices by 2020, demand for micro data center products will grow to accommodate IoT needs and that the global micro data center market is expected to triple over the next five years – from $1.7B to $6.3B by 2020.
“This is because centralized data processing is not sufficient for the IoT, for instance because of low latency requirements. The IoT therefore requires this data to be handled locally, for example using micro data centers.”
Increased concern with energy efficiency is also a factor in the increased interest companies are showing in micro-DC solutions. A standardized in-house solution helps with green company initiatives and allows for better planning based on fixed and predictable costs.
The MiniCube does not offer the full scalability of the MatrixCube, as it is intended for smaller enterprises, but it does have in-rack cooling, standard energy efficiency, and is an accessible, plug-and-play solution.
Minkels, while primarily a European company, has been expanding its global footprint recently. In October, it was chosen as the primary supplier for data center products by MainOne, a premier networking and data center solutions provider in West Africa.
