Designing for Flexibility with Aligned’s Adaptive Modular Infrastructure
The rapid proliferation of AI and AI-powered cloud applications, coupled with accelerating technological advancements, has created unprecedentedly dynamic demands on computing environments and data center infrastructure. Given these rapid changes, how do you ensure efficient infrastructure delivery and deployment while preventing IT obsolescence?
At Aligned Data Centers, we understand that your infrastructure must evolve to keep pace with the changing requirements of these technologies while prioritizing safety, efficiency, and scalability.
That’s why over the past decade, we have redefined how data centers are built by embracing modular design and construction, as well as off-site fabrication and erection (OFE). We’ve long been recognized for our work with prefabricated UPS containers, generators, chiller packages, and switch gear components. Now, we’re pushing the envelope even further by modularizing the critical power, communications, and cooling systems that bind these components together.
But this evolution isn’t just about building faster; it’s about building smarter. Our Adaptive Modular Infrastructure (AMI) is designed to meet rapidly changing design and density demands and requirements with unmatched speed, scalability, and resiliency. Think of our adaptive infrastructure as either LEGO blocks — standardized, prefabricated units that can be easily connected and integrated on-site — or your IT Swiss Army Knife: designed for fast adaptation and easy modification.
Meeting the Demands of the AI and Cloud Era
Recent industry research has underscored the explosive growth of AI and cloud applications, which are reshaping data centers worldwide, from design to day-to-day operation. In this rapidly changing environment, traditionally designed, stick-built data centers often struggle to deliver the speed and flexibility needed to stay ahead — or even keep up with current requirements.
Aligned’s AMI isn’t just a response to current challenges; it’s the fundamental design philosophy we’ve embraced since day one, driven by the understanding that flexibility is essential for meeting growing demand and navigating the future. We focus on modularity across multiple aspects of our builds, from the panels that enclose our buildings, to the skids and cooling equipment in our data halls, to the backup power generation containers in our mechanical yards.
By premanufacturing repeatable units in offsite, contractor-driven fabrication facilities, we significantly reduce onsite labor and enable faster time-to-market. This controlled environment also enhances safety by minimizing onsite construction risks, while improving quality control. In the data hall, our Delta3™ air cooling technology can be seamlessly augmented with or replaced by our DeltaFlow~™ liquid cooling technology to support the ever-growing density requirements of future high-performance workloads. This can be done in a live data hall with virtually zero downtime.
AMI’s Core Benefits at a Glance
- Speed-to-Market: Our modular design minimizes onsite assembly, reducing the overall project timeline. This means you can deploy critical infrastructure faster, allowing you to respond quickly to market demands.
- Risk Mitigation and Safety: By shifting construction to controlled environments, we reduce onsite hazards, enhance worker safety, and improve project predictability. Lower capital project risks, shorter lead times, and a fortified supply chain provide reliability and security for your infrastructure investments.
- Scalability and Density: The LEGO block approach of AMI provides the flexibility to customize designs and scale computing resources on-demand. Whether you’re expanding across multiple campuses or ramping up capacity for AI training and inference, our solutions adapt seamlessly.
- Operational Efficiency: Offsite fabrication in controlled environments leads to better quality control, predictable costs, and fewer logistical headaches. This controlled process translates to enhanced safety and efficiency onsite.
- Sustainability: By reducing material waste, minimizing concrete use, and cutting down on onsite labor, our modular solutions contribute to lower Scope 3 emissions and a more sustainable construction process.
Innovation with a Purpose
Aligned’s long-term strategy centers on a uniquely adaptive and modular approach, designed to meet our customers’ IT needs today and seamlessly evolve with their future requirements — even those not yet defined. This inherent flexibility accommodates diverse technical requirements while ensuring every new build is optimized for the future and prevents IT deployments from becoming obsolete.
Consider agentic AI deployments. The current dearth of available data center space and utility power across the industry will drive many cloud service providers (CSPs) to repurpose their current leased data halls and replace some existing cloud infrastructure with new GPU/AI systems requiring power and cooling upgrades. Aligned’s Adaptive Modular Infrastructure will allow these customers to maximize their invested CapEx, bringing the site on-net and open for business with on-site support and operations staff, while enabling close proximity to their existing cloud services for the inference engines to draw from, which is required to ensure low latency responses.
In such a scenario, AMI ensures maximum ROI on the building structure and location of the data center as an internal change of use — whether transitioning from cloud to cloud/AI or whatever is next — which can be performed as and how required to meet clients’ needs. The result: zero building obsolescence!
At Aligned Data Centers, we’re leveraging more than a decade of expertise to deliver modular, resilient, and efficient solutions that can readily anticipate technology advances. Our Adaptive Modular Infrastructure is more than just a construction method; it’s a strategic asset designed to propel your AI-empowered digital transformation forward. We’re building a future where your data center evolves as rapidly as the technologies that can enable your success.
