Q&A with Data Center POST’s Contributing Editor, Kathy Xu

Don Utz, Thermo Bond Buildings, Data Center Business Development DirectorThermo Bond Buildings’ Modular Data Center Business Development Director, Don Utz recently spoke with Data Center POST about the company’s involvement at Data Center World, which will be taking place April 3-6, 2017 in Los Angeles. Thermo Bond Buildings is highly interested in engaging with those who are interested in deploying modular buildings for their data center projects. In this Q&A, Mr. Utz also discusses what problems Thermo Bond Buildings solves, how the data center industry is evolving and new developments, such as R&D design efforts working to serve IoT and 5G technology by developing new models with greater scalability and flexibility.

Data Center POST, Kathy Xu (DCP-KX) Question: What do you do and what problems are you attempting to solve?

Thermo Bond Buildings, Don Utz (Thermo Bond Buildings-DU) Answer: Thermo Bond Buildings is a pre-engineered, pre-fabricated modular building manufacturer. We’re in our fourth decade of providing communication shelters for countless cell companies (including the four largest), 911, and federal and state agencies. We’ve also built substation buildings for 60 power companies, numerous data center buildings, and turnkey FTTH buildings for hundreds of companies, including the largest market cap company in the United States. Thermo Bond can provide either a standard or fully-integrated building. Our experienced technicians, licensed electricians and project managers will engineer, procure, and install whatever specialized equipment our customer’s project may require, and insure an on-time delivery of their data center. 

We feel that one of the biggest challenges in the growing data center market is the lack of economical scalability and speed-to-market. Thermo Bond’s modular buildings address that need with some very compelling benefits.

Those benefits include:

  • Lower construction costs — overall construction time can be cut as much as 75 percent (site preparation parallels factory modular fabrication).
  • Extensive in-factory quality control programs – every operation is inspected, tested and documented.
  • Complete in-factory equipment installation and integration.
  • Less risk — no large groups of contractors coming and going to the site every day for months reduces the risk of construction accidents.
  • Limitless designs – we can build virtually any size (installations range from 300 sq. ft. to thousands of sq. ft. of floor space).
  • Variety of attractive architectural finishes.
  • Extensive experience in procuring and installing all types of critical system support equipment. Working with a variety of manufacturers, Thermo Bond has the ability to provide the customer with large discounts on support equipment and a professional installation.
  • Potential tax savings using modular versus site-built.
  • Speed-to-market — faster utilization provides faster benefits and revenues.
  • Scalability — modular buildings can easily be relocated and rapidly expanded.

The versatility of pre-fabricated modular data centers allows for better planning and scheduling. With modular construction, the customer can manage capital expenditures by growing their data center as the demand increases.

DCP-KX Q: What do you attribute your company’s success to?

Thermo Bond Buildings-DU A: Thermo Bond’s success in this market is a result of always meeting our commitments, our engineering design, flexibility, large-scale production facilities, experienced integration, uncompromising commitment to quality, and superior customer service.

DCP-KX Q: How do you see the data center industry evolving?

Thermo Bond Buildings-DU A: One of our interests in the evolution of the data center industry is edge computing. If this trend continues to grow as predicted, the proliferation of these smaller sites will overwhelm the traditional design-bid-build approach. Modular will be the answer for volume speed-to-market.

DCP-KX Q: What new developments are on the horizon for your company?

Thermo Bond Buildings-DU A: Edge computing is predicted to be a growing service and market for IOT, which also ties into the new 5G technology. Thermo Bond’s R&D design efforts have been directed to serve those new and growing markets. To meet the demand, we continue to develop new models with more scalability and flexibility, enabling them to better house new technology. 

DCP-KX Q: What would you like to accomplish at Data Center World?

Thermo Bond Buildings-DU A: We aren’t the hyperscale guys. We want to engage with owners and builders that are interested in taking advantage of deploying modular buildings for their data center projects. Utilizing factory modular construction results in owners realizing revenues 3 to 4 months faster than site-built.

DCP-KX: Thank you for your time and best of luck at Data Center World. Readers, if you are interested in learning more about Thermo Bond Buildings, visit http://thermobond.com/.

If you would like to attend Data Center World, please register here. Follow all things Data Center World on Twitter with the hashtag #DataCenterWorld.