Building the data center to meet the needs of an uncertain future is an expensive and needless exercise in over-engineering. New designs need to be modular, with built-in expansion capabilities.

In the data center power infrastructure, modularity can mean: UPSs that scale for added capacity or redundancy, extended battery modules to customize backup runtime, and plug-and-play power distribution components that break down room-level wiring into row- or rack-level modules.

This paper looks at the concepts and benefits of modularity in all these elements of the power system.