Product Strategy for Data Centre in a Box
Background
Biz4Ever Solutions is an Asia based power solutions company which focuses on creative business continuity
solutions for its customers. As a player in this Business Continuity Services Market they identified Data Centres
as a key area of operation. Since setting up & operating data centres is becoming an expensive proposition
especially for organizations needing small data centres they conceptualized a fully operational data centre in a
box called MoDaCe an acronym created from MOdular DAta CEntre. This is a data centre that comes with the
required power, power back up and cooling starting from one rack to multiple rack configurations. Asia Pacific
is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and they have identified within that India is probably fastest
growing market considering the size of the Indian IT market and rapid pace of digitization the country is going
through this.
Market Analysis :
The Data Centre market can be represented as under
Overall DC
market
Captive (On Commercial
Premise) (Off Premise)
Non IT
IT vertical COLO/ Cloud
verticals
The market can be estimated in value or in number of racks sold. Since data centres can be best understood
in terms of rack space available one important variable can be to look at the market in terms of total racks
sold.
Rack Essentials
Racks - organize IT equipment into standardized assemblies that make efficient use of space and other
resources. At the most basic level, a rack consists of two or four vertical mounting rails and the supporting
framework required for keeping the rails in place. The rails and framework are typically made of steel or
aluminum to support high weight requirements. The rails have square or round holes that allow you to mount
rack equipment to them with screws. (In the case of the square mounting holes, the screws connect to
removable cage nuts placed in the required locations.) Some equipment includes horizontal rails or shelves
that you mount in the rack to provide extra support.
Page 1 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
Rack Standards - The width of the rails, the horizontal and vertical spacing of the mounting holes, the size of
the equipment cabinets and other measurements are standardized. This ensures that standard rack equipment
will always be compatible with standard racks. Most IT equipment is nominally 19 inches wide (including
mounting hardware) and follows a standard set by the Electronics Industry Alliance (EIA) and now maintained
by the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA). The current 19-inch rack standard is called EIA-310-
E, which is essentially equivalent to IEC-60297-3-100 or DIN 41494 in other regions. (There’s also a standard
for 23-inch wide telecom equipment. The vast majority of IT applications use 19-inch racks and equipment.)
Rack Units - Although 19-inch racks are always the same nominal width, the height and depth vary. The depth
of the rack rails is usually adjustable to some degree. The height of the rack is divided into standardized
segments called rack units. Each rack unit is 1.75 inches high, and the height of a rack or an equipment cabinet
is expressed as the number of rack units followed by the letter “U”. For example, a 42U rack contains 42 rack
units. That does not mean the rack is exactly 42 x 1.75 inches high because racks usually include at least a little
extra space at the top and bottom that isn’t usable rack space. It does mean that the rack will accommodate
any combination of standard rack equipment up to 42U—whether it’s 42 x 1U switches, 14 x 3U servers or 21
x 1U switches with 7 x 3U servers. Remember that the rack also has to be deep enough for the equipment and
rated to support the combined weight of all the equipment.
Please refer to Annexure 1.0 giving you further details of Rack Types and sizes
The rack sales in India by type of Data Centre for the past 5 years is as given below
Table 1 : Rack Sales in India 2020 to 2024
[in units]
Data Centre Type 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Captive 77,000 77,200 90,000 1,05,750 1,23,700
Commercial 41,800 54,000 69,500 90,000 1,16,000
Total 1,07,800 1,31,200 1,59,500 195,750 2,39,700
Note : above figures exclude Open Networking Racks which are not used in DC
It is expected that growth in rack sales will moderate over the next five years and then slow down post that.
This is primarily happening due to a lot of IT spend is towards virtualization & preference for cloud based
services by the SME sector which is estimated to slow down the rack sales.
The future CAGR from 2024 to 2030 in rack sales to Data Centres is as under
• Captives - 10% p.a.
• Commercial - 28% p.a.
Segmental Share
A market study has indicated that the share of different sectors in the overall rack market as given in Table
2.0
Page 2 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
Table 2 - Sector wise Share of Rack Sales 2024
Sector No of Racks %
2024 Share
IT & ITeS 77,900 32.5%
Banking 38,600 16.1%
Stockbroking 27,300 11.4%
Government 13,600 5.7%
Pharma 12,950 5.4%
Manufacturing 15,300 6.4%
Media 20,600 8.6%
Education 10,300 4.3%
Transport 2,625 1.1%
Retail 2,625 1.1%
Hospitals 6,200 2.6%
Hotels 4,050 1.7%
Insurance 5,750 2.4%
Others 1,900 0.8%
Total 2,39,700 100.0%
The total region wise market is as under:
• North : 24%
• Central : 11%
• South : 28%
• East : 12%
• West : 25%
The rack size wise break up of market is as under
Rack Size Rack Size in “U” % Share of Market
Full Size Rack 42U 57.4%
Half Size Rack 22U to 27U 25.0%
Quarter Size Rack 10U 17.6%
100.0%
Customer Buying Criteria
The key factors that customers in all segments generally consider when deciding to buy a modular or data
centre in a box solution have been identified through an extensive field research. These factors are as under
[not in order of importance] :
1. Cooling Efficiency [ power saving]
2. Quick turnaround time
3. Space Constraints
4. Scalability of solution – ability to add modules for additional racks etc
Page 3 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
5. Industry compliance for Data Security
6. Segment readiness to go for modern solutions
The above factors can be used to assess the relative attractiveness of the sector and what could be
conversion possibility in each segment. The framework for doing this is given in Annexure 1.0, Table 3.0.
Key Market trends
• There is a definite increase in IT spends and budgets across sectors as companies are rapidly trying to
improve business efficiency through investments in information technology and e-commerce
• The larger organizations have been the pioneers in this and have aggressively implemented many
software technologies to achieve their business goals and objectives. Investments in this sector have
plateaued and new investments in now concurrent to their expansion in their own markets
• The next wave of growth is coming from the SME sector which is very hungry for growth and keen to
get a higher share of the market. This sector however does not have the vision and skills available to
get the best of their investments in the technology sector. The SME is keen to look at modular and
smart solutions. Due to unavailability of right skills this sector is also prone to outsourcing and
managed services.
• Cloud services are an attractive option to many companies who may not have the size and revenue
base to justify setting up their own in house data centers and invest in IT resources
• Despite the excitement of cloud services, captive data centres will continue to grow over the next 3-
5 years horizon as SME sector is opting for a combination of on premise solutions and cloud offerings
in adopting IT as the way forward.
• The larger SME are also a good target for offering managed services for on premise data centres
using the Build-Operate – Manage approach.
• Other learning related to the data centres were
o It was big pain to set up data centres and manage them
o Cost of ownership data centres was another big concern
o Time to implement was too high
o Getting skilled manpower was difficult especially for non IT companies
• The above created a good opportunity for modular or smart solutions as it reduced cost, set –up
time and investment
• Competition - Modular or Data Centre in a Box market is currently serviced by 4 players. Eaton and
now Biz4Ever Solutions is the latest entrant in the market.
• Current penetration of Modular or Data Centre in a Box in 2024 is about 5%
Key Drivers of the market
• Almost 80% of all enterprises will gravitate towards hybrid models combining cloud and in house
capabilities
• There will be a mix of private and public cloud services intermingling to provide seamless, cost
effective & fast service to customers
• The need for captive data centres in turn will propel market for smart / modular data centre services
• The need for companies to reach out to smaller cities, towns, rural agglomerates will make
companies spread out across the length & breadth of the country - setting up smaller offices,
branches, warehouses, dealer networks etc. In turn this will create the need to set up smaller offices
which will require smart or modular solutions.
Page 4 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
Product Strategy for Biz4Ever Solutions
Biz4Ever is planning to enter the market aggressively next year. For this they are planning to recruit a team of
ace solution selling professionals to target customers across the India. They intend setting a separate vertical
to target Government Business. The team will be trained to sell the modular data centre solutions across broad
spectrum of customers in India. In order to create customer confidence Biz4Ever has also decided to set up a
couple of small data centres using the same modular solutions they offer to the market. These data centres
will have a capacity of 48 Racks and will be used to conduct pilots and offer demos to customers. Also,
customers who will give orders for their solutions and who do not have time to wait till delivery will be offered
1 to 2 racks to use in the interim till their Modular Data Centre is built & delivered to them. This will allow
Biz4Ever a small edge over competition in not waiting for delivery to start the deployment of their customer’s
servers etc. The process will work like this:
• Customer planning to give an order can take 1 to 4 racks and deploy their servers in the Biz4Ever Data
Centre till their order is delivered.
• While their order is being implemented this will serve as a demo or proof of concept and the customer
will get a fairly good idea of data centre uptime and other parameters
• Once the customer order is delivered the servers in the Biz4Ever Data Centre will be migrated to the
customer’s site.
• For all customers who give orders this additional service will be offered on a marginal cost basis.
Migration cost and set up charges will be levied to the customer. Servers will be brought in by the
customer
Some of the other data points that have been validated by industry experts is as under
• Selling cycle for these solutions is usually 3 to 6 months
• Hit ratio defined as the number of orders closed divided by the total number of prospects is 15%
• It requires 12 to 15 sales calls to close a deal.
• Probability of closure increases if there is System Integrator whom the customer trusts is part of the
deal.
• For pricing Biz4Ever will be aggressively priced in the market in order to get quick market entry.
Based on the above inputs please create a product strategy for Biz4Ever for MoDaCe
1. How will you segment the market
2. Which segments of the market will you target for this
3. What is the size of the target segments that you intend to get into from 2026 to 2030
4. What would be your marketing objectives for Modular Data Centre for 2026, 2027,2028, 2029, 2030.
5. How will you position this service in the target segments what that you have selected in (3) above.
6. What will be your product mix and 3 levels of product – Core, Tangible and Augmented Product
7. What will be your warranty and key SLA factors that you will promise your customer in order to give
them confidence to buy from you.
Page 5 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
Annexure 1.0
Data Centre Rack Details
Data center racks are essential for organizing and housing IT equipment. They can be broadly categorized into
open frame racks and enclosed racks, with further variations based on post configuration, mounting style,
and specialized features.
1. Open Frame Racks:
• 2-Post Racks:
▪ These are the simplest type, featuring two vertical posts and a single rail. They are suitable for
lighter equipment like switches and patch panels but lack the stability for heavy servers.
• 4-Post Racks:
▪ These racks have four vertical posts and both front and back rails, providing greater stability and
support for heavier equipment like servers.
2. Enclosed Racks:
• Cabinets:
▪ These offer a more secure and contained environment with side panels, doors (often glass or
plexiglass), and ventilation systems.
• Wall-Mount Racks:
▪ Designed to be mounted on walls, these are suitable for smaller deployments or locations with
limited floor space.
• Portable Racks:
▪ These racks can be moved around as needed and are useful for temporary setups or when
flexibility is required.
• Specialized Racks:
▪ Some racks are designed for specific purposes, such as accommodating bulky equipment or
providing integrated cooling solutions.
3. Other Considerations:
Rack Units (U): Racks are measured in rack units (1U = 1.75 inches), with common sizes being 42U and 48U.
▪ Width: Racks typically come in 19-inch or 23-inch widths.
▪ Depth: Rack depth can vary, with common depths being 40 inches or 42 inches.
▪ Material: Racks can be made from steel or aluminum.
▪ Cooling: Some racks have integrated cooling systems to manage heat dissipation.
4. Rack sizes
Summary of the sizes of the most popular server racks available in India are given in the Table below
Page 6 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
Rack Sizes and Dimensions
How Many U? Height (cm) Width (cm) Depth (cm)
6U Server Rack (A) 36.8 60 45
6U Server Rack (B) 36.8 60 60
9U Server Rack (A) 50.1 60 45
9U Server Rack (B) 50.1 60 60
12U Server Rack 63.5 60 60
18U Server Rack 98.8 60 60
22U Server Rack 116.6 60 60
32U Server Rack 161 60 60
42U Server Rack (A) 205.5 60 60
42U Server Rack (B) 205.5 60 80
42U Server Rack (B) 205.5 60 100
In summary, the choice of rack depends on factors like equipment weight, security needs, space constraints,
and cooling requirements.
Page 7 of 7 Data Centre in a Box May 2025
