Containerized Data Center Shells in Six Approved Sizes

What a containerized data center shell is, and what it is not

A containerized data center from SAMAN is an infrastructure shell. We build the steel envelope, the insulation, the technical floor, the openings and the routes that power and data cables follow. We hand it over ready to take the equipment you or your integrator select. Racks, servers, storage and network gear stay outside the published price. So do the UPS, the batteries, the PDU or busway, the precision cooling units, the fire suppression and the monitoring. A project quotation adds them.

That boundary is deliberate, and it is the single most useful thing this page can tell you. Floor area cannot price a complete data center. IT load in kW, rack density, redundancy target, cooling duty, UPS runtime, fire strategy, network design and commissioning govern the real number. A shell rate gives you a firm figure for the part SAMAN builds. Your budget line for the building then stops competing with your budget line for the equipment.

Competitor pages in this category rarely say any of this. Most publish a feature list and a contact form. Very few publish a size, a drawing or a rate. We publish six approved general arrangement boards, six rack counts and six opening schedules. A shell price sits against every one of them. We also say plainly what that price leaves out.

One airflow model runs through all six approved sizes

Every approved size uses the same arrangement. A single row of equipment stands along one long wall. In front of it sits a cold and service aisle, wide enough to work in. Above the row runs a hot return plenum. Overhead, power and data travel on separate pathways, so a busway and a fibre tray never share a route. Cooling louvres pierce only the equipment wall, which the drawings call Wall B.

Keeping one model across six sizes has a practical benefit. Moving from a 10 ft unit to a 40 ft unit changes the rack count and the number of cooling bays. It does not change how the air moves, how the aisle works or how a technician reaches the back of a cabinet. Your operating procedure survives the upgrade. So does your containment approach.

ASHRAE TC 9.9 recommended and allowable envelopes inform the cooling design. The final set points still follow your IT equipment class and the OEM limits for the hardware. Cooling capacity, the redundancy philosophy and the containment detail stay project specific. A heat load study settles all three before anyone orders equipment.

What sits in each bay, from the LV panel to the network cabinet

The approved boards name every bay in the row, and the complement changes with size. The 10 ft unit runs an LV and ATS panel, a UPS, one cooling bay, two racks and a fire and control cabinet. The 20 ft edge unit adds a battery bay next to the UPS and closes the row with a network and control cabinet. From the 20 ft high cube upward, a partition puts the LV, UPS and battery bays into their own power and control zone.

The 40 ft ISO board puts the LV, UPS, battery and fire cabinets in the power zone. Past the partition come a cooling bay, eight racks, a second cooling bay and the network cabinet. The 40 ft high cube keeps that pattern and inserts a third cooling bay in the middle of the rack row. That is how it carries ten racks rather than eight on the same footprint.

The 53 ft board is the only one with two battery bays. Its white space runs as two groups of six racks. One cooling bay leads the row, one splits the two groups, and two more close it out. If your runtime target is long, that second battery bay is the reason to look at this size before you look at the price.

The opening schedule that decides how the module sits on your site

Read this before you fix the module position. The opening schedule is locked on every approved board, and it is the same logic at every size. Wall A carries the secure personnel and equipment doors. Wall B carries the cooling and service louvres. End C and End D stay solid, with no door and no window. There are zero exterior windows anywhere in the range.

Windowless is a choice, not an omission. Removing glazing removes solar gain, a security weak point, a condensation risk and a leakage path in one move. A project that really needs a viewing panel gets a fire, security, condensation and thermal review first. The panel then becomes a project specific detail rather than a standard feature.

• Wall A: one secure door on the 10 ft and both 20 ft sizes, two doors on the 40 ft and 53 ft sizes
• Wall B: one louvre on the 10 ft, two on both 20 ft sizes and the 40 ft ISO, three on the 40 ft high cube, four on the 53 ft
• End C and End D: solid on every size, so plan access from the long walls only
• Zero exterior windows across all six approved sizes
• Door sizes coordinate with rack and UPS replacement, so the largest item still comes out
• Security locking must never defeat the emergency egress route

Two consequences follow on site. Park the module so Wall A faces your access route and Wall B faces open air, because the louvres need free intake and discharge. Then keep a working clearance in front of both walls. A shell placed hard against a boundary wall on the louvre side will not cool the way the drawing intends.

Six approved sizes, and the two pairs that share a price

The range moves in a straight line on rack count: two, four, four, eight, ten and twelve bays. It does not move in a straight line on value, and two pairs deserve a careful look before you order.

20 ft edge and 20 ft high cube all in one

Both carry four racks, two cooling bays and one door. Both cost the same. The high cube version adds a foot of internal height. It also adds a partition between the LV, UPS and battery bays and the IT white space. Your operations team may one day work on switchgear or batteries while servers run. That is when the partition earns its keep.

40 ft ISO and 40 ft high cube

Same 320 sq ft footprint, same price, different capacity. The ISO shell holds eight racks and two cooling bays. The high cube holds ten racks and three cooling bays. Its third cooling position sits in the middle of the row rather than at an end. Choose the ISO version when a height limit on the route or at the final position forces standard ISO height. Otherwise the high cube gives more capacity and more cooling positions for the same shell money.

Read the table with the cooling column, not just the rack column. Racks per cooling bay run at two on the three small sizes. They run at four on the 40 ft ISO, a little over three on the 40 ft high cube and three on the 53 ft. A dense row wants more cooling positions, and a heat load study will tell you how many.

How the shell rate moves with floor area

The published rate is budgetary and it covers the infrastructure shell with basic pathways. It starts from an approved base of Rs 4,500 per sq ft at a 200 sq ft reference scope. The workbook then applies a size band. Smaller areas carry a premium, because the fixed content of an enclosure does not shrink with the floor. Larger areas earn a discount for the opposite reason.

The adjusted rate on this page runs from Rs 5,670 per sq ft at 80 sq ft. It falls to Rs 4,230 per sq ft at 424 sq ft. For context, our container office products sit near Rs 1,450 per sq ft at the same 200 sq ft reference. The gap is roughly three times, and none of it comes from the steel box. It comes from the technical envelope, the fire rated liner and the heavy duty technical deck. It also comes from the segregated pathways, the louvre and opening detail and the QA that goes with them.

Standard, optional, custom and excluded: where our scope stops

We publish this table because the category makes it easy to assume more is included than actually is. A pallet of batteries and a set of precision cooling units can cost more than the shell around them. Reading the excluded column early keeps the comparison between suppliers honest, and it keeps your capital plan from a late surprise.

Two limits deserve emphasis. First, integrated equipment ships inside the module only where the component manufacturer permits it and where transport shock and vibration restraints are defined. Second, stacking, joining and transport claims need project calculations, because a data center fit out changes gross mass and centre of gravity a great deal.

When a container office is the better buy

Some enquiries that reach this page are really office enquiries. If the room holds people, desks and a meeting table, an infrastructure shell is the wrong product and the wrong rate. Our container office range covers that work properly, with glazing, comfort insulation and a fit out priced for occupancy rather than equipment.

Inside that range the choice narrows quickly. A site office container is configured around what a project site office has to do, from supervision to document storage. A container office cabin is the fabricated value line, built for a stationary single site posting rather than repeated relocation. Neither carries a hot return plenum, a technical floor or segregated power and data pathways, and neither should be asked to house a rack row.

The reverse case matters too. Putting two or three racks into a fitted office container looks cheaper on the day. It turns expensive later. The envelope, the floor loading, the fire strategy and the airflow were never drawn for equipment. Where the load really is small, the 10 ft edge shell exists for exactly that scale.

Getting the site ready before the module arrives

Site work sits outside our price, so plan it early with your civil contractor. The module needs a level, load bearing base at its declared support points. It needs a clear route for the vehicle and the crane. It needs services brought to the cable entry positions on the approved board.

• Level, load bearing supports at the declared points, designed by your civil consultant
• Crane standing area and a swing path clear of overhead lines
• Approach road able to take the trailer length for a 40 ft or 53 ft module
• LV supply, earthing and any generator or ATS interface brought to the entry position
• Free air in front of Wall B for louvre intake and discharge
• Drainage routed away from cable entries and from any outdoor cooling unit

Roof water matters more here than on an office build. We detail and inspect every roof opening at the works. The roof falls then carry discharge away from the cable entries and the electrical interfaces. Keep that logic intact when you finish the surrounding hardstanding.

What we check before the module leaves the works

Factory acceptance covers the enclosure and the pathways we supply. We record fit, weld and bolt condition, coating and dry film thickness. We also record sealing, a dimensional survey and dispatch photographs against the approved board. Rack rails, module joins, lifting points and cooling supports each get a written inspection. Fabrication tolerance is what protects rack alignment later.

Where a project also takes active systems, we plan and quote the integrated systems testing on its own. Load bank testing, failover testing, commissioning and any certification sit outside the shell price. We will say so on the quotation rather than leave it implied.

What to send us so the quotation is accurate

A shell quotation firms up quickly once you know the load side. The list below settles most of the questions our engineering team would otherwise ask twice.

• Final IT load schedule in kW, with the kW you expect per rack
• Rack and cabinet data: manufacturer, quantity, depth and weight
• Redundancy target, UPS capacity and the battery runtime you want
• Cable entry requirements and any segregation criteria you must meet
• Site pin code, access constraints and any height restriction on the route
• Fire detection and suppression strategy, plus monitoring and access control needs

Send us the list and your site pin code, and we will come back with the shell and the options you asked for. A clear line then covers everything that stays excluded. If a fabricated office suits you better than an infrastructure shell, we will tell you that too.

Questions buyers ask before ordering

Does the price include racks, UPS and cooling equipment?

No. The published rate covers the infrastructure shell and basic power and data pathways. Racks, servers, UPS, batteries, PDU or busway, precision cooling, fire suppression and monitoring are quoted apart. Their cost follows your IT load and redundancy target, not your floor area.

How many racks fit in a 20 ft container data center?

Four rack bays, on both the 20 ft edge and the 20 ft high cube all in one. The high cube version spends its extra height on clearance above the containment and adds a partition between the power zone and the white space.

Can SAMAN claim an Uptime tier or a TIA-942 certification?

Not from a shell purchase. Tier and TIA-942 claims describe an engineered and certified facility, including power topology, redundancy and testing. Those sit outside this scope, and we will not assert them on a page.

Is the 53 ft size a standard container?

Treat it as a planning envelope. The 53 ft board uses a nominal high cube planning envelope. The source container type and the real internal clear dimensions need confirming before fabrication release.

Why are there no windows?

Glazing adds solar gain, a security weakness, a condensation risk and a leakage path. None of those help a room full of equipment. Every approved size is windowless, and any viewing panel becomes a reviewed project specific detail.

Can the shell be relocated later?

It is built on an ISO style frame with approved corner fittings or lugs. It ships with lift drawings and a shipped weight schedule. Moving it with equipment installed needs a fresh lift study, because the fit out changes both mass and centre of gravity.

What does the technical PDF on this page contain?

It carries the approved family overview with budgetary prices, and the material and envelope planning notes. It also carries both technical diagrams and all six approved general arrangement boards. A buyer checklist closes it, to complete before quotation or fabrication release.