CASE STUDY
MaxCell® Delivers Fiber Infrastructure To Support Major Hyperscaler’s AI Growth
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With so many moving parts, large-scale data center construction projects can often face challenges that can delay timelines and disrupt certain phases of construction, resulting in increased costs and frustration.
Timely delivery of materials is essential to maintaining project timelines and meeting project deadlines. To ensure project success, large-scale data center construction projects rely heavily on a robust supply chain for scheduled delivery of materials.
Project Objective
Such was the case with the construction of a massive hyperscale data center project in Texas. For the design and engineering team working on this build, selecting the right partner came down to two critical objectives. They needed a partner with the resources and manufacturing capacity to supply the massive quantities of innerduct required for the project, while also ensuring the conduit pathways would allow for easy cable installation in the future without risking damage to cables already in place.
For this project, the client was using large high-density fiber cables, which up to this point was typically used to connect cities together. The bulk fiber would be used as standard trunk cables to connect data halls and buildings together. With hundreds of these cables being placed and the massive amount of duct banks being utilized, it was imperative they partner with a company they could depend on.
With the complex array of communication cables that are needed for network connectivity in large-scale data center facilities, it was crucial that the product they chose would help provide seamless operations and reliability. Having worked with MaxCell® on many infrastructure projects over the years, the design and engineering team knew they could depend on those products for long-term performance and resilience in this type of network-intensive environment.
Challenge
Investment in this AI infrastructure project would be more than 100 billion to develop a flagship data center that will play a pivotal role in supporting the enormous computational power required for AI workloads.
The site encompasses an expansive campus with eight large buildings, each spanning roughly half a million square feet. Given the size of the complex and the demands of the application, the amount of fiber infrastructure required to support the network is immense – each building alone requires an extraordinary amount of fiber.
Benefits of MaxCell’s Data Center Edge Fabric Innerduct System
- Solves cabling issues for conduits, allowing a range of cable sizes
- Contains a large pocket to simplify the installation of a wide range of cable sizes
- Increases conduit capacity by up to 300% compared to rigid ducts in new construction
- Protects cable jacket integrity by preventing “burn-through” from cable over cable friction
- Reduces or eliminates number of conduits required in new construction
- Resistant to ground chemicals and petroleum products
- Features color coded, pre-installed 1800LB (816kg) pull tape in each cell
- Pre-lubricated for lower friction during MaxCell and cable installation
- Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Mitigating risk to their supply chain would be crucial in keeping the project on time and boosting efficiency. Forging relationships with strong partners who have the industry knowledge and ability to supply at scale would be essential.
Solution
Given the size and scale of this project, the team from MaxCell met with the design and engineering partners to gain a better understanding of the strict technical requirements needed for this mission-critical facility. Knowing that the choice of innerduct solution would need to support the growing demands of today’s AI and allow capacity for future requirements, they recommended their MaxCell Data Center Edge product as a great solution for this project.
Specifically designed as a hyperscale data center solution, MaxCell’s Data Center Edge is a fabric innerduct designed to enable safe installation of high-density, blunt or pre-connectorized fiber cabling in conduit-based network infrastructure. The unique fabric construction of MaxCell maximizes space for high-capacity cables in a pathway while preserving space for future bandwidth expansion.
Because this product is lightweight, easier to handle and offers maximum flexibility, it reduces installation time and labor costs. To ensure optimal success, MaxCell’s team was onsite to provide installation training, technical support and guidance as the product was installed.
This project demanded close collaboration with the customer and ongoing communication and coordination throughout the project to ensure that the stringent demands for material availability were met.
Results
With miles of conduit being installed, over 1.1 million feet of Data Center Edge flexible fabric innerduct had to be manufactured, shipped and installed. Working closely with the customer, MaxCell planned a rollout to fit their specific project needs. Approximately 60,000 feet a week were manufactured, and a full truckload (120,000 feet) was shipped every two weeks to ensure that product was always on hand. Truckload shipments were sent to holding facilities for the contractor, providing them with access to inventory as needed.
In addition to simplifying installation and meeting shipment targets, MaxCell provided responsive technical experts, proven project expertise, ongoing service and support, and domestic manufacturing capabilities. Having a partner who had the commitment and world-class manufacturing capabilities allowed this project to be delivered efficiently and on schedule.
Summary
Because data center construction involves the installation of large amounts of network infrastructure, choosing the right partner who is experienced in data center environments is critical to the success of your project. Careful consideration should also be given to ensure that the partner you choose has effective strategies with best practices to mitigate the chance of supply chain disruptions and that will allow you to complete your projects on schedule.