Emerson tried hard to stay away from the word 'container' in Wednesday's announcement of its new modular data center product. Although data center containers have slowly been gaining recognition, the hype that continues to accompany this type of solution has created a stigma around the word itself.

The data center infrastructure vendor called the new SmartMod box a 'rapid-deployment enclosure' in its literature, but could not resist using the c-word when comparing it to other vendors' products.

Part of the newly announced Smart Solutions family of products, SmartMod can be deployed either with IT and power equipment integrated in one box or separated in two boxes for larger loads.

As all vendors of containerized data center solutions do, Emerson says its new product is best used for capacity overspill, for quick remote deployment or for disaster recovery.

The company offers SmartMod in a variety of configurations for varied IT loads or infrastructure requirements. Emerson's product portfolio gives it the ability to provide a full enclosure/power/cooling/management solution.

Other members of the newly announced Smart Solutions family are Emerson's SmartRow and SmartAisle products, although SmartAisle has been announced before.

SmartRow is a standalone data center infrastructure that supports up to 20kW of IT equipment in an enclosed, multi-rack configuration with integrated power, cooling, infrastructure management and fire suppression. SmartAisle is a solution for cold aisle/hot aisle containment.

The Smart Solutions family integrates many of Emerson's power, precision-cooling, monitoring and management technologies and services. The brands include Liebert, Knurr, ASCO, Avocent and NetSecure.

Jeff Sturgeon, VP of solutions and marketing for Emerson's Liebert power and cooling business in North America, said economy, efficiency, control and interoperability with existing systems were the name of the game in this announcement.

"Delivering a new level of modularity, scalability and flexibility, in addition to the four attributes'efficient, economical, interoperable and controllable'these new solutions will serve as guiding principles as we expand the family of Smart Solutions," he said.