An Australian reseller of Caterpillar’s industrial machinery has ordered a containerized data center solution from IBM to add capacity to its overflowing data center. IBM said in a statement that WesTrac (the client) was unable to secure more space in its existing data center – space it needed to support a major IT project.

“This agreement provides us with a complete solution and, most importantly, enables all IT equipment to be easily serviced and maintained from within a closed, physically secure and environmentally tight container,” WesTrac Communications Infrastructure Manager Mark Curtis said in a statement.

“All managed and delivered by IBM, WesTrac will benefit from temporary hosting during transitioning stages, project financing, and ultimately, permanent IT accommodation.”

IBM is custom-designing a two-container solution for the client, with one box housing IT equipment and the other containing electrical and cooling infrastructure components, including a battery-based UPS, a chiller unit, cooling fan coils, a 400 kVA generator and electrical and mechanical distribution gear. The vendor will also build a concrete slab that will hold the two 20-foot containers and another chiller unit.

The container for IT equipment will be compatible with equipment from a variety of vendors. IBM is deploying its Rear Door Heat Exchanger cooling solution in the box.

The vendor’s Portable Modular Data Center (name of the containerized solution) is scalable, enabling the client to expand capacity in the future by adding more containers.

IBM originally launched the PMDC container about 1.5 years ago. Initially expected to be in demand in the niche oil-and-gas market, the vendor has sold the solution to clients from a wide variety of industries since its launch, IBM Global Services Executive Brian Canney said in an interview with DatacenterDynamics earlier this month.

Canney would not specify how many containers IBM had sold, saying only that the number was less than 150.

Other vendors that sell containerized data center solutions include Verari, Sun, HP, Dell and Bull – the French newcomer to the market that announced its mobull container in November.