Tier III Modular Data Centre Deployed in 90 Days for a Financial Institution's Regulatory Compliance

Bangladesh Bank's ICT Security Guideline v4.0, as applied to NBFIs in the 2024-2025 supervisory cycle, included a directive that financial institutions of the NBFI's scale establish and operate a dedicated, organizationally-controlled primary data centre within 18 months. The institution had previously operated its core banking system on servers hosted in a third-party co-location facility — a common arrangement, but one that Bangladesh Bank assessed as insufficient for the institution's growing systemic importance. The directive required the institution to move its core system infrastructure to a dedicated facility that it controlled, with physical security, fire suppression, and availability specifications consistent with Tier III standards.

The institution's board was confronted with two options: conventional data centre construction, or a prefabricated modular solution. The conventional path — designing a purpose-built server room, obtaining building permits, construction, and fit-out — was estimated by the institution's facilities team at 18-24 months minimum, with capital cost unpredictability (construction cost overruns in Dhaka are common) and the risk of not meeting Bangladesh Bank's deadline. The prefabricated modular option offered a fixed timeline and a fixed cost — but the institution's board had limited familiarity with modular data centres and required technical assurance that a prefabricated unit could genuinely meet Tier III availability standards and Bangladesh Bank's physical security requirements.

The Bangladesh Bank ICT Security Guideline's data centre requirements are specific: the facility must have N+1 redundancy in power and cooling, physical security including biometric access control and CCTV with minimum 90-day retention, clean agent fire suppression, and documented availability metrics consistent with Tier III standards (99.982% uptime = maximum 1.6 hours downtime per year). The institution needed to be able to present evidence of all these requirements at a Bangladesh Bank IT examination.

SSAL designed and deployed a complete prefabricated modular Tier III-equivalent data centre as a single integrated solution.

Vericom Prefabricated Modular Data Centre — 40kW, 10 Racks: The Vericom micro-data centre module was specified at 40kW IT load capacity with 10 x 42U racks — sufficient to house the institution's current 45-server infrastructure with 4 additional racks of expansion capacity. The module is an insulated, self-contained enclosure (7m x 3.5m footprint) installed in the institution's allocated floor space on the fourth floor of its Dhaka headquarters building, with structural load pre-verified by a structural engineer.

The Vericom module is factory-built in a controlled environment, with all cable management, cable trays, rack mounting rails, and PDU (Power Distribution Unit) infrastructure pre-installed before delivery. This factory completion dramatically reduces on-site assembly time — the module arrived with 85% of the internal fit-out complete.

Vertiv Liebert CRV Precision Cooling — N+1: Two Vertiv Liebert CRV (Computer Room Variable) close-coupled cooling units, each providing 20kW cooling capacity, were installed — one active, one in N+1 standby. The Liebert CRV uses variable-speed compressors and fans, modulating output to match the actual heat load of the installed servers (rather than running at constant capacity), which significantly improves energy efficiency compared to fixed-capacity CRAC units. The N+1 configuration means that a failure of the active cooling unit results in automatic failover to the standby unit with no manual intervention required, maintaining cooling continuity within the Tier III availability specification.

The cooling units are connected to a water-cooled heat rejection system (a condenser coil loop connected to the building's central chilled water plant), avoiding the need for external compressor units on the building facade — an important consideration for the fourth-floor location.

APC Symmetra LX UPS — N+1, 80kVA: Two APC Symmetra LX modular UPS units, each 40kVA, are installed in N+1 parallel UPS configuration — total 80kVA available, with either unit capable of supporting the full 40kW load. The Symmetra LX's modular architecture allows individual battery and power modules to be replaced under load (hot-swap) without switching to bypass — maintaining double-conversion UPS protection during any maintenance procedure.

The UPS is backed by lead-acid battery strings providing 20 minutes of runtime at full load — sufficient for the building's generator (a 200kVA Cummins diesel unit) to start and stabilize, which typically occurs within 8-12 seconds of mains failure.

Liebert Power Distribution: APC/Liebert rack-mounted PDUs (Metered, with environmental monitoring) in each rack provide per-outlet metered power distribution to servers and network equipment, with real-time power draw visible from the data centre management console.

Physical Security — ZKTeco Biometric + Hikvision CCTV: The data centre module entrance is controlled by a ZKTeco SpeedFace V5L facial recognition terminal (the same model used in the bank vault case study), providing single-factor biometric authentication for entry. A ZKTeco DS-K1T320MFW card reader provides a backup authentication path for maintenance personnel. All access events are logged with biometric ID and timestamp in the ZKTeco access management system.

Hikvision 4MP cameras (4 units: 2 inside the module covering all rack rows, 1 at the module entrance, 1 covering the UPS/cooling equipment area) are connected to a dedicated NVR with 90-day retention — satisfying the Bangladesh Bank ICT Guideline v4.0 CCTV retention requirement for data centre physical security.

Fire Detection and FM-200 Suppression — Siemens Cerberus PRO: The data centre module is equipped with a Siemens Cerberus PRO addressable FACP (compact 1-loop configuration for the module) with Xtralis VESDA aspirating detection — sampling tubes running through the module at sub-floor, in-rack (via capillary tubes in each rack), and ceiling level. FM-200 suppression (two 25kg cylinders) provides total flooding for the module volume, with pre-discharge delay and abort station as per NFPA 2001.

DCIM — Data Centre Infrastructure Management: A DCIM software module monitors all physical infrastructure — cooling unit status, UPS output, power draw per rack, temperature and humidity at multiple points, and access control events — through a unified dashboard. Automated alerts are sent to the IT Director's mobile phone and the facilities team for any threshold exceedance (temperature above 25°C, UPS on battery, cooling unit failover, door access outside business hours).