HP’s taking its build-a-data-center business seriously.

Today the company’s Converged Infrastructure division unveiled what it’s billing as “the world’s most efficient data center,” the HP POD 240a. Or the EcoPOD as the company has taken to calling it (a naming convention I fully support).

As has become the norm for modular data center vendors, the emphasis is on energy efficiency (up to 95 percent energy savings), rapid deployment (12 weeks vs 2 years) and huge cost savings, both CAPEX and OPEX. Just look at the screengrab above. Those numbers make it hard for any company considering a data center build to discount modular data centers.

Cost efficiency aside, there are some good, green attributes to HP’s EcoPOD. They include adaptive cooling systems, energy monitoring and management along with integrated power distribution, and a PUE rating as low as 1.05 (!) with free-cooling (1.3 otherwise, still not bad).

Another environmental benefit: the incredible shrinking data center. With an HP POD 240a, the company estimates an 88 percent reduction in a data center’s footprint thanks to its super-dense strategy. Each EcoPOD can accommodate up to 44 (50U) racks for a total of 2,200U worth of servers consuming up to 2.3 megawatts. According to the company, one pod translates into 10,000 square feet of a “brick and mortar” data center. (Note how the company uses B&M to describe traditional data centers in an interesting take on cloud computing vs. old-school IT provisioning.)

This comes as an insatiable appetite for cloud computing and web services has businesses growing their IT capacity at a quick clip — momentum that favors modular and container-based technologies. Companies like Capgemini have gone modular for huge energy savings and a quick turnaround. Even some startups like Silver Linings are banking are banking on demand for tech that lends itself to delivering industrial strength power, cooling and IT in tight spaces. It’s a smart move by HP, and if its “assembly line” video (Re-think Your Data Center) is any indication, it looks like the company is geared up to firmly establish itself in this growing market.

Check out the HP POD 240a homepage for more info, including videos, an interactive demo and data sheets.