Hard to Contain Enthusiasm for Data Centers in a Box

By John Rath

July 15, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 3)

Whether you call it a data center in a box, a modular data center or a container, I have been trying to figure out the practical use for such a thing for more than a year now since Sun Microsystems introduced project Blackbox.

Although Sun has invigorated the container market, APC had a mobile solution before Sun, with its InfrastruXure Express product, a 2,500-square-foot on-demand mobile data center. There was also a fair amount of press about a 2003 patent filing from Google that sounded a lot like Sun’s Project Blackbox. The concept is an interesting one and the possible applications for a container are growing on me.

Sun put a lot of research and development into its product as well as an equally impressive marketing blitz, complete with a global tour of the product. The rebranded Sun Modular Datacenter S20 is a 20-foot-long ISO standard shipping container. It has removable 40U 25kW racks, an extensive sensor network, GPS tracking and has been earthquake tested to 6.7 on the Richter scale. Sun emphasizes the mobility and rapid deployment of a container versus building a traditional data center.

The ease with which it can be moved around is attributed to containerization—a system of cargo transport using standard ISO containers that can be loaded onto container ships, railroad cars, planes and trucks. In this aspect, the container really makes sense: a data center in a box that uses a global standard for quick and easy transport.

Key markets for Sun include specialized uses such as military operations or disaster relief; large-scale network services such as service providers; interim use such as data center migration or short-term projects; and augmentation uses such as expansion and consolidation or disaster recovery. Some examples of where the S20 could be used include the Red Cross using it in remote locations, a data center for an oil rig out at sea, or on top of an office building that ran out of space to put IT equipment.

Related Search Term(s): Data centers, IBM, Rackable, Sun, Verari

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