Revolutionary Portable Datacenters
10.17.06 - 08:14pm
I was cruising the Internet today and I found this really interesting article on portable computer clusters. Traditional datacenters consist of racks and racks of computers setup in custom configurations with intricate cooling systems and power grids. Just designing and setting up a datacenter can take months and thousands of dollars to create the proper infrastructure. Sun Microsystems has taken a step towards simplifying datacenters with their Project Blackbox boxed datacenters. The concept behind these modular systems is to create a standard unit with simple connections so that datacenters can be quickly augmented by simply adding a new box. In essence Sun is taking the concept of blade computer clusters and expanding it on a monumental scale by creating “blades” out of 20 foot shipping containers. Yes, you heard me, 20 footers.
These mobile datacenters will help simplify datacenter design by requiring only a power connection and a chilled water input and output. Instead of having to wire all the racks yourself, the units are prepared so that simply plugging them in and pressing a button will get your datacenter running in no time. With such simple requirements these containers will make it possible for cheap warehouses to be converted into high-tech datacenters over the course of a few days rather than months. Powering these containers won’t be a simple process though, the prototype sitting outside of Sun’s headquarters has a 500 kilowatt redundant connection. With a starting price of $500,000 these portable datacenters won’t be for everyone however I am sure multiple large corporations could save considerable amounts of time and money by consolidating their datacenters into a few trailers.
With various configurations available Sun has the ability to target many niche markets with a single product. One configuration could contain high capacity hard drives and low power processors and be used to stream video content online while another configuration could contain multi-core processors and large quantities of memory for scientific computation. The ease at which these systems can be deployed will be their strength, datacenters can be moved to take advantage of cheaper power, better connections, and better locations, with minimal downtime. I am now accepting donations so I can purchase one of these systems for testing purposes, your generosity would be appreciated.
Relevant Links
New York Times article on Project Blackbox
Speak Your Mind