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Sun To Unveil Project Blackbox
this great guy writes "A year ago, Google's secret plans for a portable data center in a shipping container were being revealed by Robert X. Cringely. Sun Microsystems is about to officially unveil its 'data center in a box' concept. Project Blackbox will involve the full-scale production of data centers in 20-foot-long cargo shipping containers." From the article: "The idea eliminates several major hurdles facing data center customers: finding an appropriate site, arranging the servers and cooling mechanisms in the most efficient manner, and waiting for construction to be complete. The company is touting energy efficiency as a crucial benefit of the confined space, as its patented cooling features can more accurately target hot spots than in giant warehouses. The box can hold hundreds of servers and save thousands of dollars per year in energy costs, the company said."
I have this vision of a giant, square hole being dug in the ground, the walls being covered with borg-like equipment, then dozens of cargo containers being stacked and slotted into place as if they were large battery cells. It will be, the DATA CENTER OF THE FUTURE... (echo echo echo echo)
:P
*shudder*
Seriously, I could see this being useful for the military. You simply air-drop the container, and *BAM* instant command and control. It would save the Army IT guys tons of time in getting the field systems deployed. It seems like it would also be good for portable sites like construction work. Unfortunately, I can't really figure out what you would need that much horsepower for. We're talking about a datacenter capable of supporting massive web server, remote application, and database needs.
Those sorts of applications are usually fixed at secure locations. Why would you want to deploy them onsite? Laptops are usually sufficient for the work, and a collaboration server or two can easily be deployed in the existing office trailers. Wifi solves the wiring problem, soooo.... I'm not really getting this.
On the bright side, the cargo container looks cool.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If Sun and Google can fit each container with enough solar cells to power it, and perhaps compact fuelcells for power storage, and several digital radio (WiMAX, etc) transceivers, these datacenters really can be deployed practically anywhere. They're gonna need onboard GPS just to find them for recycling in a decade. Or maybe they can just prepay for roundtrip shipping.
Though if they can get Greenpeace into the act, maybe they can manufacture them biodegradable. Then just dump them into the sea currents for distribution around the world. Probably stay pretty cool, and no charge for rent.
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make install -not war
The military has been doing this for a while now or will be doing this soon so that Command and Control centers can get setup much more quickly. Setup the dish and they are on the Milnet and all set to support the handheld units in the field.
Gorkman
The other bit of Cringely's article that may be relevant is the observation that the effective bandwidth of a shipping container full of servers and disks going across the Pacific on a freighter, is approximately the same as the total bandwidth of an undersea optical cable. Much greater latency, but comparable throughput. So, if someone wants to bootstrap a remote clone of their data center, preloading the information before shipping the servers may be smarter than building raw capacity and then having to load it over the WAN. Yes, you have to do a couple week's of incremental updates, but at least the base data is already there.
So ?
Ideas are dime a dozen! You can have an "idea" for a perpetual motion machine, but that doesn't mean you can sit on it. Execute something and then patent it!!!
Gosh, aren't we already sick of bozos patenting "idea" of 'doing an auction... uh.. using a computer' ? How'd google be any different if they did the same ?
And BTW, Google couldn't have pulled off execution of the idea. It isn't like you shove a truck load of white boxes in there and expect them to magically work given the heat outputs (except if you're running them in Antarctica)!
SUN and Google have a long partnership and SUN has some pretty cool (both metaphorically and literally!) processors and machines. 40 of the thumpers and may be a dozen of the T2K mean you have a real serious powerhouse with a petabyte of storage !!!
- mritunjai
Exactly what we do - during peak holiday seasons we need extra capacity on our cellular network at various beachfront locations. We truck in containers with preconfigured base stations, and even have a few mobile switching centres on wheels which we use for both capacity and DRP purposes. Given the sometimes poor power situation in Africa we also have lots of mobile generators and portable masts scattered around the country waiting to be dispatched to tower locations in times of need. The container idea has saved our bacon on many occasions.
I can see a market for this, as part of a package deal.
Keep in mind Sun is probably not going into the business of selling just any ole data center, they're gonna be selling you a "Sun Certified & Supported Data Center To-Go". Arrange for delivery, plug the color coded cables into the color coded sockets, flip the switch, and for US$50,000 down & US$10,000 a month you've got yourself a fully managed outsourced onsite data center.
Need redundancy? Stick one over in the parking garage, should something happen to the primary it's twin is a few hundred yards away with everything duplicated. Have a backup site in case of catastrophe? There's a discount, just sign here, the minute your primary site goes offline Sun will see to it your hot spare is up before the skeleton staff knows what happened. Need an additional data center? As part of the introductory package Sun will guarantee delivery, complete with data, within 24 hours anywhere in the 48 contiguous states.
Heck turn these into complete turnkey blackboxes and simply sign service level guarantees with Sun. Pay US$10,000 month for so many cycles, so much storage, all managed and backed up, completely overseen by Sun. All you do is supply the footings, power, ventilation, and 24 hour access for their technicians. The savings in support staff alone would cover it all.
Now all of these numbers are joke ones, but turning data centers into toasters, why not? Sun has been pushing pay-for-the-cycles-not-the-boxes for years, but folks want things onsite. So here it is. Standard. Efficient. Low-investment. Just sign the lease and pay the monthly bill and everything will be taken care of.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Jack Welch told CNN, "Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge, to move with currencies and changes in the economy." Now you can truck your datacenter to wherever sysadmins are cheapest. Goodbye Bangalore, hello Bucharest.