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."

Comments

I have a Vision

[AKAImBatman]

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)

*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. :P

Re:I have a Vision

[zen611]

On the other hand, anyone with a semi-tractor and a cable cutter could steal your entire data center...

Re:I have a Vision

[Stanistani]

This is perfect for a COOP.

Continuity Of OPerations... also known as your disaster plan. If you leased however many of these you would need to replace your existing datacenter (possibly on some pro-rated insurance plan), you would have a great turnkey COOP alternative. You could even have them trucked out to your designated COOP site and test your plan, then return them to the company after the test...

It's also a business opportunity, if you look more closely...

Re:I have a Vision

[networkBoy]

Latency.
If you're main datacenter is in The Planet down in Tx and you want a presence in the EU without the cost of a datacenter you can drop one of these off at the local telco peering point and wham! instant local presence. Later when traffic dictates you could consider upgrading to a full datacenter.

On a completely tangental note:
Beowulf cluster anyone?
-nB

Re:I have a Vision

[aaarrrgggh]

The incentive is the many companies that can't plan. Something that can be deployed quicker than a lease agreed to for CoLo, that can be sited in a spot that doesn't require a mile of trenching for a new OC12.

Today there is a dearth of quality data center space. A well-executed container-based system that allows for various equipment to be installed inside, and that can be pre-configured in a wharehouse and literally "dropped" into place (have you ever seen how they deliver containers in parking lots...) is a great infrastructure solution.

The biggest challenge is finding ways to make it scale from an application standpoint, and really maximizing the energy benefits. My company was going to use heat pipes to the chips to free-cool servers; the problem is that a solution like that doesn't meet most IT organizations needs. (Could work for a Google, but not Citibank.)

Re:I have a Vision

[coredog64]

Not too long ago my employer went from hosting the datacenter on-site to co-locating @ HP's data center in Colorado Springs.
It seems to me that Blackbox would be a boon for companies like HP. Companies can start with whatever IT infrastructure they need, be it a Blackbox or some organic collection of UNIX and Wintel stuff. When they've grown to the point that in-house IT infrastructure management costs more than it's worth*, HP trucks in a Blackbox. The client company moves data and does a test switchover. Then the HP Blackbox gets moved to the local datacenter and the real switchover occurs.

*There are days when I question if IT infrastructure management ever costs more than it's worth, but it's at least useful to recognize the reality that some CxO will draw that line in the sand...

Security?

[Salvance]

I'm sure Sun has thought about it, but there has to be some security concerns with housing your data center in an easily transportable cargo container. Their example of using the containers for a growing company like YouTube instantly reduced my "who would ever want this other than the military" skepticism.

Talk about industrial espionage and theft opportunities though:
"Hey buddy, what's that on the back of your truck?"
"It's YouTube, I just picked it up out of a parking lot down the street"
"Cool, I was just looking around for a container of MySpace myself"

Re:Security?

[aaarrrgggh]

There are a couple good tricks for protecting them, stacking them like you would in a cargo facility is the first to come to mind, but Jersy Barriers on all sides would also complicate matters pretty well. Sandbagging the roof would also make it more work to get it out.

If all else fails, make a stand that they lock into on the parking lot. Those containers really are built for security and durability.

Imagine...

[DrLZRDMN]

a parking lot filled with those things clustered together.

Black box details...

[jpellino]

The BlackBox is built with its dimensions in the ratio 1:4:9, and when touched emits a strong radio signal back to its creators.

Open Computing Environment

[Doc Ruby]

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.

Miltary already does this

[Chanc_Gorkon]

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.

It's a Data Center AND a Data Mover

[ReferenceDesk]

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.

Sun: Data Center is doomed

[Chapter80]

One week ago, Jonathan Schwartz (CEO of Sun) declared the death of the datacenter, as discussed on Slashdot.

Now they've put in a box for burial?