Microsoft Mulling Portable Data Centers

1sockchuck writes "An architect of the Windows Live team has published a presentation advocating portable container-based data centers as the future of data center infrastructure. James Hamilton, who previously was GM of Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, contends that a distributed network of unmanned modular units 'transforms data centers from static and costly behemoths into inexpensive and portable lightweights. ... Multiple smaller data centers, regionally located, could prove to be a competitive advantage.' Both Sun and Rackable have rolled out prototypes of container-based 'data center in a box' products, and Hamilton notes that large generators are also available in trailers."

Comments

Re:i seen a photo of Sun's

[MichaelSmith]

Sun had a shipping container that was painted black, i work for a construction company that has dozens of those shipping containers and they get hot as hell inside during the summer, who ever implements these things in a shipping container (especially black ones) better get a badass air-conditioner to keep those things cool...

The first job I had was building a portable data centre for the Australian air force. When operating in a remote area they needed a way to analyse all the engineering data from their aircraft.

Now for me, that made sense. The shipping container is a bad environment to work in but the military know how to cope with problems like that, and they have a genuine need for mobility.

These days for civilian applications it should almost always be easier to get a fast line to your site and use a fixed data centre somewhere, or a combination of systems.