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

What about maintenance and fixes?

[RobertM1968]

How do they plan on making that easy on an OS that needs regular attention? This isnt a Linux, OS/2, Sparc, AIX, BSD machine that you can dump in a closet (or container) for months at a time...

Re:What about maintenance and fixes?

[fm6]

If you have the right hardware, you don't need to be on-site. Serious servers come with something called lights out management. This utilizes a self-contained ROM-based system that's always running, even when the main system is shut down (or displaying a BSOD). As long as the system is getting power and there's an Ethernet cable connected to its management port, a remote user can do anything that an onsite user can do, provided it doesn't require opening the cover of the system. You can even re-install the operating system, used remote ISO and floppy images.

I'm the documentation lead for a server with a LOM that's very fancy indeed. There's a graphic terminal service that supports things like interacting with the BIOS, or logging into the server's GUI. There's a LOM command line you can access using a serial connection or over SSH. The LOM also supports IPMI, which is kind of a basic necessity when you have a lot of servers, even if they're all down the hall.

This server is certified for Windows 2003 (and I understand a lot of our customers buy it for that fell purpose), so it would be ideal for Microsoft's container. However, we have a our own competing container product.

And yes, the company I work for is Sun, and yes, we're selling Windows-based systems now. Shocking, isn't it?

Google?

[jkonrad]

Hasn't Google already been doing this for a couple years now?

Re:Google?

[HomelessInLaJolla]

I recall reading something about enormous Borg like Google cubes requiring cities to build nuclear fusion reactors to power them, competing with Fermilab and LLNL for Most Brownouts Caused by Powerup, and being airlifted into remote regions of the world to hide classified data.

Borg

[jeevesbond]

This takes Microsoft one step closer to becoming the Borg. Just wait until one of these mobile data-centre 'cubes' appears outside a rival software company, the voice of Ballmer comes booming out of a loudspeaker: 'We are Microsoft. Open your doors and surrender your intellectual property. We will take your technological innovation and call it our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours. Resistance is futile.'

In fact, didn't I see one parked-up outside Novell HQ recently?

Re:Borg

[MillionthMonkey]

Mobile data centers are nothing new for Microsoft. I know a guy who drove a Luxury Car (forget what kind) and this car was sooooo wonderful it needed an operating system: Windows CE.

It didn't broadcast Bill Gates speeches on the road, but it had the same problem as all Microsoft software- features you didn't ask for, that don't work, that can't easily be removed or disabled. He would park this thing in his garage, and once a month some process would turn on at 3 AM to condition the battery or something silly. It would crash midway through and he kept waking up in the morning to a BSOD and a dead battery powering the dim blue glow of the pixels with its last gasp.

He kept having to take his car to the shop for patches. We loved hearing about this stuff at work, because the car always crashed for something different, but he was getting sick of it, like everyone else at the dealership. Finally one day it screwed something up again- left his windshield washer pump going all night or something- and he took it in for the last patch. The ride home was Linux powered and the fun stories came to an end.

whoa, slow down there!

[hxnwix]

Portable data centers? They can't even get portable music players right!

you mean like this, from Sun, from 2006

[joesilicon]

http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/story.jsp

A Novel Datacenter Concept

Project Blackbox packages compute, storage, and network infrastructure capabilities into scalable, modular units outfitted with state-of-the-art cooling, monitoring, and power distribution systems. Customers will be able to order a variety of standard and custom configurations of systems, storage, networking, and software. Housed in a standard 20-foot shipping container for maximum flexibility, Project Blackbox will be easily transported using common shipping methods. Simple hookups for water, AC power, and networking will enable customers to quickly deploy Project Blackbox upon delivery.

Re:Imagine a...

[Penguinisto]

...Grendel Cluster? Thor Cluster? Loki Cluster? What? C'mon man, throw us a line here!

(stop staring at me like that).

/P

Unmanned?

[cxreg]

Who's going to reboot the machines every other day?