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Microsoft Innovates Tent Data Centers
1sockchuck writes "The outside-the-box thinking in data center design continues. Microsoft has tested running a rack of servers in a tent outside one of its data centers. In seven months of testing, a small group of servers ran for seven months without failures, even when water dripped on the rack. The experiment builds on Intel's recent research on air-side economizers in suggesting that servers may be sturdier than believed, leaving more room to save energy by optimizing cooling set points and other key environmental settings in the server room."
Microsoft Pitches a Tent.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I'm sure it'll work fine untill someone strolls past, lifts up the canvas and walks off with the entire rack. Or accidently flicks a cigarrette but at the tent. Or....
Wow 7 months uptime... was it running Linux?
PHB: Well we just put up all of our servers outside. And it looks great! Say, what is that truck doing? Why is it driving so fast through all the security points... omg !
Guns are for wimps... Use a crossbow.. this way you can pin them to their chair when you go postal.
When I said there would never be any Microsoft servers running in my department, I don't think they quite got my meaning.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Datacenter break-ins are becoming more and more commonplace, and it costs so much to replace the reinforced doors etc that the thieves bust up on their way in. Now with this innovation, they can just walk in and take the servers without doing any infrastructure damage. I think I'll pitch (groan) this idea to the boss right now!
Oh no... it's the future.
Funny how the military and the Live concert people have been doing this for years, but microsoft innovated putting servers in a tent.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Oh my, who's that burly, rugged, well-tanned guy with the rolled-up shirtsleeves?
Him? Oh he's our server admin
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Yeah, what do the hardware engineers know who designed and tested the servers?
/sarcasm
They know what the servers will survive, not what it could survive.
When designing a machine to work from 10C to 50C and from 20% to 70% humidity, they don't deliberately design it to fail just outside that range. They just make damned sure it won't fail within those ranges (at least, not because of temperature or humidity).
Microsoft's software engineers can show them what the servers are really capable of, without even testing them out for all four seasons.
Sarcasm ignored, yes, Microsoft (or any of us willing to sacrifice a server for the cause) can indeed demonstrate that a server can live in a more harsh environment than intended. Because, as mentioned above, the hardware engineers didn't design the systems to fail just outside their spec'd range.
We (as a whole) tend to baby servers because they cost a lot... But the cost of maintaining a perfect environment for them far outweighs the price for the actual hardware; If you can chop that expense out of the budget for the 99% of your servers that don't strictly require five-9s uptime, the savings in TCO could potentially far outweigh the increased cost of more frequent hardware replacement.