IBM thinks outside the box with containerized data centres

The idea of putting servers, storage, and networking gear into metal shipping containers and linking them together into a data centre cluster is not a new idea - Sun Microsystems was the first to propose the idea back in October 2006 - but it is catching on enough that IBM is endorsing the concept and shipping a product. Big …

[ThomasF]

Gardner Shed In Da Box outta Da Box thinking

At the 28th annual Gardner Shed Data Center Tree hugging show.

This makes perfect sense as we try to save the Planet and the Trees

Paint all the worlds Gardner sheds green and fill them full of IBM Hot toasty Servers

The Bill and Ben world approach to Data center Bloat

[Paul Read]

No brainer

Surprised this has taken so long; shipping containers have been used to house generators and water-pumps for fire supression for years.

[The Cube]

No self contradictory marketing fluff then?

"increase the power density of the gear and the cooling efficiency of the chillers"

Will that be at the same time as making right left and up down?

Power density is not efficiency, in fact it is usually the opposite. Unless you are on Wall Street the space cost is irrelevant, the only people that high power density is good for is the equipment vendor.

High power density (with air cooling) places severe constraints on the cooling system and in most cases fundamentally compromises the achievable operating efficiency and power cost. By all means go to air flow containment but you don't need to buy a whole container of vendor X to get that, there are plenty of decent rack kits that will deliver this in your existing facility and unlock a whole load of capacity.

Of course the green paint slapped on the side should warn most folk about the quality of the "information" provided...

[Fred Flintstone]

Just add water..

I guess cooling this properly will be the last frontier, so I fully expect a link up into a building heating system. The building acts as a sink, and the data centre helps with the heating..

I take it someone has realised that it makes STEALING a whole data center a lot easier too? Why bother with nicking tapes if you can just haul the whole data center onto a truck and be away with it? Organise a couple of local container deliveries nearby and there's no hope in hell you'll ever find that specific lorry..

[Anonymous Coward]

Stealability

Look forward to these appearing in back gardens all around Liverpool this Christmas!

Checckkk out me noo gamin rig lah!

[Graham Dawson]

Except...

Finding the ruddy great crane they used to lift it would be fairly easy. It's not like these things can just be pushed up a pair of planks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Come Again?

"Outfitting it with power and cooling, fake floors and walls, and racks for gear is not cheap, but it is a lot less expensive than building a data centre of the same floor capacity." ---- The article appears to state that a fully outfitted container is cheaper than a smallish server room!

[transientcylon]

I vaugely...

remember seeing this in some really bad Die Hard movie somewhere... oh well, it escapes me.

[Kebabbert]

Original idea from ibm. NOT.

Wow, I am surprised that IBM didnt down talked SUNs data container first, and only some years later introduced their copy claiming that IBM always thought this was a good idea. As usual. Like IBM does with many slower cores in their newer CPU. It was a bad thing when SUN did it and now, when IBM does it, it is the best thing on earth. Earlier, IBM said that few fast cores are much better than many slow cores. :o)