back to article AWS puts datacenter in shipping container for the Pentagon

AWS is pitching a Modular Data Center (MDC) at the US government, with the aim of making it easier to deploy makeshift bitbarns managed by AWS in remote locations. Amazon's cloudy business says that AWS MDC is available as a self-contained modular datacenter unit for US Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, which can scale by …

  1. Roger Kynaston
    Thumb Down

    Highly original

    Weren't SUN first to this party?

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Highly original

      I know they had a containerised[0] datacentre, I don't know if they were first

      [0] Proper metal containers, none of this new-fangled Docker malarkey...

      1. FirstTangoInParis Bronze badge

        Re: Highly original

        IIRC the containers had racks full of 40 1U servers and were water cooled. Here you go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Highly original

      That honor should probably go to the 1950s DYSEAC, which was installed in an 18-ton semi-trailer. One of the design challenges was making sure the glass tubes of the mercury delay line memory didn't break when in transit.

    3. crpeck

      Re: Highly original

      Yes, SUN announced theirs ih 2008 - known as Sun Modular Datacenter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Modular_Datacenter

  2. VoiceOfTruth

    Thanks for the press release

    Because that is what it read like.

    @Roger Kynaston. If not the first, they certainly had a product which reads like the press release/article: the Sun Modular Datacenter.

  3. xyz Silver badge

    Err...

    So you need a satellite connection, so what's the point? Plus, just dont open the door to let the dust/sand/snow in. Plus plus have they tried the helicopter drop test? Plus plus plus the generator noise. I've been through this "thought up by office types" for battlefield use stuff before... Can't say more, but I hope they have a nerdy jarhead that is down with devOps.

    1. VoiceOfTruth

      Re: Err...

      All these nerdy types, they've never heard of a military base? They think that all soldiers live in tents making fires from whatever scraps of wood they can lay their hands on, fashioning weapons from sharpened sticks.

  4. Kev99 Silver badge

    Where I worked we had the same basic system for backup and recovery of our IT starting in the mid 1990s. The company we used had a standard 53 foot trailer with the same kit we used. It also didn't need external power as it had a generator as part of its load-out. It seems the military would want a mobile IT unit to include a power source rather that rely on what may or may not be available.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      And if Amazon are trying to be "something new and better" I'd expect it to be a bit more that "just n needs power and optional network connection". I'd expect a standardised connector so they can park up as many as they need and just plug them into each other and for that to be a major selling point. After all, standard shipping containers are designed to be stacked already, so not hard to have a standard "port" top and bottom and maybe connection units to attach side by side.

  5. SirWired 1

    It's been done before...

    Many years ago I did some minor work on a floating datacenter project meant for the Zumwalt-class destroyer. It was unit-built in a warehouse, with all the IT equipment already inside, and sealed and embedded in the ship as a whole during construction. While that class of ship was an overpriced disaster, the DC was still a neat project. The entire center was completely sealed and watertight, with even the data connections using special watertight military-grade connectors. (e.g. instead of RJ-45, it was a screw-in sealed stainless steel monster.) I saw a video of them performing shock testing where they towed it out on a special barge and then set off charges underneath to make sure it would still work after an explosion. During construction they even did their best to keep dirt out; there were adhesive pads you had to step on before going inside to make sure dirt didn't accumulate in inaccessible corners.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's been done before...

      I will raise you with a Level 5 environmental solution, more the 5 years ago. Custom made SSD etc.

      But I absolutely can't tell you anything about it.

      For levels see https://www.abaco.com/ruggedization-levels

    2. Caver_Dave Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: scary testing

      I've seen a video of a communications switch in an aircraft flight control system, swapped mid-flight.

      Part of the redundancy and recovery testing.

      I've spoken to one of the guys in the video and they were not wearing parachutes!

  6. John H Woods

    so ...

    ... it's on-prem?

    1. steviesteveo

      Re: so ...

      AWS is probably going to use it as a scare story for how much on prem costs these days

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