Portable data centers have generated a lot of headlines and discussion, but we’ve seen few of them deployed and in use. The notable exception thus far has been the
Project Blackbox installation [1] at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in Palo Alto, Calif.
That appears to be changing. Rackable says it has shipped three units of its new
ICE Cube containerized data center [2] to existing customers, and said it expects to
ship three more units [3] to federal customers by mid-2008. ICE Cube is a new version of Rackable’s Concentro portable data center offering a denser server environment and the option of a 20-foot container size.
Possible uses for portable data centers include field deployment in remote areas, transitional use during data center expansions, rapid addition of capacity for fast-growing start-ups, and as a mobile command centers for disaster or humanitarian relief projects. At least one provider is
customizing Blackboxes [4]to provide disaster recovery for online casinos.
The original Rackable
Concentro [5] design used a 40 foot by 8 foot container, while Sun’s
Project Blackbox [6] uses a 20 foot form factor. The company is also promising a faster delivery schedule for ICE (short for the “Integrated Concentro Environment”), saying it can design, build and deliver a fully populated ICE Cube to customers in a matter of weeks.
In the company’s
quarterly earnings conference call [3], Rackable executives also briefly addressed
Google’s recent patent award [7]for a modular portable data center. Company officials said they had reviewed the patent and it was not a direct issue, saying “we are confident we do not infringe, nor do they infringe on us.”
Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.
Article printed from Data Center Knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com
URL to article: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/10/29/ice-cube-portable-data-centers-deployed/
URLs in this post:
[1] Project Blackbox installation: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/Jul/17/blackbox_comes_in_for_a_landing.html
[2] ICE Cube containerized data center: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/Sep/18/rackable_offers_denser_portable_data_center.html
[3] ship three more units: http://www.openicon.com/confsums/2007/rack_10_25_2007.html
[4] customizing Blackboxes : http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/Jul/05/enation_to_customize_blackboxes_for_casinos.html
[5] Concentro: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/Mar/30/rackable_selling_portable_data_center.html
[6] Project Blackbox: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2006/Oct/17/sun_unveils_data_center_in_a_box.html
[7] Google’s recent patent award : http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/Oct/09/google_patents_portable_data_centers.html
[8] Rich Miller: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/author/richm/
Click here to print.
