Data Center Container Wars

It is perhaps a sign of the times that the dominant features of the expo floor at the recent Gartner Data Center Conference were not the ostentatious vendor booths, but three 40-foot data center containers framing the show space. It was a showdown in Las Vegas as the containers from IBM, HP and SGI were all on display at Caesar’s Palace. The HP Performance Optimized Datacenter (POD) and SGI’s ICE Cube have been at previous trade shows, but this was the first time I’ve seen the IBM Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) at an industry event. This two-minute video sets the scene and offers a brief look inside the IBM container, which is designed for flexibility, with the ability to accommodate multiple configurations of IT, electrical and mechanical infrastructure. Interesting features: The racks are placed on rails on the floor of the container so you can slide them forward to do maintenance behind the racks. This model also has an open ceiling in a portion of the container designed for chillers or generators. NOTE: For a better look at the other containers, see our detailed video walk-throughs of the HP POD and SGI ICE Cube.

For more news about data center containers, visit our Containers Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.