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The New Data Center Rack From ... IKEA?

Looking to build a home data center? Look no further than you local IKEA store. Computer hobbyists are adapting one of the Swedish furniture chain's side tables to house servers and switches.

An implementation of the LACKRack, which adapts an IKEA side table for use as a stylish home data center.

An implementation of the LACKRack, which adapts an IKEA side table for use as a stylish home data center.

Looking to build a home data center? Look no further than you local IKEA store. Computer hobbyists are adapting the Swedish furniture chain's LACK side table to house servers and switches, creating a LACKRack. It turns out that the space between the table's legs is 19 inches, the same width as a standard slot in a data center server rack.

The LACKRack was first displayed at the eth0 Winter 2010 computer conference last weekend in Wieringerwerf, the Netherlands. The eth0 team has posted a guide to building your own unit by using wood screws to affix server rack mounts to the legs of the table. The tables are stackable and modular, so can be assembled in a variety of configurations.

There's also the LACKRack "Enterprise Edition," which uses a longer LACK coffee table - and as  with any enterprise product, has a premium price as a result. The eth0 site suggests that Google engineers may have been the first to affix gear to LACK tables. More photos.

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