Datacenter In A Box, Or Just Publicity Stunt In A Box?
from the a-box-to-house-boxes dept
There's a big debate going about the future of corporate IT regarding how much of it will be hosted elsewhere, and how much will be on-premise. Some absolutists see almost all IT functions being delivered on-demand, while others expect that the existing model, whereby companies manage their own IT, persisting for sometime. Today, Sun Microsystems staked out a middleground in this debate, as it announced the availability of a portable datacenter dubbed "project blackbox". The product will come pre-assembled inside a shipping container, and is ready to go as soon as its connected to water and electricity. It appears to be almost exactly what Robert Cringely saw Google developing in a column of his last year. Sun's product might appeal to companies that like the idea of using commodity infrastructure, but don't like the idea of it being off-premise and outside of their control. And it could pose a threat to the IT consulting firms that get paid alot to customize a company's IT setup. On the other hand, it's not clear how big the market for this is going to be. It will probably be too much for most small companies, while large companies with massive infrastructure needs probably won't get much use in an additional shipping container filled with gear. The sweet spot of companies for whom this will be ideal seems small. It's impact on Sun's business won't be as significant as what it represents, the continuing commoditization of corporate infrastructure.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Traliers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Traliers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I bet it would have helped some outfits in New Orleans.
It will be interesting to see what happens with it.
As far as "It's impact on Sun's business won't be as significant as what it represents, the continuing commoditization of corporate infrastructure." ?? I tend to agree.
It's not going to be the saving of Sun. Seems like others could build one just as easily with other hardware/software.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Saving Sun?
The question remains -- is Sun heading the way of SGI? McNealy aside, the company is directionless and losing steam.
Wanted to come up with a joke -- but I think Sun is it right now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
been there done that
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Water and electricity?
What does a server want to be connected to water for?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Water and electricity?
Because... The internet is not a truck.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Water and electricity?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
parking lot
This products saves the cost of having high priced tradespeople come in and build the racks, mount the servers and run the wires to each individual machine.
I think that you will see a lot of interest in these things from banks, government agencies, insurance companies and web based businesses.
These things are not likely to be parked out iin the sun. (no pun intended). More likely they will go into standard warehouses and light industrial buildings. The big challenge for the users will be getting a big enough power source and data pipe to the site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Data Center in a Box
I have seen the future and it doesn't include a whole lot of standalone corporate data centers, in boxes or buildings.
I worked on a project recently where I had the opportunity to see what IBM has done with it's utility computing/computing on demand stuff. They have successfully virtualized the Suns and HPs of the world out of existence. True separation of apps and data is alive and working extremely well in the AIX and Wintel worlds and the MFs are regaining their rightful place as the central manager of security and data. And mirrored data replication has replaced clunky old back up tapes.
When I started as a systems programmer in the late 60s, we all did our own systems work, including modifying the operating systems and developing our own middleware. Lots of us in the shop were systems programmers. No more. And the server sysadmin is going to go in the same direction. If the tech-weenies have any common sense, they will see the light and move over to the application side or get out of the biz.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
portable datacenter is an oxymoron
has anyone on project blackbox ever set foot in a datacenter? you know, those places where you can't even power something on unless you are in a downtime window?
there are some pluses to your datacenter being portable, if you get raided by the FBI they can seize your gear much more efficiently.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]