Kind of neat
I could definitely see the miltary going for it.
I’m a bit hesitant on startups going for it though. It might be cheaper and more energy efficient than filling a room with racks and pumping up the AC. But at least that’s a reasonable solution. Given this thing, just simply, where the hell do I put it? It looks like you would put it in the parking lot–but then how do you plug it in? The mind boggles.
Am I the only one here who has a severe mental disconnect between the words “portable” and “20 foot cargo shipping container?”
I think you’re supposed to initially relate “portable” with those external classrooms overcrowded schools often have.
That said, how geeky am I for wanting one? Ignoring for the moment that I’d have no idea what to do with it.
Can anyone explain to me, in clear, simple terms, what the difference is between a “data center” and a “computer”, and why I should be excited about one any larger than my laptop? A pile of electronic equiment that needs to be kept in a full shipping container is so 1950.
A data center is a metric buttload of high-performance, high-reliability computers and related equipment such as storage and networking. It’s used by large companies or other organizations that need to process significant amounts of data.
If you have to ask, you probably don’t need one. 
A data center is what happens when your organization needs higher reliability and more computing power than what one machine can deliver. So your typical data center would be an aggregation of:
[ul]
[li]A bunch of servers - anywhere from a dozen to many hundreds - very often on different platforms - Linux, Wintel, Sun etc.[/li][li]Perhaps a mainframe or AS/400.[/li][li]The network needed to connect these servers to the users and to each other. High-powered switches & routers, firewalls, intrusion detection systems etc.[/li][li]Perhaps a storage network to serve up centralized disk services to the servers.[/li][li]Perhaps a printer farm, if you’re into printing paychecks or other high-volume print jobs.[/li][li]Data lines to connect the data center to the outside world.[/li][li]A backup solution with some sort of removable media for off-site storage.[/li][li]A physical infrastructure in terms of clean, uninterruptible power and cooling to keep all the above-mentioned units happy. You’ll want some fire suppression and some physical security, too.[/li][li]A bunch of techs to monitor and run the entire kaboodle.[/li][/ul]
Normally, all of this would be stacked into a windowless, airconditioned room with raised floors. Building one is a serious expense. Interrupting operations of one is almost undoable.
I could see Sun’s solution being extremely relevant in the Disaster Recovery role. If a building fire has an overeager Fire Department hosing down your server farm (it has been known to happen), your business is - ehm - hosed. Putting one of these beauts in the parking lot and have your techs start loading the backup tapes is one way of overcoming the immediate crisis.
I thought I remember reading about something similar in Robert X Cringely’s column, except that he said it was something Google was developing. Does anyone else remember that?
Can we take up a collection and get one for the Dope? The hamsters aren’t getting any younger.
I wonder what the SDMB data center looks like?
In my recent experience, about $199,999,500.00.
It probably consists of a craptastic 1U Cobalt Raq coloed in some sweaty nerd’s basement.
I found it. Cringely mentioned Google doing something similar about a year ago in this column.