Microsoft puts datacentres on wheels

03 Dec 2008 11:28

The company has extends its building-block approach for quickly assembling modular datacentres

Microsoft is taking its container approach to datacentres a step further, making the building that houses the datacentre itself a module.

In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft detailed what the "generation four" datacentres will look like.

"This is a significant step forward, and one that Microsoft believes will reshape how companies build datacentres and support cloud computing," a Microsoft representative said in a statement.

The generation-four concept "builds on the innovation at Microsoft's Chicago datacentre, which houses shipping containers packed with up to 2,500 servers each", the representative said.

"A container facility helps ensure that we don't over-build server capacity, while allowing the company to reduce the time to build a datacentre from 24 to 12 months," said the representative.

The new approach goes a step further, building the centre itself out of prefabricated mechanical, electrical and security components, as well as the containerised servers. Such facilities can be deployed in just three to six months, and expanded when demand grows.

Microsoft said the new approach will cut capital costs by between 20 and 40 percent.

"In short, we are striving to bring Henry Ford's Model T factory to the datacentre," Microsoft's Mike Manos said in the blog posting. "We intend to have our components built in factories and then assemble them in one location [the datacentre site] very quickly. Think about how a computer, car or plane is built today."

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39569665,00.htm