Impressive stuff. I want one of those in my back yard… I wonder what they cost?

I figure if Sun Modular Datacenter is the semi tractor trailer business, then companies like Elliptical Mobile Solutions [1] are in the luxury sedan business.

Now, who is going to be in the valet and parking deck business?

[1] http://www.ellipticalmedia.com/spear.htm

The ICE Cube looks like a sci-fi film prop. Remembers me of Universal Soldier, somehow.

Inside a Verari Forest here:

http://www.verari.com/forest.asp

@Jasper: You get started at just around $450k configured but as with anything… the more you fill it, the higher the price.

That’s so awesome! Growing up I always wanted a laptop but now a I want one of these babies. I wonder what the power bill would be for having one of these run at full capacity for a month.

APC has had a mobile Data Center solution for two years now. It’s called Infrastruxure Express.

https://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=ISXT440MD12RMBL&tab=features

Here’s a video tour inside a Rackable Ice Cube:

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/Apr/04/video_rackable_ice_cube_container.html

Those both look great, but I’d put my money on the Sun system. Every rackable system I’ve ever bought has had horrible build quality, terrible components and been a total pain in my ass. They spend more time on lighting effects and the marketing on the outside of the container than they do on making systems that don’t go down if you bump them slightly.

Why is it painted black? Solar heating alone will be a problem. I’m sure if they painted it white they would cut the cost for the AC tremendously.

wow it is sooooo interesting post !

Solar energy is around 700 watts/square meter. The effect of solar heating is negligible compared to the waste heat output by a rack full of machines.

We had a demo of one of these at work today. They are not painted black – that’s just for the sexy look. When delivered they are white. Cost is about $500K. All you need is power and water. There are redundant hookups on both sides.

Very impressive. They said they ar being used on moviesets for onsite rendering.

bk2

holy crap batman i want 2 sh*t gimme 5 min and a leatherman hehe sun microsystems is the sh%t, my dream job !

The Sun “Blackbox” is not actually black. The demo above is the only black one.

B U T Full!!.. I’ll take 2…. (In my wildest dreams…)

ob. Imagine aa Beowulf cluster of these.

Two words, Hopelessly impractical.

I was thinking the other way around.

There isn’t a lot of work needed to add new containers. You don’t have hire a whole construction crew to redesign your data center or build an extension to your building to house new servers. I think I can see a very practical use especially with startup companies and their possible very short lifetime or popularity explosion.

And if the company fails, Sun and Rackable can rent them and as soon as people can’t pay anymore, they just comeback and roll it away.

yeah, the main point was to have a cheap datacentre wherever. so movie sets, warzones / camps, start-ups, cheap land deals, cheap electricity deals..

I don’t think they’re a great idea for permanent deployment, though. If you have security on your parking lot at work, it might be an idea, but hundreds of cat5 cables running into a big box on your front proch might tip people off, that there’s a lot of money there.

cool, I’m still interested in a laptop, though, cause I mean, ya can’t very well take one of these over to a friend’s house, but still, cool post!

good site amgnzs

So who would use this? Would this be in the event of a disaster? Or is more for military/CIA hush-hush operations?

So this is for when Amazon.com needs a backup? ;P