Sun's Project Blackbox -- datacenter in a container

We're typically not of the ilk to bust out a post on a Sun datacenter solution or yet another clustered supercomputer, but technically Sun's Project Blackbox is portable -- if you consider a shipping container portable. We wouldn't believe it if it were anyone else, but the gimmick here is Project Blackbox is a shock mounted transportable datacenter capable of accommodating up to 250 Sun Fire T1000s or x64 servers, with up to 7 terabytes of memory and as many as 1.5 petabytes of disk or 2 petabytes of tape storage -- just supply water and power, and the thing will run on its own. (Whether or not you actually plug it into your network is another matter entirely.) Their big sales pitch here is that the cash-flush "Web 2.0" company which wants to go green probably needs a simple way of shipping around or deploying an entirely pre-constructed IT infrastructure; see, apparently Project Blackbox is recyclable and is designed to run independently on wind or even Martian solar power (we kid you not, pictures after the break), though our favorite deployment scenario is definitely the datacenter in the parking garage. We never thought getting your megacorp's server farm jacked by a valet was going to redefine corporate data security, but hey, this industry changes daily, and when you're Sun and your competition's ten thousand gutted Linux desktops at a fraction of the price, the publicity stunts you've got to pull start taking bizarre new shapes. That said, we're planning on deploying at least one or two to the next Jobsnote so the F5-trigger happy in the house don't spoil all the fun.

[Thanks, Reese]

[Zorque @ Oct 18th 2006 2:49AM]

I guess someone should point out that the internet stopped catering to dial-up back in the late '90's.

[Edward K. @ Oct 18th 2006 12:38AM]

i think this should be posted on engadget mobile seeing as how its a mobile technology

lmfao.

jk guys. sarcasm.

[Unprofessional @ Oct 18th 2006 9:25AM]

good one! ;)

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Oct 18th 2006 12:44AM]

Inspiration: 2001 Space Odyssey's "The Monolith".

[Spencer @ Oct 18th 2006 12:44AM]

Perfect for the busy exec-on-the-go who needs to take the office with him!

[Maurice Avery @ Oct 18th 2006 2:52AM]

That's what I was thinking. Just use the back half of it as an office tricked out with about 20 19"LCD's, a central 60" Plasma, big honking desk, microwave, fridge, coffee maker, small bathroom and a nice recliner that turns into a bed & cut at least one window & door into it. Drop it wherever you need to be for the next 6 months, year, whatever. And you have a portible home base, office, data center, high end gaming system. :-)

[Tory Clasen @ Oct 18th 2006 12:52AM]

I could see this being really useful for military types. Just ship over your network in a box over to Iraq, then plug and play. Of course the military does not need 250 sun servers, but the concept would be useful if properly applied to them.

[Edward K. @ Oct 18th 2006 10:00AM]

Honestly i wouldn't put the ability it beyond them to need 250 servers. i mean imagine what you could do with that.

I read an article that they were using super computers to calculate trajectories for missles etc. what if they could do that on the go?

and i dont actually know if this is true or not but dont they use computers for aid in combat scenarios? it may be useful to them to have one that they can then bring with them and calculate the best strategies on the fly.

[base2wave @ Oct 18th 2006 1:21AM]

Folding@home for the tech-savy trucker...

[evo @ Oct 18th 2006 1:37AM]

Reminds me of the episode of X-Files where the guy uploaded himself into a mobile home flush with servers and connected directly to the Interwebs by a T3.

[Deezee @ Oct 18th 2006 2:58AM]

Hah I remember that one. That episode scared the hell out of me for some reason. Probably cuz I saw it at like 3am.

[Shane @ Oct 18th 2006 10:17AM]

I was going to say the same thing! That was one freaky episode...

[Alan @ Oct 18th 2006 2:01AM]

Looks cool but I don't want to know the price tag!

[tonydatigeryo @ Oct 18th 2006 2:32AM]

Cry a river, SidR. All you bashers have nothing better to do these days? It gets annoying.

At least some people still leave funny or insightful comments..

Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool concept. I don't know how practical it'll be, and I doubt it'll ever catch on... but imagine being rich and owning one of these babies...

[Dern @ Oct 18th 2006 2:48AM]

Does this thing come with wheels? No way you're ever going to get it into that parking lof otherwise.

Fortunately stolen containers will be easy to spot: just look for black containers with a piece of ripped network cable dangling from it.

[dbell @ Oct 18th 2006 3:17AM]

any word on why the windmill needs 2 PB disk space? I guess if you're going to be stuck out there for a decade or two, you'll need to store enough tunes and videos to keep interested...

[Deluxe @ Oct 18th 2006 3:52AM]

I think the uhm.. 'wind power generator' is powering the container, not storing data on it... clearly.

[winston @ Oct 18th 2006 4:05AM]

I remember hearing something about google doing something like this.

[biggeek @ Oct 18th 2006 4:06AM]

Put temperature sensitive equipment in a black steel box and put it on a roof. How stupid can you get? You'll need that windmill just to power the air-conditioning needed for the color choice alone.

I also think it's dehumanizing to expect technicians and system administrators to work in a shipping container. Even if they're only supposed to be visiting it occasionally.

You want a data center? Build a proper one.

[Dern @ Oct 18th 2006 7:20AM]

> I also think it's dehumanizing to expect technicians and system administrators to work in a
> shipping container. Even if they're only supposed to be visiting it occasionally.

And having to work in a basement without windows isn't? At least you can take the container out for a ride. I don't think I'd mind having to go out to the windmill-cube to do some maintenance every once in a while either. :-)

[Kris @ Oct 18th 2006 9:16AM]

"Just supply power and [i]water[/i]". A fair guess is that the whole setup is watercooled (I don't think they need it for the potted plants.)

[Shane @ Oct 18th 2006 10:16AM]

I work as a Broadcast Engineer with high powered FM broadcast transmitters...I have seen these transmitters installed in the back of shipping containers all the time! Not my first choice for an install, but it does make for quick deployment and emergency recovery!

[jake @ Oct 18th 2006 4:06AM]

from http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051117.html (i.e. last year), exactly the same scenario, except he's talking about Google:

"[...] The probable answer lies in one of Google's underground parking garages in Mountain View. There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We're talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid. [...]"

[Russell @ Oct 18th 2006 4:16AM]

Now I can finally take all my porn with me!

[Vexorg @ Oct 18th 2006 4:48AM]

If they're going back to the "giant black box" paradigm of supercomputing, shouldn't they at least have the courtesy to stick a few blinkenlights on the thing?

[SK @ Oct 19th 2006 8:14AM]

Did they find water in MARs or do they plan to run pipes from Earth

[steviedee @ Oct 18th 2006 5:01AM]

these things would make a great home fore homeless people...

[Mike @ Oct 18th 2006 5:37AM]

I'm more interested in the two solar panels which power the mars version. Must have quite a goood efficiency.

[Thomas @ Oct 18th 2006 6:23AM]

so basically anyone with an articulated truck and crane could potentially rob you're entire business in one stroke!!!!

[Scott @ Oct 18th 2006 7:44AM]

Needs more LEDs and Cold Cathodes....


And Water Cooling!

[Edward K. @ Oct 18th 2006 10:01AM]

it is water cooled. they're half way there! :D

[Khargan @ Oct 18th 2006 8:39AM]

It�s clearly designed for "Outsourcing"!

And hey, put it on a nice beach and all the Admins and tech people will get some sunlight at last ... .

[Christian Martin @ Oct 18th 2006 8:46AM]

I see a Photoshop cntest coming: Where Can You Put the Sun Blackbox?

See it in exotic locales as it travels the world! Less annoying than the Roaming Gnome and faster at charging your credit card!

*goes to work on a OSBPC (One Sun Blackbox Per Child) pic*

[Adam @ Oct 18th 2006 9:29AM]

This has got to be one of the most fundamentally flawed ideas I've ever heard. Making a server farm... portable? Wait, don't stop there, put it in a SHIPPING CONTAINER so that it can be hoisted onto a truck, and boom, your company's infrastructure is GONE.

Haha who was the genius who came up with this?

[tiuk @ Oct 18th 2006 9:53AM]

Adam - See the poster who mentioned this idea in context with Google. He quoted this line:
"The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid."

IMO, this is the kind of scenario something like this will be useful in. Not businesses who want to buy a single unit, but large corporations who will buy in bulk.

[Ron @ Oct 18th 2006 9:56AM]

Think DISASTER RECOVERY!!!

You have one of these puppies doing on site or remote sync of your companies data...

Hurricane is comming you relocate it to a safe area...plug into your providers net (AT&T) and bring it online...

Hurricane wipes out your corp headquarters...your remote manufacturing chuggs on along...no worries for them...they still have their data/ AS/400 what ever...

I think this is a good idea...

notice it says supply water so I am assuming it is using water cooling at least in the general cooling system.

[john russell @ Oct 18th 2006 9:45AM]

A black box would get way to hot, especially sitting on a roof. They would need another shipping container of cooling equipment just to cool the thing.

[Damon Campagna @ Oct 18th 2006 9:50AM]

Note to Engadget: If you're going to post something like this, at least put a link to the product.
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/index.jsp?cid=250059

[Chris @ Oct 18th 2006 10:15AM]

Nice to see Sun has gone black and converted to the darkside. I for one would just buy a dual frame IBM Power server and leave living space for my IT minions. Keep IT happy and you'll be happy...just don't drop them on Mars.

[Webdog @ Oct 18th 2006 10:26AM]

Disaster Recovery?! You're kidding right? It would be about a hundred times cheaper to just hire a moving company to come and throw all your computers into a couple of trucks (EMPTY shipping containers) and save the actual hardware AND data.

How useful will a data center (without freaking air vents) be in the middle of nowhere without a power or network connection? I didn't see a satellite uplink antenna in any of the pictures.

And does it come with a half dozen commando's to guard it from theft? Talk about a target... 250 Sun Fire T1000s at how much apiece on the black market? All for the price of a truck rental.

[Andrew @ Oct 18th 2006 10:18PM]

>> Disaster Recovery?! You're kidding right? It would be about a hundred times cheaper to just hire a moving company to come and throw all your computers into a couple of trucks (EMPTY shipping containers) and save the actual hardware AND data.

No. Have you seen what happens when you hire a moving company to move computers in a non-disaster situation? (It's brutal.) Have you ever seen a mover's bill? (Think five figures easy.)

Now add hurricane, or other emergency. Where's the movers? At home with their families, or trying to make it out. If they support at all, it'll be dreadfully expensive.

Compared to the cost of hooking up a trailer and just rolling (less than $2,000 if you don't own the equipment yourself), and it's cheap at the price. A portable spare data center.

>> How useful will a data center (without freaking air vents) be in the middle of nowhere without a power or network connection? I didn't see a satellite uplink antenna in any of the pictures.

Notice the water requirement. There's your cooling. If you need more cooling, get an HVAC trailer. For power use electrical generator trailers (which are a standard rental item for backing up data centers, I might add . . . if your data center doesn't have plug-in connectors for external generators, you suck lots.)

As for the network, presumably you can park next to a CO or someone else's data center, or a good patch of fiber. If you insist on middle-of-nowhere, talk to Hughes or Tachyon and they can hook you up with a T-1 equivalent for only $1K/month, any place you can see sky.

>> And does it come with a half dozen commando's to guard it from theft?

It can for about $50 per hour each. "You've got questions . . . we've got Wackenhut." Physical security is a fairly minor issue, assuming you're willing to spring for an RV for the techs and/or a guard force.

[Steve @ Oct 18th 2006 10:51AM]

one thing that i think this may be good for is Telco's rolling out IPTV service, because they need to get close to the house to deliver the speed needed for IPTV and having the servers that close could be benificial

[Mr. B @ Oct 18th 2006 11:05AM]

Someone mentioned black paint being a problem for temperature control, probably a very good point, although a bunch of servers in any color metal box would probably get quite hot. I would imagine they already thought of that.

In any case, anything to alleviate the surplus of shipping containers is nice.

[Will Osborn @ Oct 18th 2006 11:50AM]

Just a thought about it going to mars.
Doesn't it need a water supply for cooling?

[Pipeline2112 @ Oct 18th 2006 1:43PM]

Mean surface temperature on Mars: -65 C

Water "cooling" not necessary. Sub-zero atmospheric would be sufficient.

[biggeek @ Oct 18th 2006 7:51PM]

>In any case, anything to alleviate the surplus of shipping containers is nice.

Sun probably isn't going to use USED shipping containers for a flagship datacenter product. I'm sure they'll all be brand-spanking new.

Considering the glut of low-end datacenter space, it's a interesting, expensive proof-of-concept idea...But Sun seems to be reaching as far as practical deployment goes.

[ElvisLives @ Oct 18th 2006 11:56PM]

What a joke - where's the A/C duct work? Besides, you'd need one of those containerized Caterpillar portable power stations to power the thing.

[Thomas Averin @ Oct 19th 2006 3:01PM]

Could be useful in 3rd world countries.

[Ricardo Chavarria @ Oct 18th 2006 11:17AM]

I don't see why it would be useful. We have our Data Centers just like the ones in the US...

If its useful in a 3rd world country, its useful everywhere else...

[David Scott @ Oct 20th 2006 12:56AM]

Not very secure looking