Hey, what a great idea! Put a data centre in a shipping container.

Miniaturisation of processing hardware, storage and communications equipment means the hardware will fit. We’ll need good power supplies and aircon. The only other aspect to consider is security. We don’t want anyone hoisting it on to an 18-wheeler and driving off. Or to hack into the system because it is self-contained.

Hmm. In that case since they were introduced by Sun two years ago (Project Blackbox) http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/index.jsp and Rackable early in 2007 (Concentro latterly ICE Cube) http://www.rackable.com/products/icecube.aspx?nid=servers_5 why have sales not begun climbing the hook curve?

The idea seems to spring from the need for speed and flexibility. Build a conventional data center with bricks and mortar, suspended floors, environmental controls, and you have planners, plumbers, electricians, installers, commissioning engineers and the rest - and a two-year timescale. With a data center in a container there is an assembly team in a factory somewhere building data centers on a production line. Haul the container to the customer’s site and plug it in - in weeks or less.

In fact there appear to be at least two distinct scenarios for the use of these data centers. One is the one we have suggested above and suitable for disaster relief, emergency use and the military. The other is centered around the idea that IBM has postulated with its own Portable Modular Data Centre (PMDC), one element of its Project Big Green initiative: energy efficiency. It claims roughly 60% of the capital costs and 50% of the operational costs of running a data center are linked to energy requirements.

So is there life in the concept?