Today, Sun showcased its Datacenter in a container idea called ProjectBlackbox. Some related thoughts.
How does it matter in the India scenario? Let us see the case of Indian Railways.
Indian Railways has a huge infrastructure of trains and wagons that can carry containers. It has a vast network of railway stations and looplines or unused platforms. May be Indian Railways, as part of its recent approaches towards providing profitable solutions to customers, can start hosting datacenters.
So these datacenters in containers will be mounted onto rail wagons, stationed on unused platforms or tracks. When there is a need to make that space available, engines can pull these datacenters to another destination.
Most railway lines are electrified, so electricity is not an issue. Water wouldn’t be a great issue with Indian railways’ network of refilling stations. The major issue would be uninterrupted network connectivity when these datacenters are on the move. Once that solution is identified, may be Indian Railways can be a prime customer to this solution.
How does the business side work? Indian Railways can have a SLA with the datacenter owner to provide the inputs and outlets to these containers. The locks of the containers work more like bank lockers. The Railways has a master key and the owner has a customer-key. The datacenter can be opened only when both keys are inserted together. The SLA can also include the proximity of the datacenter to the customer’s primary operating location. Say, within 25 miles or within 50 miles. A GPS system available with the stations can tell where your datacenter is at this very moment.
The sysadmin typically works from home or a nearby office location with a management console as in a network operatoins center. When there is a need to attend the datacenter, the sysadmin can drive to the railway station that is hosting the datacenter currently (hopefully away from regular traffic) and work on that. At a reasonable annual cost, you may as well order the datacenter to be brought to the nearest railway station in those special cases.
Different states in India have different power supply levels and tariffs, especially during summer. In such situations, these datacenters can be moved to a nearby state which offers a better power service level at a lower cost. For example, these datacenters can be hosted in a 50 mile radius from the borders of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharastra.
May be these containers should come with a specification on how much lateral shock the containers can withstand, especially when the systems are running. How soon can a running train come to a halt? I know that these containers are tested for a few inches of vertical fall, but what about the lateral/horizontal shocks?
May be these thoughts look impractical right now, but who knows? For the last two centuries, railroads are used for transportation of goods and people. Soon, your railways may bring your datacenter to a train station near you.