NI3

Project Blackbox

Dann — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:24:30 +0000

Sun is claiming the first virtualized data center in a shipping container with Project Blackbox, reported Boing Boing on 19 October via Hack The Planet. Over two years ago I made a post on mobile data centers in shipping containers based on the Internet Archives’ Petabox Project which is in turned based, or co-developed, Capricorn Technologies’ products. It looks like Sun has taken the concept a bit further in that they are advertising many different uses for the Blackbox from use on oil platforms, to dropping a data center on the roof of a skyscraper, to putting a data center in a parking garage, all of which assumes you have the proper power at the drop zone. I assume cooling is also contained in the box and only needs power to function. In many cases, the real estate savings alone may justify such an investment. This sure would make switching managed service providers easy. Or, at the very least take all of the server and storage hardware out of the equation. My Sun and HP rep’s are going to be getting calls very soon. My Sun rep is going to get the, “Can you arrange a demo?” call. My HP rep is going to get the, “What are you guys doing about this?” call.

Rsstroom Reader

Dann — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 01:50:50 +0000

This is far too funny not to blog. Every RSS junkie needs one for the home throne! Add it to your Christmas lists!

VMware Launches Beta “Player”

Dann — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 07:09:37 +0000

Last week VMware announced the availability of a free “player.” What’s a player in the context of VMware? It’s a piece of software that allows you to run virtual machines built by someone else but does not allow you to build your own. This is a phenominal idea. People have been swapping VMX files build using VMware Workstation for some time but requires a Workstation license ($189). With the player, an admin, support person, or team lead can build or have built “standard” VM’s that a group should use for development, testing, and workgroup applications. I see huge returns on this in the areas of development and testing. I’d love to see Microsoft counter with a free VirtualPC player.