Devoted to hardware, software, IT issues, and information technology management

This is a follow-on post to Large Data Center Servers, Part 1 – Google’s Whitebox Approach.  I had described in the previous post how Google had opted to build their own servers, but also read in the post on The Register that many other large service providers have selected servers from a relatively new vendor named Rackable Systems, to make the most of their data center resources (capital funding, electrical/cooling capacity, physical space, etc.).

 

According their website, their "open architecture Eco-Logical™ servers and storage in x86 1U, 2U, 3U and 4U form factors are configured in industry-first, half-depth, "back-to-back" rack mounting.  In addition to improved system density, our platforms feature reduced power consumption, better cooling designs and simplified serviceability-with a tremendous breadth of configuration options to support specific application requirements for a broad range of customers.  Our design advantages have proven to lower Total Cost of Ownership in the data center."

• Half-Depth Servers that can be mounted back-to-back in the rack to achieve maximum density and while I think this would be a thermal nightmare; they use a central plenum in their Foundation Series rack to dissipate the heat.

   

• Scale Out Blades that are also mounted back-to-back and includes the best features of blade solutions—improved serviceability, ease of management and density.

   

• ICE Cube Modular Data Center; a modular and mobile data center designed to augment or replace traditional brick-and-mortar data centers of any size, ICE Cube features compute density levels of up to 11,200 cores in a 40' x 8' container, or up to 7.1 Petabytes of storage for maximum density per square foot.