Is Google Too Timid to Adopt Containers?

April 21, 2008 Dave Ohara

Data Center Knowledge posts asking What about Google's Containers?

So far 2008 is living up to its billing as a breakthrough year for containers. The "data center in a box" concept has been embraced by Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Rackable (RACK) and Verari Systems all report strong interest in their container products.

But what about Google (GOOG)? Last October it was revealed that Google had been awarded a patent on a portable data center in a shipping container, confirming a 2005 report from PBS columnist Robert Cringley that the company was building prototypes of container-based data centers in a garage in Mountain View. But is the project still alive?

One of the inventors listed on the Google patent, William Whitted, has said publicly that the portable data center project has been discontinued. Whitted, who retired from Google in 2005, spoke about the project in a San Francisco Chronicle story last year. Whitted told the paper that "managers were too timid to pack in enough servers, so the experiment was not cost-effective and was ultimately canceled."

The most interesting possible insight is the last statement Google was too timid.

Is Google conservative when it comes to data center infrastructure, even though they are the largest spender? Being #' 1 in search puts Google in a defensive position. When you are #1, you don't take as many risks. This is why old timers at Google, more than 5 years are leaving. Actually, I am surprised even Google short timers are consider leaving as the company isn't as entrepreneurial as they anticipated.

A few data center construction experts have pointed out that Google's data center construction is standardized and not customized to site specifics. Sound conservative?

Maybe Google is secretive, because they haven't change things that much?

It seems like Google's role in the data center industry is like a millionaire, no billionaire, eccentric recluse who comes out every once in a while but doesn't say much. They like their privacy and shoo away prying eyes.

It will be interesting to see how social the Google attendee is at the Uptime Institute's Symposium 2008.

Microsoft's data center group told me the story at OSIsoft's user conference when Microsoft's Jeff O'Reilly presented on the use of the PI System, the Google data center attendees were ironically sitting right behind the Microsoft data center group. The Microsoft guys tried to be friendly say hi, but the Google guys just put their heads down in their laptops.

ComputerWorld Writes on Containers Reshaping IT

April 20, 2008 Dave Ohara

ComputerWorld's Eric Lai and Patrick Thibodeau write an article on Container-based systems reshaping IT. ComputerWorld did a thorough job researching this article talking to Microsoft, Gartner, customers, consultants, and suppliers. Personally, I am pleased with what ComputerWorld put together as I spent a couple of hours on the phone with one of the writers adding my opinion to the mix. Given the tone and research of the article, I would expect ComputerWorld to write more on this topic.

I will add this article as a 3 week follow up to the Press and Blog Coverage of Mike Manos's AFCOM keynote and create another PDF showing the mindmap.

Building-block data centers may reshape IT

Container-based systems and other modular data center technologies might help drive a shift to online 'compute clouds.' But that could leave the futures of some IT workers in a fog.

April 21, 2008 (Computerworld) A major transformation in the way that large data centers are built is under way, and the expected changes may have as much impact on IT productivity as the adoption of shipping containers did on operations in the freight industry starting in the late 1950s.

At that time, the shift from putting cargo on individual pallets to packing goods into much larger containers enabled shippers to load and unload vessels exponentially faster, with less labor. Now a similar transition is taking place in some data centers, via the use of container-based systems and other modular technologies.

Advocates say that replacing conventional racks of servers with systems built into shipping containers that can be rolled right into buildings will make it easier to set up data centers and add more processing power as needed. It also could pave the way for expanding the use of "compute clouds" to deliver online IT services -- a development that might result in big changes within corporate IT departments.

Microsoft Corp. is one of the trailblazers of the containerized IT movement. In a suburb of Chicago, the software vendor is building a $500 million, 500,000-square-foot data center that will hold up to 220 shipping containers. Each will arrive preconfigured with racks containing as many as 2,000 servers, along with networking and power-distribution equipment to facilitate the setup process.

Michael Manos, Microsoft's senior director of data center services, said the Lego-like approach being used at the new facility in Northlake, Ill., will help shake up a part of IT that's in need of some change. "Data centers are typically very conservative," Manos said. "If you look at a data center built a year ago and one built 10 years ago, they look very similar."

Consulting firm Gartner Inc. says that building-block designs such as the one Microsoft is implementing will lead to the "industrialization" of IT within megasize data centers. According to Gartner, such facilities will be able to provide the technical infrastructure needed to support compute clouds that can scale on demand as the use of Internet-based application services grows. In fact, Microsoft plans to use the Northlake facility to help meet the processing demands that its Windows Live and Office Live online services are expected to generate.

Pictures of Microsoft's Wind Powered Container in Boulder, CO

April 19, 2008 Dave Ohara

On Dailycamera.com there are pictures from Microsoft's Wind Powered Container event in Boulder, CO. The picture at the bottom has a shot of a Verari Systems Rack.

The article is here.

The new additions near the parking lot of Microsoft Corp.'s Boulder office may have the look of three white semi-trailers, but what's inside is powering the world.

Or, rather, the virtual world.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft on Thursday unveiled its new wind-powered, container-based data lab, which houses processing servers for the photorealistic 3-D city models used in the company's Virtual Earth online mapping program.

The data center also is wind-powered, officials announced, noting the purchase of wind-generated power from Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy.

The cores of the servers can support more than 10 petabytes of data, said Jim Curlander, principal development manager of Virtual Earth. Combined with the servers located in the Boulder facility, that storage capacity is 15 petabytes, he added.

The pictures here and here.

Photo by Cliff Grassmick

Debra Chrapaty, left, and Stephen Lawler christen one of Microsoft Corp.'s new wind-powered, container-based data labs.

Photo by Cliff Grassmick

Lab Manager Brian Cunningham talks about the data center containers during the grand opening. Microsoft introduced its new wind-powered container-based data lab Thursday in Boulder.

Microsoft Unveils Wind-Powered Containers

April 18, 2008 Dave Ohara

DataCenterKnowledge posts on Microsoft's latest demonstration that leverages an advantage of containers.

Microsoft is thinking a lot of about green power these days, as Michael Manos explained at Data Center World. Manos, Microsoft's director of data center services, believes the federal government will become more active on power issues. "Sustainability regulation is coming," he said. "The conversation is not if, but when. It's more about what we're going to require companies to report against."

With some data centers now provisioning more than 100 megawatts of power, utility capacity is a primary issue in data center site location. But it's likely that green power profiles are beginning to gain more weight as companies decide between specific cities and utilities. For now, the percentage of renewable energy vs. coal in a utility's generating base is probably serving as a tiebreaker between competing locations.

But that may change as more companies offer carbon neutrality pledges and federal agencies weigh sustainable IT as a regulatory issue. This is an area where container solutions have the potential to be disruptive, allowing companies to move computing infrastructure to places where they can run on wind, hydro or solar power. Will we see cities of container data centers springing up next to utility-scale thermal solar power plants in the Mojave Desert?

There are lots of potential scenarios, and it's hard to say how often green power plays using containers will work from an operational standpoint. But given data centers' energy use as a percentage of a company's total power bill, the math suggests these approaches will be seriously studied.

Microsoft Employee comments on Microsoft's data center group

April 12, 2008 Dave Ohara

Watching the news spread on Microsoft's data center container strategy, found this post by Steve Clayton a Microsoft employee.

The whole datacenter topic is one I expect to find myself talking about more and more over the next year. A whole new game is emerging that some call Cloud Computing. One way of building these datacenters is through the use of containers and Michael Manos from our Data Center Services group talked about this yesterday at the AFCOM Data Center World conference. (Wow, there is a world conference for datacenters).

Christian Belady in the same group as Michael has a rather interesting job title - Principal Power and Cooling Architect.

You may chuckle but this stuff is important. Both the datacenters and and the power and cooling stuff. Datacenters that are so large you can see them from the moon will require a lot of power….and a lot of cooling. In an increasingly eco friendly world, this needs to be done in an environmentally friendly way.

And, gives a small peak inside how Microsoft employee's view the Microsoft datacenter group.

I can’t say a great deal about our datacenter group but I will say this – they’re incredibly thorough about their work. In a way I wish some other groups were to be honest. When you build something that costs many many millions you need to be damn sure you chose the right place and approach. These guys impress me a lot and I’m not alone

Steve Clayton's latest job at Microsoft is here, and posted below which gives a level of credibility in what this guy says about Microsoft's datacenter group.

"This transformation from software to software-plus-services is a very, very big deal for our company," - Ray Ozzie

Today I started a new gig at Microsoft that has a lot to do with the image above. Hugh kindly drew this a few months back and I was quick to snag it as I knew it would become my new card. Basically I'm working in a part of the organisation known as Microsoft International and helping to shape how we talk about Software + Services internally and externally. It's a big new adventure and I'm really looking forward to it. It means I'm no longer managing the PTS team which I'll miss as they're just a great bunch of guys doing outstanding work, but the opportunity to be involved this deeply with S+S was something I couldn't pass up. I'll have involvement in a few other projects I can't talk about but S+S will be my main schtick.

Given that, it's probably a good time to clear up some confusion on what Software + Services is (and isn't), so here goes...

Software + Services is not Microsoft's answers to SaaS
Or Web 2.0 or SOA. In fact, S+S encompasses all of those things. The best explanation of this comes from Sanjay Parthasarathy at our Worldwide Partner Conference this year when he discussed the notion of S+S. He thinks about Web 2.0 as the experience, SaaS as the delivery and SOA as the composition and federation. So if we think about something like Exchange it uses SaaS as a delivery model (for OWA) and is a Web 2.0 experience in it's use of data presented with AJAX.

Software + Services is not a Microsoft only thing
It's an industry thing and when you step back and look this becomes increasingly obvious. Lets take a few examples to explain this point.
Salesforce.com is probably the most oft quoted example of SaaS and initially they were a pure play SaaS vendor with a no touch (assuming a browser) client impact and service which is hosted in the "cloud". Salesforce now offer a client for their service. There are scenarios which demand it, not least offline.

Google Gears is a good example of the darling of Web 2.0 providing Software + Services. I can now take Google Reader offline and read it when I don't have connectivity - on a plane for example.

XBOX Live is a good Microsoft example of the combination of local software connected to a cloud service to provide mutliplayer gaming and a marketplace.

Exchange is possibly the best Microsoft example where you can have an email server that his "on premise" (in your office), hosted (by a partner) or even provided by Microsoft. You can then access that service from a rich client on a PC (Outlook), a pure web client (Outlook Web Access) from a mobile device using a rich client (ActiveSync) and now even a voice interface with no client (Outlook Voice Access).

Apple is also a great proponent of S+S, though you'd never hear them call it that. iTunes + iPod = Software + Services. Perhaps even more so with the iPhone which makes much of the fact it connects to YouTube and the iTunes music store from a rich client on a device.

eBay TurboLister and eBay Desktop are two rich clients that connect to one of the worlds most popular Internet services.

Software + Services is a pretty big thing for Microsoft
Ray Ozzie isn't known for hyperbole so the statement at the top of this post should be taken at face value. The breadth of Software + Services is vast. It encompasses everything from Zune (note iPod above), XBOX Live, Live services (such as Virtual Earth), Biztalk Services, Microsoft Online and more.
Ray's talk at the Financial Analyst Meeting earlier this year gives you an indication of the breadth, and the depth of investment. Basically it touches almost all of Microsoft and I'm struggling to think of one area it doesn't affect. However, much as I'd like to think I'm going to work on all of these products and services that simply isn't true or indeed feasible. What I will be doing is helping make this understandable both inside and outside of Microsoft. That's what I think I'm okay at - synthesizing lots of inputs on technology and turning them in to something an audience can understand.That's where the Geek In Disguise thing came from after all (thanks Sarah) and to quote Charles Mingus:
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

I'm not saying I'm creative (more simple) but the quote does capture why I try to do.

Anyhoo, that's probably enough for now but this is what you'll hear a little more about from me over the coming months. Rest assured though, this blog will continue to be home to an eclectic mix of technology, design, gadgets, Microsoft, industry and other random stuff I find. I hope you keep coming back and if you have question on S+S, fire away!

Your loyal blogging servant, Steve...