Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/18/hp_pod/
HP sees techies living in a box
POD bay doors thrown open
Posted in Servers, 18th June 2009 10:16 GMT
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HP has revealed its own POD containerised data centre at its Technology Forum (http://www.hptechnologyforum.com/) in Las Vegas.
The POD acronym stands for Performance-Optimised Datacentre and, like several other companies, HP has decided to follow in Sun's Project Blackbox (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/17/sun_data/) footsteps and build data centres in shipping containers.
HP says it can be built and delivered, ready for use, in six weeks - which compares favourably to the months or years required for a new data centre suite or building.
Natch it's filled to the hilt with networked servers and storage. It is also positioned as being energy-efficient, cheaper and faster to implement than a building - as local authorities don't have to okay a new permanent structure - and even tax-efficient, as such structures can attract lower property taxes.
The specs say that the 40-foot container can house up to 3,520 compute nodes (blade servers) - 5,000 (http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2009/06/the_hp_pod_how.php) if you use the new SL servers (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/10/hp_cookie_sheet_servers/) - and 12,000 3.5-inch hard drives, or any combination, which HP claims to be the equivalent of a 4,000 sq ft data centre. Third-party blade servers can be used. PODs can be stacked two high.
The PODs, costing about $1.4m, are built in Houston and shipped worldwide. HP is envisaging setting up regional assembly centres and developing a POD lease offering. If you want to open the POD bay doors and look inside, then get more information here (http://h20341.www2.hp.com/enterprise/cache/595887-0-0-0-121.html). ®