CNet was able to get an exclusive look inside one of the largest data centers in the world, owned by Microsoft to help power cloud-computing with Windows Azure. The secret location of the data center, located somewhere in Chicago, is not your ordinary data center setup, they're in shipping containers.The new data centers are brought in by shipping containers, housing anywhere between 1,800 and 2,500 servers each. Once the shipping containers arrive, the team can install each of the server groups in under a day, where it would normally take months to setup and install servers. The servers remain inside the shipping containers inside the facility, where they are placed side by side and stacked two high.
The new water cooled facility, which runs 7.5 miles of piping, is roughly 700,000 square feet, where each shipping container occupies roughly 12,000 square feet each and consumes three megawatts of power, on average.
(Image courtesy of CNet.com)
The general manager of infrastructure services for Microsoft's data center operations, Arne Josefsber said, "I think, I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think this could be the largest data center in the world."
Microsoft plans to talk about the commercial launch of Windows Azure at this year's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), in Los Angeles, where Neowin will be reporting live.
View: CNet.com data center gallery
I'm sure someone can pinpoint the location of this building:
Can someone zoom in and see what the sign says
I'll put good money it's at the Savvis datacenter building near O'Hare, nearly every major company leases out sections (Google has an entire area devoted to them). I was probably the only person who didn't make a trip there for my company (who hosted their servers there as well) so can't confirm. But they've got the power and bandwidth requirements....
I love how they can do that, when you really can't.
I can't really see "azure" exactly offering more or any incentive over existing and developing solutions...this could quickly become a large headache for Microsoft if that's all this is intended for
Last edited by Digix on 02 Nov 2009 - 18:36
MS just has to nail down the right pricing for the services.
MS just has to nail down the right pricing for the services.
Yeah but should they not if they're going to offer those sort of features to capitalize give people actual choice of running azure in their own data center/servers then .. i mean don't get me wrong cloud stuff is all fine and dandy but choice and flexibility is much better too. I mean obviously no average web developer is going to hire/rent/lease a whole container those companies who could probably have their own better solutions which can already provide cloud services with right environment. It would make more sense especially for international business who don't want all their critical cloud data stored only in middle of chicago.
@Digix: There are(will be) more than one center. You can even specify the center or centers you want your applications hosted on.
That's three i tell you!
That's three i tell you!
Per-container you add that up to around a dozen or so of them
i guess MS should build their own Power plant , with this huge power consume
wander what kind of spec a single server has?
Maybe because they're running PS3 clusters inside those containers...
That would explain the power draw.
In desktop computer terms it's 3,000 high end desktop computers with full load on 1Kw power supplies. why it seems big..
Can anybody tell what kind of servers those are? They are probably white boxes.
Can anybody tell what kind of servers those are? They are probably white boxes.
More then likely some fancy custom systems from HP tailored for Microsoft. or a mix up of some anyway. As for SAN and routers and networking i imagine all different.
The building is right on 294 next to the building that has Duke on top. The satellite picture still shows it as a lot under costruction, so at least we have an idea how slow Google is at udating maps as this building has been finished for about 2 months. Its on Northwest Ave, just south of Grand Ave. Anyone who lives in Northlake could easily find it. However the building itself os not marked as being owned by MSFT...But I am sure it is on the door.
If you are talking about streetview, expect them to update every 3-5 years.
I also think the satelite view only updates every 2 years or longer, again, in certain areas.
If you're trying to compare a desktop PC to this, then I totally agree, you're not seeing the point.
Are you sure about that???
Edit: er, unless the shipping containers are really long. Haha. If they were 12ft high, 10ft wide, and 100ft long they would be 12k cubic feet. They look pretty long in the picture, but 100ft??
Last edited by Tekzel on 04 Nov 2009 - 13:20
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