Comments on: AOL building refrigerator-sized data centers

By: Simon Rohrich

Simon Rohrich — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:27:45 +0000

Jacob, How do you define the “very edge”? This form factor is small and light enough to get though door and go up elevators…let alone inside a cell tower bullpen. I have done it. The self contained nature allows a user to leverage existing footprint by adding capacity without build out. Fiber/connectivity can be accessed in many places with inexpensive rent when one does not have to worry about building a data center…

By: Simon Rohrich

Simon Rohrich — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:20:37 +0000

What kind of space are you talking about? Commodity space at 3-5KW per rack or high density space at 8-12KW per rack? I know for a fact at higher densities, Containerized models compete very well from a TCO, CapEx and OpEx standpoint. Lower upfront cost, lifecyle advantages by “right sizing” capacity, control by matching cooling/power solutions with IT packages and “facility cost” (metal shell warehouse at $70/sqft new)

By: Jacob Rosenberg

Jacob Rosenberg — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:08:19 +0000

I’m not entirely certain what problem this is solving. If the goal is to build an edge CDN, the form factor is too large to get to the very edge of provider networks. If the goal is for international deployments, I’m not understanding how you’ll work out the network connectivity at reasonably cost. And, if the goal is to make Patch cheaper by putting these in every backyard in America, I already got the joke. What’s the business strategy here, exactly?

By: Howard

Howard — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:09:00 +0000

Why nibiru, as if i did not know…hide in plain sight…why did the pope call his billion dollar radio telescope Lucifer…like the nibiru data center…the truth is very close under a thin layer of distraction, Lucifer means morning star means Nibiru…we are not all asleep rothschild

By: barrand

barrand — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:47:06 +0000

Any worry about theft or vandalism? That seems to be a big benefit of a data center is the security.

By: Mike Manos

Mike Manos — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:54:16 +0000

Joshua – I guess the first thing you would need to do is re-fresh your idea of what AOL is. While it still derives revenue from the access stream, we have been solidly trying to turn around the company and reinvent it as a large scale content provider for the past few years. Think about our purchase and acquisition of Engadget, TechCrunch, Huffington Post, or our grass-roots hyper local business – Patch. There are lots of brands that you probably know that are part of the AOL umbrella, but didnt know were part of AOL. With regards to whats inside? Servers, network kit, storage. Nothing really mindblowing about the technologies – just that its wrapped in a smaller more agile unit specifically designed to lower total costs of deploying capacity and capabilities as a company.

By: Mike Manos

Mike Manos — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:49:14 +0000

Vijay – We arent trying to solve the same problem as you guys at Microsoft or Google for that matter. At a unit level you guys will likely always win due to the sheer scale of each of your deployments. However – this construct allows us to deploy capacity to equipment yards. In many cases our partners would not charge us anything to drop a box in their equipment yard or if they charged anything it would be a nominal annualized cost. So our power rate would be higher but our lease rate would be nothing to a small amount. We are not talking unit costs, we are talking total costs. Remember I was the person who originally defined the large scale strategy and benefits at Microsoft. We are simply solving for a different problem. This model has more similarity to an Akamai global capability model than a mega-data center global data center strategy. One of the key learnings I have had is that the Data Center industry is not monolithic in its business types, cost scalers, and the like. Sometimes smaller is better. Plus a smaller scale allows you to take better advantage of green power technologies and options at a much more aggressive rate.

By: Joshua Goldbard

Joshua Goldbard — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:01:51 +0000

So what’s inside the black box? With FB talking about using mobile CPUs for future datacenter work, I wonder what could be so mindblowing about this box.

I don’t understand AOL at all. What does this have to do with getting me 1000 free hours of Internet Access?

By: vijaygill

vijaygill — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:45:00 +0000

The power and space math I would like to see. You can’t compete with retail power/space like the above model against wholesale bulk power/space deals for larger datacenters.