The biggest selling point for the "data-center-to-go" is price... Sun estimates one-hundredth the cost of building an equivalent computer room. If that is even close to being true, this is going to be a very popular alternative for most businesses.
Although installation cost is the current marketing focus, I suspect that Sun's code name for "data-center-to-go" hints at much broader implications for IT... "Project Blackbox".
"Blackbox" is a term used for systems where you don't have any idea what's inside the system's case. You know the inputs and outputs and what the system does, but you cannot see inside the box at all (I first heard this term in conjunction with classified projects where you were actually prohibited from "peeking inside" - under penalty of imprisonment).
I might be wrong, but I suspect that Sun's engineers and marketers are well aware of the meaning of the term... Lower cost is going to drive corporate adoption, but the "blackbox" nature of the product is what will be really disruptive...
Imagine a data center where your IT guys don't really know (and can't really mess with) anything that is in the computer room? That could be a really scary thought... unless your computer room is standardized.
Standards can lower costs and lead to increased functionality. Using the original IBM PC as an example... once it became the "de-facto" standard the costs of personal computers plummeted and the functionality soared. Instead of everything being "roll-your-own" and highly custom, we got economy of scale and a stable platform on which to build out applications.
Ironically, "Blackbox" could be a powerfully disruptive catalyst for corporations to give up their data centers completely. Here's how I think it will happen...
Although installation cost is the current marketing focus, I suspect that Sun's code name for "data-center-to-go" hints at much broader implications for IT... "Project Blackbox".
"Blackbox" is a term used for systems where you don't have any idea what's inside the system's case. You know the inputs and outputs and what the system does, but you cannot see inside the box at all (I first heard this term in conjunction with classified projects where you were actually prohibited from "peeking inside" - under penalty of imprisonment).
I might be wrong, but I suspect that Sun's engineers and marketers are well aware of the meaning of the term... Lower cost is going to drive corporate adoption, but the "blackbox" nature of the product is what will be really disruptive...
Imagine a data center where your IT guys don't really know (and can't really mess with) anything that is in the computer room? That could be a really scary thought... unless your computer room is standardized.
Standards can lower costs and lead to increased functionality. Using the original IBM PC as an example... once it became the "de-facto" standard the costs of personal computers plummeted and the functionality soared. Instead of everything being "roll-your-own" and highly custom, we got economy of scale and a stable platform on which to build out applications.
Ironically, "Blackbox" could be a powerfully disruptive catalyst for corporations to give up their data centers completely. Here's how I think it will happen...
- Corporations buy into the "data-center-in-a-box" concept to save installation costs.
- Service providers offer very attractive maintenance contracts for servicing these "standardized" data centers (reducing the size of the company's IT staff).
- Standardization leads to better options for installing and maintaining software... "Software As Services" providers port their applications to the "data-center-in-a-box". This gives those service providers the option of selling to the many companies out there who can't imagine letting their data offsite.
- Corporations will realize that it doesn't really matter where the "box" is. The "box" can be in their building or at a remote location... The "box" becomes a "virtual box".
- "Data-center-in-a-box" is replaced by "virtual-data-center"
Admittedly, this scenario is a stretch... but you might want to bring in you camera and take some pictures of your server-room for old-times sake. It might not be around for much longer ;-)
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