Microsoft's data centers growing by the truckload

From CNET News.com:

Redmond is going beyond the traditional racks, instead having its servers delivered and run from a sealed container, a move that should cut costs and power demands. Once upon a time, Microsoft used to fill its data centers one server at a time. Then it bought them by the rack. Now it's preparing to load up servers by the shipping container. Starting with a Chicago-area facility due to open later this year, Microsoft will use an approach in which servers arrive at the data center in a sealed container, already networked together and ready to go. The container itself is then hooked up to power, networking, and air conditioning. "The trucks back 'em in, rack 'em, and stack 'em," Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie told CNET News. And the containers remain sealed, Ozzie said. Once a certain number of servers in the container have failed, it will be pulled out and sent back to the manufacturer and a new container loaded in. It's just one way that Microsoft is trying to cope in a world where it adds roughly 10,000 servers a month.

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