Microsoft’s data centers growing by the truckload | Latest Microsoft News – CNET News – CNET News
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.
Microsoft graphic
“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.
At the growth rate of 10,000 servers a month Microsoft should be at 218,000 servers at the end of August 08.