A Look at IBM's Data Center Container

Here's a look at the Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC), IBM's new modular data center housed in a shipping container. The unit pictured here is a demo unit in Barcelona, Spain housed in a 20-foot shipping container. IBM is also offering a 40-foot version of the container data center. IBM joins a growing group of hardware vendors offering container solutions, including Sun Microsystems (JAVAD), Rackable (RACK) and Verari Systems. Dell and HP are also rumored to be developing containers, while the "data center in a box" concept has been embraced by Microsoft, which plans to pack at least 150 40-foot containers into the first floor of its new Chicago data center.

IBM today announced a family of new data center design for modular "form factors," including a 5,000-square-foot module for enterprise customers, data center container products in both 20-foot and 40-foot shipping containers, and a 200-square-foot module that allows users to quickly create a high-density zone within a low-density data center.