Amazon Deploying Containers in Oregon

amazon-perdix

A look at the Amazon Perdix container, included in a presentation at Amazon Technology Day.

Last week we noted a presentation from Amazon Web Services that discussed the company's use of modular data centers to deploy server capacity for its cloud computing operation. Amazon's latest modular deployment has been noticed by local media in central Oregon.

On Saturday The Hermiston Herald reported that Amazon subsidiary Vadata has deployed six modules in Umatilla, Oregon. The paper describes the facility as "innocuous, bland structures — a row of six shipping containers gussied up with a few doors and vents. " That description matches images of a modular design called Perdix that Amazon's James Hamilton discussed earlier this month at a technology open house.

Amazon.com joins major cloud builders Google, Microsoft and Yahoo in embracing factory-built components as a strategy to reduce the cost and deployment time for data center capacity. The Oregon construction is part of a larger effort by Amazon to prepare for a significant expansion of its data center capacity to accommodate the growth of its cloud computing business.

Amazon.com has submitted plans to build a similar facility with six modules in the Port of Morrow, and also has also resumed work at a site in Boardman, Oregon where the company bought land in 2008.