Flying Data Centers

Will the Datacenters fly? Or can it Swim? You may think that this guy is crazy to speak such stupid funny things!

But the answer is, yes - I mean a big YES! Datacenters can fly just like any other cargo with the help of an existing technology - it is nothing but AToM - Any Transport over MPLS - introduced by the internetworking big brother Mr. Cisco Systems. I am sitting and wondering, keeping such a wonderful technology in hand, none of the computer scientists has bothered to introduce a flying datacenter! Not even the Cisco engineers! Therefore I am forced to do research and publish this paper on flying and floating datacenters!

Okie, now who is this atom? How this silly brainless guy will make a huge datacenter with terabits of data to fly? What will happen if it falls down during its fly? Questions, Questions and Questions everywhere! People around me started to think just now!

Atom is a technology which will help in extending a layer 2 (data link) network from anywhere to anywhere in the world. Or, in Cisco's own language "It enables Service Providers to supply connectivity between customer sites with existing data link layer (Layer 2) networks via a single, integrated, packet-based network infrastructure: a Cisco MPLS network" - taken from here .

How this will help the datacenter to fly? Simple, design and construct the datacenter in a big container suitable for airlifting. Remember to fix at least four numbers of empty tires horizontally in the bottom to absorb the shock and vibration caused by normal operation. You may consult local generator service shop for getting this done - they are the masters in this art.

Now, keep our Mr. Atom router in this datacenter and keep the CAT wire or fiber (layer two - don't even utter the word IP address) patched outside the datacenter. Now, connect the business to this jack which is available outside the datacenter - all should be up and running!

The questions are never ending! Now only the most important question is out - what i will do with this or why I have to do such a comedy of setting up a datacenter in a container and keeping atoms and molecules inside that?

Valid question! If we open our eyes and look at any business where IT is most critical, there the cash is burning to answer "what if there is a disaster?". Setting up backups, hot sites, cold sites, redundant links, COBs, replication, latency, delay..........

All these are the efforts of maintaining a backup or alternate site ready and updated. If we could make the datacenter fly, we can stop all these funny activities. Just maintain just one datacenter, - this helps in well maintaining and well focusing on the single datacenter. If we smell a small rain or light wind, before the flood and typhoon comes, clap the hands, call the helicopter, put a rope, plug the datacenter, lift it up and vanish to the next city!

In the next city, another patch cable is waiting to get plugged into the socket outside the container. Let them hug each other! That is it! No need to swing, no IP change, no service restart, no confusion, no panic.. all the magic of AToM! Downtime is just few minutes....and the savings? no additional hardware, no CoB testing, no backup testing....no unexpected failures...

The same concept can be used to make datacenter swim by applying slight modifications.

Do you agree with me now?