数据中心也疯狂

西纳 2012-08-17

展开全文

AOL just shrunk the computer data center to the size of Porta-Potty.

AOL是面向美国国内客户，提供线上网络加值服务的公司（American On Line），其数据中心确便捷轻巧。

As revealed by AOL data center guru Mike Manos, this “Micro Data Center” is designed to instantly give the company added computing power wherever it’s needed. In his blog post, Manos showed off a prototype of this contraption sitting in the middle of an empty field behind an AOL building in Dulles, Virginia.

AOL数据中心负责人麦克.马诺斯说，设计这些“微型数据中心”的初衷很简单，就是必要之时，为客户提供足够的运算能力。博客上，马诺斯还例举了位于弗吉尼亚的杜勒斯AOL中心后旷野上的“微型数据中心”。

The creation is part of an AOL project dubbed “Nibiru,” after a “mythical planet that is said to cross into our solar system and wreak havoc and bring about great change.” The aim, Manos says, is to deploy this Micro Data Center anywhere, regardless of temperature or humidity, and include all of the tools needed to oversee them from afar.

AOL项目还被称为“尼布鲁”项目，即“神秘行星将会进入太阳系，摧毁一切，从而引发巨变。”马诺斯说，该项目要在世界各地设置微型数据中心，无论何种温湿度，且每个数据中心设有全套的远程监控设备。

“Out on a lonely slab of concrete in the back of one of the buildings our future has taken shape,” writes Manos, who once oversaw data-center operations at Microsoft. “The inherent flexibility of the design allows us a greater number of places around the planet where we can deploy capacity, and that is pretty revolutionary. We are no longer tied to traditional data-center facilities or co-location markets.”

“一块硕大的集成板背面，建筑物林立，这就是未来的发展的思路，愈来愈明显，”马诺斯写道，他曾实地参观过微软数据中心。“灵动的设计，足以满足世界上任何一个角落的需要，创意十分大胆。完全脱离了传统数据中心设备及主机代管的限制。”

Manos may wreak his own brand of havoc on the data-center world, but he has a long way to go if he wants to match the world’s most creative efforts to reinvent data-center design (see images above).

马诺斯对世界品牌的数据中心似乎略有微词，但他的设计还无法与这些设计极具创意的数据中心相匹敌(见上图)。

Almost decade ago, inspired by the Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive, Google started packing server and networking gear into shipping containers, and in building its data centers, it would piece these containers together like Legos. This spawned a kind of modular data center craze, with eBay going to far as to put its data centers on the roof of its scorching hot data center in Arizona.

十年前，受布鲁斯特.卡利及“互联网档案馆”启发，谷歌开始将其服务器和网络工具安装到一个个集装箱内，每一个集装箱就是一个数据中心，还可以像玩乐高玩具一样，把这些集装箱堆叠在一起。由此引发了一场“模拟数据中心”的热潮，eBay走的更远，位于亚利桑那州的数据中心甚至就在炽热的屋顶上。

Then, in 2010, Google reincarnated a dead paper mill as a data center. And it has long used recycled toilet water to cool its facility in Douglas County, Georgia. But that’s small peanuts.

2010年，谷歌将一家荒废的造纸厂废物利用，作为其数据中心。该数据中心位于乔治亚道格拉斯郡，通过卫生间的水循环再利用而实现设备的冷却。但实际上，这点冷却作用应该微乎其微。

The search giant owns a patent on a kind of data center navy that can float to the rescue when disaster strikes, and others have proposed similar ideas. A company called Blueseed, for instance, wants to build a floating IT fortress in order sidestep U.S. immigration laws in building the startups of the future.

搜索巨头谷歌甚至拥有数据中心海军专利，一旦遭受重大变故，该数据中心将自动浮出水面，实现自救，其它的想法几乎雷同。“蓝色种子”公司，为了规避美国移民法案，保证不受灾难影响，甚至构想了一座水上IT堡垒。

Meanwhile, the Barcelona Supercomputer Center sits inside a cathedral. It has to be world’s most beautiful data center. And a Swedish ISP called Bahnhof has built a data center inside a James-Bond-villain-esque bunker carved into the side of Stockholm’s White Mountain. This super secure facility is where the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks houses its servers — or at least some of them.

巴塞罗那巨型计算机中心就坐落于教堂内。这应该是世界上最漂亮的数据中心。瑞士网络服务器供应商“班霍夫公司”的数据中心更是异想天开，向詹姆斯.邦德的对手一样，建立在斯德哥尔摩白山的山洞内。这个隐蔽的数据中心内就有一些揭秘网站的服务器如：维基解密等。

In Scandinavia, they like the buried-data-center idea. It’s one way of keeping servers cool. In Norway, the government has worked with IBM to build a data center inside an abandoned olivine mine, billed as the world’s largest.

斯堪的纳维亚地区的数据中心常常被深埋于地下，以便于服务器冷却。挪威政府和IBM 公司合作开发利用了废弃的橄榄石矿，在此设置数据中心，据说该数据中心是目前为止，世界上规模最大的数据中心。

But some think on a higher level. Rogue file-sharing site The Pirate Bay wants to put its servers in the sky, attaching them to flying drones so it can elude law enforcement. And the Oregon-based Server Sky wants to build data centers in space — and power them with the sun.

有些观点更为天马行空。流氓文件共享网站“海盗港湾”想要将其服务器安装到无人驾驶的飞机上，从而逃脱法律制裁。位于俄勒冈的天空服务器筹划着在太空建立其数据中心建设，靠太阳能提供动力支持。

“Integrating power generation and computing in space can greatly reduce the materials and manufacturing needed to deploy and power a data center,” Keith Lofstrom, Server Sky’s director, tellsWired. “Delivering computation from space, Server Sky can focus on cities, villages, even small companies poised for rapid growth, without having to deploy and maintain nationwide communication and electricity infrastructure.”

“将发电装置和计算机设置到太空，可以最大限度的节约原材料，方便配置，实现数据中心自给自足，”天空服务器负责人Keith Lofstrom对连线记者说。“通过将服务器送到太空，天空服务器就可以服务任何城市，任何乡村甚至是任何想要快速发展网络的小公司，还不需要在全国范围内，配置通讯设备和电力设施，更不需要支付巨额的常规保养费用。”

Your move, Manos.

你做主，马诺斯

AOL has dropped its "Micro Data Center" into a field behind its Virginia headquarters. But the online outfit wants to put the thing ... everywhere. Image: AOL

位于弗吉尼亚的总部后面的AOL“迷你数据中心”被放置到旷野上，以保证该网站畅通无阻。图片：AOL

eBay cooks its data center modules in the Arizona sun. Image: Green Grid

亚利桑那州的EBay 数据中心就在列日下。图片：绿色网格联盟

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center is a cathedral. Literally. Image: Barcelona Supercomputing Center

巴塞罗那超级计算机中心在大教堂内。图片：巴塞罗那超级计算机中心

London's Interxion has built sleeping pods into a data center that will help drive the Olympics. Keeping a data center going is a fulltime job -- especially when the Games arrive. Photo: Interxion

伦敦的“Interxion”为了保证奥利匹克运动会全程顺利转播，在数据中心内，建造了睡眠太空舱。保证数据中心24小时运转，对于奥运会而言，数据中心连续运转更为重要。图片：Interxion

Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks is hosted in a Bahnhof data center deep inside a bunker carved into the White Mountains of Sweden. Image: Bahnhof

位于瑞典白山的山洞内的班霍夫数据中心就寄存着解密网站“维基解密”的服务器。图片：班霍夫数据中心

Leafdal Mine claims it's one of the world's most efficient datacenters. (Image: Lefdal/YouTube Screengrab)

Leafdal称说是世界上最高效的数据中心。(图片：Lefdal/YouTube Screengrab)

To build its data center on the southern coast of Finland, Google reincarnated a dead paper mill. Image: Google

为了在芬兰南海岸建立数据中心，谷歌启用了一家废弃的造纸厂。图片：谷歌

In Georgia, Google cools its data center with recycled toilet water. (Image: epSos.de/Flickr)

在乔治亚州，谷歌靠厕所循环用水来冷却数据中心。(图片：epSos.de/Flickr)

Google owns a patent on a kind of data-center navy. Image: Google Patent US7525207

谷歌私有的数据中心海军的专利。图片：谷歌专利US7525207

Blueseed – one of Peter Thiel's myriad investments – envisions a floating IT fortress immune from U.S. immigration law. Image: Blueseed

即规避了美国移民法案，又可漂浮IT堡垒，来自“蓝色种子”公司的彼得.泰勒的大胆构想。图片：“蓝色种子”公司

Rogue file-sharing site The Pirate Bay plans to put its servers on flying drones so that law enforcement can't shut them down without shooting them down. (Image: Ars Electronica/Flickr)

流氓文件共享网站“海盗港湾”计划将其服务器放到无人驾驶的飞机上，执法机构不击落飞机，就不能停止服务器。(图片：奥地利电子艺术节/Flickr网络相册)