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reorganize History section chronologically; misc ce/cleanup

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{{short description|Portable data center built into a 20-foot shipping container}}
[[File:Sun Modular Datacenter SunEBC.JPG|thumb|right|A Sun Modular Datacenter on display at the Sun Microsystems Executive Briefing Center in [[Menlo Park, California]]]]

'''Sun Modular Datacenter''' ('''Sun MD''', known in the prototype phase as '''Project Blackbox''') is a portable [[data center]] built into a standard 20-foot [[intermodal container]] (shipping container), manufactured and marketed by [[Sun Microsystems]] (acquired in 2010 by [[Oracle Corporation]]). A data center of up to 280 [[server (computing)|server]]s could be rapidly deployed using existing standardized transport methods to locations that might not be suitable for a building or other structure, and connecting it to the required [[infrastructure]] (including an external chiller and power source).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sun.com/products/sunmd/s20/specifications.jsp |title=Sun Modular Datacenter S20 - Technical Specifications |date=2008-05-27 |access-date=2013-06-08 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226142103/http://www.sun.com/products/sunmd/s20/specifications.jsp |archive-date=February 26, 2009 }}</ref> Sun stated that the system could be made operational for 1% of the cost of building a traditional data center.<ref>M. Mitchell Waldrop - "Data Center In a Box", ''Scientific American'', August 2007</ref>

== History ==
The goal, as conceived by [[Greg Papadopoulos]] and Dave Douglas from [[Sun Labs]] and [[Danny Hillis]] from [[Applied Minds]], was to design the largest possible "[[thumb drive]]" that could still be easily transported worldwide by truck, rail, or air. Since intermodal container transportation infrastructure exists in nearly every country, their answer was a 20-foot standard shipping container, modified to support eight 40RU [[19-inch rack|compute rack]]s populated with servers, storage, and other equipment. The initial target markets included secure portable data centers, and disaster relief to allow Internet access for email and insurance forms.

The prototype build was hosted at the Applied Minds facility, managed by Adam Yates from Applied Minds and Russ Rinfret from Sun. The prototype was first announced as "Project Blackbox" in October 2006;<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-10/sunflash.20061017.3.xml |title=Sun Unveils The Future of Virtualized Datacenters – Project Blackbox |access-date=2013-06-08 |date=2006-10-17 |publisher=Sun Microsystems, Inc. |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301225844/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-10/sunflash.20061017.3.xml |archive-date=March 1, 2007 }}</ref> a Project Blackbox with 1088 [[AMD Opteron]] processors ranked #412 on the June 2007 [[TOP500]] list.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://top500.org/site/history/2827
|title = Sun Project Blackbox
|access-date = 2013-06-08
|date = June 2007
|work = TOP500 Supercomputing Sites
|publisher = TOP500.org
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080803011807/http://top500.org/site/history/2827
|archive-date = 2008-08-03
}}</ref> The product was officially announced in January 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-01/sunflash.20080129.1.xml |title=Sun Modular Datacenter Fuels Momentum With New Customer Wins In Manufacturing, Healthcare, HPC and Telco |date=2008-01-29 |publisher=Sun Microsystems |access-date=2013-06-08 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080201202637/http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-01/sunflash.20080129.1.xml |archive-date=February 1, 2008 }}</ref>

==Team==

===Marketing===

* Darlene Yaplee, senior director
* Michael Bohlig
* Cheryl Martin
* Bob Schiolmueller, technical marketing
* Joe Carvalho, technical marketing

===Engineering===

* Jud Cooley, senior director for the project
* Chuck Perry, software and environmental systems design
* Russ Rinfret, mechanical engineering manager
* Lee Follmer
* Tim Jolly
* Alex Barandian
* Chris Wooley
* Chris Spect
* Carl Meske
* Jeff Galloway, supply and vendor management

== Customers ==
[[File:Internet Archive Sun Modular Datacenter.jpg|thumb|The Internet Archive data facility]]
On 14 July 2007, the [[SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory]] deployed a Sun MD containing 252 [[Sun Fire]] X2200 compute nodes as a compute farm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://today.slac.stanford.edu/feature/2007/blackbox1.asp|title=SLAC Prepares for First Blackbox to Expand Computing Power|date=2007-06-20|publisher=SLAC Today}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://today.slac.stanford.edu/feature/2007/blackbox2.asp|title=SLAC's Newest Computing Center Arrives... by Truck|date=2007-07-25|publisher=SLAC Today}}</ref>

In March 2009, the [[Internet Archive]] migrated its digital archive into a Sun MD, hosted at [[Agnews Developmental Center|Sun's Santa Clara headquarters campus]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Internet Archive and Sun Microsystems Create Living History of the Internet |url=http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2009-03/sunflash.20090325.1.xml |publisher=[[Sun Microsystems]] |date=2009-03-25 |access-date=2013-06-08 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326200212/http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2009-03/sunflash.20090325.1.xml |archive-date=March 26, 2009 }}</ref> a realization of a paper written by Archive employees in late 2003 proposing "an outdoor petabyte [[JBOD]] [[Network-attached storage|NAS]] box" of sufficient capacity to store the then-current Archive in a 40' shipping container.<ref>{{cite web
|author = Bruce Baumgart
|author2 = Matt Laue
|title = Petabyte Box for Internet Archive
|date = 2003-11-08
|url = http://www.baumgart.org/petabytebox.pdf
|access-date = 2013-06-08
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130914070015/http://www.baumgart.org/petabytebox.pdf
|archive-date = 2013-09-14
}}</ref>

Other customers included [[Radboud University]].<ref>{{cite news
|author = Rich Miller
|title = Sun Rebrands Blackbox as 'Sun MD'
|url = http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/Jan/29/sun_rebrands_blackbox_as_sun_md.html
|work = Data Center Knowledge
|publisher = IDG TechNetwork
|date = 2008-01-29
|access-date = 2013-06-08
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080605190702/http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/Jan/29/sun_rebrands_blackbox_as_sun_md.html
|archive-date = 2008-06-05
}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* [http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E19115-01/mod.dc.s20/index.html Sun Modular Datacenter S20 Product Library Documentation]
* [https://blogs.oracle.com/blackbox/ Project Blackbox Blog]
* {{YouTube|id=3HNGM-rje7Utitle=Project Blackbox Earthquake Resistance and Reliability Test}}

{{Sun Microsystems}}
{{Intermodal containers}}

[[Category:Sun Microsystems hardware]]
[[Category:Intermodal containers]]
[[Category:Data centers]]
[[Category:Modular datacenter]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 2008]]

Sun Modular Datacenter - Revision history

imported>NapoliRoma: reorganize History section chronologically; misc ce/cleanup