3D printing will form the basis of future data centers.
Nike uses 3D printers to produce football boots. Doctors - for prosthetics. Ford and GM - for prototyping brake pads, levers and other parts. This new type of industrial equipment is able to reproduce any material object, at least theoretically it can.
It is not surprising that the world of technology is now trying to use 3D printing to build data centers. IO, at its plant in Chandler, Arizona, uses 3D printers to create prototypes of data center modules — peculiar giant legoes. Practically as easy as GM and Ford, IO can build, test and modify prototype cars. “This significantly speeds up the process and makes it more flexible,” says company vice-president Andreas Zoll.
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The idea of ​​a modular data center was born at Google about a decade ago. Instead of designing each its own data center from scratch, the search giant began to use the so-called. container construction. At the heart of them - the usual containers for transportation, which include computing, cooling and electrical equipment, configured for coordinated work. Using the train, car and sea transport, Google was able to move them around the world and gather together on the same site. This was a way to accelerate not only the construction process itself, but also increase the efficiency of such modules.
A few years later, many adopted this simple approach to the design of data centers. Microsoft uses modular data centers to host their web services, many equipment manufacturers now sell modular solutions, and many enterprises, in turn, can use them to build their own data centers. Among the manufacturers are giants such as Dell and HP, along with IO, whose equipment is now used by one of the world's largest commercial banks, Goldman Sachs.
In the past, when IO only developed modules, it was necessary to involve various component manufacturers in order to get the desired prototype. To produce even a tiny lamp bracket at the top of the module, the company had to spend hundreds of dollars and wait two or three weeks for the prototype to arrive. But they recently applied a Makerbot 3D printer to speed up the process. Now, as stated by Zoll, we can get not much detail, say the bracket, maximum in a couple of hours, in time it is comparable to the lunch break. Such a product will cost the company 75 cents, of course, not including the cost of the printer, which costs several thousand dollars. “The beauty of this technology is that it can reproduce a potentially complex object without attracting specialized organizations, giving this process to companies like us, or even into the hands of specific people,” said Zoll.
The company can manufacture the basic design according to the drawings using CAD computer aided design. After creating a 3D printer model, and the process of creation can be represented as the imposition of one layer of molten plastic on another, the possibilities of this technology become more visible. “Instead of studying a detail in a graphic editor, we can print it out pretty quickly and look at it live, this is an amazing opportunity. Having created a layout, you can easily answer the questions: where will we place the interface, where will the person’s access be limited? This is like a Lego. We can move the elements of the module in the design process - from the beginning to the very end, ”shared Zoll with his impression of 3D design. The models created are of course not full-size prototypes. The modules are room size by themselves, and a huge printer would be required. But even models produced by the IO team, with dimensions as small as two or three iPhones, provide new, better design possibilities.
In the future, 3D printing can be used not only for prototypes, but also for the production of data centers themselves, including computer motherboards and other schemes, but this is the prospect of the next decades, this will not happen tomorrow - if it happens at all. “You can print little things and play with them. Architects do this all the time, ”says Burke Koshnevits, a specialist in 3D printing, a professor of industrial and system engineering at the University of Southern California. “It is not possible to print the entire container now. The current reality of 3D printing is such that it will not be possible to reproduce all the necessary components of the server module; other technologies and other materials are needed for this. 3D printing can be a medicine that speeds up, improves design and construction methods, but this is not a panacea. ” IO employees, however, are just beginning to delve into 3D printing technology, as a tool for creating prototypes, and only time will tell where this road will lead them.
The IO claims that they are pioneers in applying 3D printing technology for designing commercial data centers, but they are also confident that this technology will be widely used by their competitors. Frank Frankovski, in a private conversation, confessed that he was following the hardware projects of Facebook, the company which, according to his words, is at the very center of the movement to improve the efficiency of data centers as such, and this company intensively uses 3D printers, which means only one - other companies will also take up this technology, it is just a matter of time. The company is famous for its know-how in the development of data centers, and 3D printing is undoubtedly a unique technology that can serve for the development on its basis of more sophisticated, amazing opportunities.
It is not surprising that the world of technology is now trying to use 3D printing to build data centers. IO, at its plant in Chandler, Arizona, uses 3D printers to create prototypes of data center modules — peculiar giant legoes. Practically as easy as GM and Ford, IO can build, test and modify prototype cars. “This significantly speeds up the process and makes it more flexible,” says company vice-president Andreas Zoll.
')
The idea of ​​a modular data center was born at Google about a decade ago. Instead of designing each its own data center from scratch, the search giant began to use the so-called. container construction. At the heart of them - the usual containers for transportation, which include computing, cooling and electrical equipment, configured for coordinated work. Using the train, car and sea transport, Google was able to move them around the world and gather together on the same site. This was a way to accelerate not only the construction process itself, but also increase the efficiency of such modules.
A few years later, many adopted this simple approach to the design of data centers. Microsoft uses modular data centers to host their web services, many equipment manufacturers now sell modular solutions, and many enterprises, in turn, can use them to build their own data centers. Among the manufacturers are giants such as Dell and HP, along with IO, whose equipment is now used by one of the world's largest commercial banks, Goldman Sachs.
In the past, when IO only developed modules, it was necessary to involve various component manufacturers in order to get the desired prototype. To produce even a tiny lamp bracket at the top of the module, the company had to spend hundreds of dollars and wait two or three weeks for the prototype to arrive. But they recently applied a Makerbot 3D printer to speed up the process. Now, as stated by Zoll, we can get not much detail, say the bracket, maximum in a couple of hours, in time it is comparable to the lunch break. Such a product will cost the company 75 cents, of course, not including the cost of the printer, which costs several thousand dollars. “The beauty of this technology is that it can reproduce a potentially complex object without attracting specialized organizations, giving this process to companies like us, or even into the hands of specific people,” said Zoll.
The company can manufacture the basic design according to the drawings using CAD computer aided design. After creating a 3D printer model, and the process of creation can be represented as the imposition of one layer of molten plastic on another, the possibilities of this technology become more visible. “Instead of studying a detail in a graphic editor, we can print it out pretty quickly and look at it live, this is an amazing opportunity. Having created a layout, you can easily answer the questions: where will we place the interface, where will the person’s access be limited? This is like a Lego. We can move the elements of the module in the design process - from the beginning to the very end, ”shared Zoll with his impression of 3D design. The models created are of course not full-size prototypes. The modules are room size by themselves, and a huge printer would be required. But even models produced by the IO team, with dimensions as small as two or three iPhones, provide new, better design possibilities.
In the future, 3D printing can be used not only for prototypes, but also for the production of data centers themselves, including computer motherboards and other schemes, but this is the prospect of the next decades, this will not happen tomorrow - if it happens at all. “You can print little things and play with them. Architects do this all the time, ”says Burke Koshnevits, a specialist in 3D printing, a professor of industrial and system engineering at the University of Southern California. “It is not possible to print the entire container now. The current reality of 3D printing is such that it will not be possible to reproduce all the necessary components of the server module; other technologies and other materials are needed for this. 3D printing can be a medicine that speeds up, improves design and construction methods, but this is not a panacea. ” IO employees, however, are just beginning to delve into 3D printing technology, as a tool for creating prototypes, and only time will tell where this road will lead them.
The IO claims that they are pioneers in applying 3D printing technology for designing commercial data centers, but they are also confident that this technology will be widely used by their competitors. Frank Frankovski, in a private conversation, confessed that he was following the hardware projects of Facebook, the company which, according to his words, is at the very center of the movement to improve the efficiency of data centers as such, and this company intensively uses 3D printers, which means only one - other companies will also take up this technology, it is just a matter of time. The company is famous for its know-how in the development of data centers, and 3D printing is undoubtedly a unique technology that can serve for the development on its basis of more sophisticated, amazing opportunities.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/238631/
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