APC Launches Data Centre On A Truck

Sun’s portable data centre aka Project Blackbox may be some months away from realization, but American Power Conversion (APC) has already got a similar offering out in the market.

Called APC InfraStruXure Express, it’s a portable, on-demand data centre mounted on a truck. Equivalent of a regular 2,500 square feet data centre, InfraStruXure Express is based on the APC’s in-house architecture for network-critical physical infrastructure (NCPI) which integrates power, cooling, rack, management and services.

According to APC, InfraStruXure’s design allows the selection of standardized, modular components to create a customized solution in addition to features such as a Network Operations Centre (NOC), Tier IV design (redundant power and cooling), and high density capabilities–all in a mobile package.

The system is said to be capable of housing 12 racks of computing gear and supplies enough power and cooling to support 12 kilowatts per rack. As far as mixing it with one’s existing IT environment is concerned, the system has a modular design and an open architecture which allows it to work with any IT environment. In addition to this, it’s a pre-engineered system, so installing it is also relatively easy.

APC has built only one of these and the price tag on it reads $1.5 million.

It’ll be interesting to see how the market responds to Sun’s portable data centre when it hits the shelves later this year.