Sun Microsystems has unveiled its Project Blackbox, a “datacentre in a box” targeted at firms that need additional datacentre capacity in a short timeframe.

Sun said the box could hold 250 Sun Fire servers and offers two petabytes of storage or seven terabytes of memory. It added that Project Blackbox is currently in the late prototype phase. Initial commercial availability is slated for mid-2007, and Sun said it has started working with early adopters.

“We’ve announced a capability to deliver a datacentre inside a standard shipping container like you’d see at Southampton docks,” said Sun’s UK datacentre marketing manager Paul Leonard. “[The system is] ready to roll in 75 days max and able to deploy 250 servers in a container with three plugs on the outside, for electricity, network connectivity and water for cooling.”

Sun said it is talking to third-party vendors of datacentre technologies such as application acceleration appliances and dedicated security hardware to iron out potential integration problems. “The issue with other people’s kit would be that more power might be needed, which could make cooling problematic,” Leonard added.

Another option mooted by Leonard was that service providers could offer an “IT container port” datacentre infrastructure for customers in the same format. “This would be less of a headache to deploy, take a third of the space than that of a traditional datacentre, and all at a fifth of the cost to set up,” he added.

Butler Group analyst Sue Clarke pointed out that the concept could have security problems. “If it’s placed outside – and it looks as if you would have difficulty getting it inside – then it’s not going to be subject to your normal physical security procedures,” she warned. “This means it would be susceptible to damage or people running off with your storage. It’s a nice idea, but I think it needs a lot more thought.”