GBTV #494 | Roboticized Data Center
Posted on: January 13, 2009
Posted in: Video
Posted by: Cali Lewis
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Shownotes:
Layered Tech is one of the top enterprise-level Web hosting companies in the world.
Most viewers of Geek Brief are probably familiar with consumer level, shared hosting where you order hosting and it’s ready for you almost right away. It’s not quite so simple for large businesses and Web 2.0 companies. Ordering a dedicated server to host a Web site from a secure data center that provides redundancy and many layers of physical security has traditionally taken about 3 days from the time you order until the server is up and running. Because of the security involved and the complexity of the setup, the process has involved using a team of really smart and talented IT professionals to manually configure the hardware. Layered Tech had an idea to automate the menial tasks so they could put their team to work inventing new and better solutions for hosting.
The automated process will configure a server or lots of them to fit the needs of enterprise level clients within about 20 minutes.
Layered Tech gave me a sneak peak at how the system works, and today I can share it with you. If you want to see what it’s like to pick out a server live, here’s a link. If you click Configure on any of the servers, you’ll be able to see the quantity available in the data center.
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GBTV #495 | Inside the Data Center »
January 13th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
That is cool! Please show us the inside of a data center, its awesome!
January 13th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can we see more of the data center. :-)
January 13th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Wait wait wait … how could we NOT want to see what the inside of a secure data center looks like? Let the show begin! :)
January 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Absolutely, post the data center footage too!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
+1 for seeing the data centre.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
What?!!??!?! Do we want to see the inside of a major data center? We’re geeks!! Of course! :)
January 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Would love to see the data center!!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Absolutely, post the data center footage.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
You MUST MUST MUST show more of the data center!!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
That looked so cool!
Please, please, PLEASE show us more!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Hi Cali
Great new vid! It was funny how you “twisted” that guy’s arm to see the data center, LOL!
I for one, would love to see more of it – the data center that is. You’ve made me all curious now :)
Talk soon!
Gideon Shalwick
January 13th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Even I want to see the inside of the data center. :-)
January 13th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Yeah, more of the data center please! :)
January 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
This geek would appreciate a look see into the data center!!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Show the data center! just post the raw footage if you don’t want to edit it, I’d like to see the whole thing and not just “special parts” lol
January 13th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
More please.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
We were about to see the evolution of SkyNet begin, but instead we were teased into a two parter. :P Nice work! Suspense works even in the geek world!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Yes Yes for data center
January 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
This is *GEEK*brief so take us to the servers!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Data
Room
NOW
January 13th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Mmmmmm…. Blinking lights…. More please!
January 13th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
hi Cali !
I love this kind of stuff, it would be great to see some more footage…
SergioLopes
Portugal
January 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Is there any question that we might want to see the insides of the data center??? YES!!!!!!! Please!
January 13th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Yes Please… Can we please see inside the data center???
January 13th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Let’s see the inside!
January 13th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Yes, please, may I have more datacenter?
January 13th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Show it. Show it. Show it!!!!! PLEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!
(From first glance it looks like the data center in Oceans 11 at the Casino?!?)
January 13th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Not to put these guys down in any way – its always nice to finish a project like this, and theres nothing wrong with showing this to the world. But this is nothing innovative like you give the impression of, personally I was involved in automation projects like this as early as 1996, and I’m sure others has done so before that.
Most modern operating systems (even Windows) are build with this kind of automation in mind so its just a matter of configuring the automated installer and preparing some automation code to handle the os after its installed (package management etc).
Personally I’ve seen my share of datacenters and could do with something more interesting like innovative methods to cool datacenters and/or power saving for the data center :-)
If everyone else wants to see a bunch of racks with (hopefully) neat wires .. go for it.
So far I have never seen a sysadmin lose his job because he did too much automation – theres always more work to do ;-)
January 13th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I would love to see a data center. I have my own website, and have always wanted to see where it actually is. This can give me a better understanding of how the whole process works. Thanks Cali :)
January 13th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
+1…thats not a question, thats just TEASING!!! looking forward to next episode :D
January 13th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Erm, unless I’m missing something this does exactly the same thing as the HSPC system from SWSoft that I installed at my old hosting company 3 years ago (that I since sold)…
We just racked the servers up and added them to the controller software’s “inventory” and when you bought a server on the website it picked the relevant one and installed the image on it and had it up and running in minutes. Plus when you wanted to upgrade to a faster/larger server it migrated your stuff over in the background and when it was all synced would make the IP change. We even moving a game server from one physical box to another while people were playing the same (it was a BF42 server or something like that) and they didn’t even notice the change and *that* did blow my mind… Then if you cancelled your server the system put the machine back into inventory.
But the guy is right, for most companies it is a very manual process, typically taking between 4 hours and 2 days (if the box isn’t in stock or they’re backed up on orders).
January 13th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
You kidding me. Of cores we want to see the inside of an enterprise level data center.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
You kidding me? Of cores we want to see the inside of an enterprise level data center.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The “lab” datacenter should give folks a hint, it was really noisy. Every serious data center that I’ve been in has been cold and noisy. I’ve already spent too much time in them.
But I expect that most of the viewers would learn from the shots. Make sure to get shots of the huge battery rooms, and the rows of giant generator sets.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Yes! I would LOVE to see more of the Data Center
January 13th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Me wants to see it ;-)
January 13th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Not too impressed with the server deployment technology. Obviously better than manual but know of other companies that have been doing this for a while and have server builds down to only a few minutes.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Not too impressed with the server deployment technology. Obviously better than manual but know of other companies that have been doing this for a while and have server builds down to only a few minutes.
Still show the DC though :-)
January 13th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Hi!
Great thing! I would love to see the rest of it!
Cheers!
January 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Stealth blouse?
January 13th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
i want to see the data center
January 13th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
CALI,
Pretty Pretty Please. This is my first post and I will die if I don’t see more of that BEAUTIFUL data centre.
An Australian Thanks mate,
–Dan
January 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Data centre is very interesting from a geek’s point of view. Would like to see more!
January 13th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
YES YES YES! More data center please!!!!!
January 13th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Do you really think we wouldn’t want to look inside the Data Center? Come on, think about it!
January 13th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I would love to see the data center! :)
January 13th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Oh Come on!!!!
“Let me know if you wanna se more of the data center”????
That’s called good advertising.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Would love to see the inside of the data center!!
January 13th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
If they’re willing to let you walk around with a camera in there, please go ahead and shoot a Brief about it. Although it’s pretty technical, it’s very interesting to see what powers the internets.
January 13th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Anyone notice at 1:06 the guy says “My Penis”
Honesty! Check!
January 13th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
PLEASE show us more of the data center!! please please pretty please with a cherry on top?
January 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Datacenter=Yes!
Everyone loves tech, but better than tech is Professional uuber-tech!
that and the word ’secure’ in front of it makes it that much more tantalizing!
January 13th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Yes, I’ll pitch in as well, I wanna see it!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Soren, Andrew and Dave,
You are correct that some other data center automation does indeed exist, and has existed for years. In fact, we’ve been using automation as well. But the new LT system was developed from the ground up because no vendor could achieve what we needed to do in order to automate our entire hosting environment.
We are not talking about a situation where people “…just racked the servers up and added them to the controller software’s “inventory” and when you bought a server on the website it picked the relevant one and installed the image on it….” This is much, much more sophisticated.
The LT system does not require a human to add the servers to inventory. It does so by it’s self. It auto-discovers the content of any server plugged into the network, inventories it, and makes it available online. It will auto-provision it when ordered, fulfill the client order with an e-mail of auto-generated login details, and when a client is finished with it they can cancel the server and have it auto-uninstalled and placed back into inventory. No human ever touches the server again.
However! Let’s say that a customer orders an upgrade to the server. A tech can go out and install some more RAM, hard drive, etc. and restart the machine, and the system recognizes the additions, adjusts the billing, and keeps right on going. The human doesn’t have to make system changes.
And we’re only talking about the physical servers… The system is also communicating with and configuring switches, routers, firewalls, and more throughout a very, very large and complex network. I don’t want to give anything else away, but these are only the first features that we have unveiled. It has far more complexity lurking behind it.
So yes, you are right that automation exists. But I assure you, nothing has ever been built and made commercially available that takes it to this level.
Cheers!
John
PS – Soren, I will point out that whenever a server is not in use by a customer, it is automatically powered down and only awakened when it’s time to go to work. So that will save a lot of power. :-)
January 13th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Of course I want to see the inside of a secure data center!! Thats like asking do I wanna know what the next ipod is gonna look like! Of course I do!! :)
January 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I’m always interested in seeing another data center, I’d love to see your take on what these guys have.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
YES YES YES More data center footage!!!!!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Is there any question? Of course we want to see this secretive data center!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Hey Cali!
Yes definitely show the data center. I also just wanted to tell you keep up the good work. I can tell you are working hard with not much sleep. We all appreciate it!
January 13th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
We’re geeks, of course we want to see the data center.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:48 am
More data center and of coarse more cow bell too!
January 14th, 2009 at 2:38 am
Hey guys, don’t torment us. Please show us the datacenter…
January 14th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Woah yes, would love to see the datacenter :)
Also, was I the only one who was a little disappointed by that? I wanted a Wall-E-esque robot driving round the datacenter installing the hardware… :D
January 14th, 2009 at 4:46 am
I would love to see the Data center!!
January 14th, 2009 at 4:57 am
I would definitely like to see the inside of the datacenter. Cool stuff.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Good job on this show.
Looking forward to Part 2. ;)
January 14th, 2009 at 5:25 am
I would like a bit more of the datacenter footage
January 14th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Calli
Please show the inside of the data center. PLEASE!!!!
Ron
January 14th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Please queue up the video for the inside of a data center!
Thanks
Brian
January 14th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Cali Cali Cali Cali Cali
SHOW US THE DATA CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
please……Cali please
January 14th, 2009 at 8:39 am
So yeah. Data Center! :)
January 14th, 2009 at 9:34 am
More, More, More!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Of course!!!! Why wouldn’t we want to see the footage?!?!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:51 am
YES! YES! YES! OF COURSE WE WANT TO SEE THE INSIDE! PLEEEEASE!!!!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:54 am
So this looks like a Fat server version of VMware’s Lab Manager or HP’s Blade RDP solution. It looks like a good solution for those that need to run Dell servers….
January 14th, 2009 at 9:58 am
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR CALI WE MUST SEE IT …
I DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME ON THIS EARTH LEFT. I’M ALREADY (19)
AND I HAVE NOT SEEN THE INSIDE OF THE DATA CENTER…
PLEASE FOR THE SAKE OF LIFE SHOW THE DATA CENTER!
January 14th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I really really really want to see more of the data center
January 14th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Can you please show us the inside of the data center? It would be cool to see how data centers manage our servers.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I’d love to see more! See how it compares to our’s at Motorola!
January 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
One Word; datacenter!!!!!
palorx out
ps. all footage?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
January 14th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’m glad we have so many folks who want to see their data center. add me to the list. to be honest most companies have a data center like the lab they showed already. an RFID keycard gets you in and there’s racks of servers, at least one 3-phase UPS, switches, routers, telco circuits, etc..
January 14th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Please show us the inside of a data centre!!!!
January 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
PLEASE PLEASE OH PLEASE SHOW US INSIDE THE DATA CENTRE!
January 14th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I think there’s gotta be a way to cool a data center with just the love created from listening to Michelle Branch music.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Was it pertinent to include your guide denying you permission to enter their secured data center?
It appeared to me that he was doing his job, protecting data.
I think it’s great to see the inside but I wonder if you were trying to show off by including the part of his denying of permission followed by what appears to be a boss override.
I’m disappointed in your choice of editing a part of this video which was not relevant to your topic. I felt it was a bit condescending for you to try to impress us with some sense of superiority over that worker. I’m sympathetic for the technician.
Life has frequent instances where you find someone in the chain that may be in error. – Or – perhaps he was exercising his “control thing” as sometimes people do for themselves to show off their power. You may have seen these folks, they exercise and abuse the power of their fiefdom in their job. If that was the case, then inclusion would seem to be in order and my critique should be disregarded.
You have a great podcast. You have thousands of fans. If the answer was the former I would recommend you try to show a little better discretion next time. If the answer was the latter, Kudos!
January 14th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Doug, I’m sorry that offended you, but it was all a joke. We knew we were getting access, so we were all just playing it up. Watch it again, I think you’ll notice the bad acting. ;)
January 14th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Doug,
I’ll chime in and just point out that the guys at LT love a good practical joke. You don’t need to feel sorry for Josh because believe me, he can dish it out! ;-)
What is also funny about that clip, but kind of an inside joke with only the people that know him, is that Josh is a MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter. If we tried to “twist his arm”, he’d knock us out!
John
January 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Love the joke. Good theatrics. :) And I’d love to see the datacenter too!
January 17th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I’m pretty sure that Rack Space did something similar a few years ago, and has taken it even further with the use of tools such as VMWare. Don’t quote me but I think they’re down to a couple of minutes to roll out a new server based on the clients requirements.
I love this technology though. Imagine one day logging into your hosted server, expanding the disk space and all you do is plug in your ID/PW and get billed. I know this technology is there, but it doesn’t seem to be very visibly in use yet.
January 18th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Data center, shmata center. The credits claimed you’ve found something better than bacon. Is this still about Baconnaise, or is it something else?
January 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
It looks like they’re installing Red Hat Linux (or a varient like CentOS or Fedora).
The automation for the installation is really part of the distribution (called “kickstart”). It’s used by many companies whenever you need to set up large numbers of desktops and servers.
More info here for anyone that’s interested:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart
February 11th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Layered Tech’s completely automated server provisioning.. Cool! http://tinyurl.com/7uo9q8
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Ciekawy blog, tematyka podobna do mojego, zapraszam na moja strone, pozdrawiam