Google patent fuels rumour mill

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Google has obtained a broad patent for a data centre in a container, promptly drawing speculation that the internet giant could have plans to move into a number of different areas.

The US Patent Trademark Office website lists the corresponding patent number 7,278,273 as "modular data centres with modular components that can implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, or a method".

The data centre-in-a-box idea is not a new one - Sun went on tour with their mobile data centre model, Blackbox last year and equivalents from companies like IBM and Rackable Systems.

Apart from the ire granting such a general patent that pointed to other vendors' equivalent offerings, the granting of Google's application - on which it has since declined to comment - comes at a time when certainty over energy resources and supply is less assured and data centre space becomes more expensive.

Mike Davis, senior Ovum analyst told IT PRO any number of current speculative rumours about the use of the patent could be feasibly true and have profound implications for the IT market.

On speculation that Google could become an infrastructure player, Davis said: "Being able to offer spare capacity off the back of a lorry on demand is attractive. Especially when backups take up bandwidth or you back up to tape and have to drive the tapes to a different site. What if you could back up to data centre in the car park and drive that to the backup site instead?" he suggested.

He also commented on suggestions Google could be designing a portable, modular data centre for itself. "But Google won't tell you how many data centres it has or how many servers it owns," he said.

Nevertheless, the thing that seems to have excited most debate is how the patent could support strategic plans to land grab internet service and network provision. "If it's been busy buying up dark fibre, it will still need infrastructure at either end."

He said suggestions Google could set itself up almost as an alternative internet service provider (ISP) by targeting its mobile data centres at the world's 300 or so internet peering points was not beyond the realms of possibility.

The thinking follows that it would then only be ever two or three points away from the end user, moving into network edge services like Akamai. "And then of course there's mobile," added Davis. "If the rumours about a 'GPhone' and bidding for US radio spectrum are true, then it might eventually want to drive services across the network and it would data centres to do it."

Whatever Google decides to do, it has a track record of diversification concluded Davis. "Google is always doing something different," he said. "It recognises how disruptive it has been and are worried somebody else might be out there working on the next big thing."

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