If you didn’t attend PDC 2009, you missed a chance to see Windows Azure up close and personal. How close? How about being able to actually walk inside an Azure data center container? That’s right – one of the cooler displays at PDC was a modular container that was just sitting there on PDC’s floor. Attendees got to peek inside this container which is just like the ones that power the new cloud platform, Windows Azure, from a number of datacenters worldwide.
The containers are self-regulated thanks to sensors that monitor temperature, air control, and humidity. Based on the sensor’s readings, various mechanisms adjust the amount of air flow through the container. For example, if a container gets too cold, dampers in the upper part open up to allow air to circulate back though, explains a post on Bill Evjen’s blog. He has posted a number of photos and accompanying explanations as to how the new data centers work, if you’re interested.
The Data Center Knowledge blog also has a photo tour of Microsoft’s Chicago facility available, one of the largest ever built. Microsoft has a behind-the-scenes video of this center, too.
Even if you’re not a data center guru, it’s pretty cool to see what “the cloud” looks like.
Thanks to flickr user rwoan for the photo.
