As one of the few groups in Sun that actually manages a robust datacenter (the one that runs Sun.com, java.com, etc.) our announcement today couldn't be more timely. We face similiar challenges of a growing user base, a range of new applications, user models, and an ever increasing amount of data and bandwidth needs, that we think we could also be a future customer for Project Blackbox. Just like when the first electric cars were "leased" in the Bay Area, you could actually find "electrical recharge" stations in alot of places- including our beloved Fry's Electronics. What would really be nice is if the industry would standardize on a "docking port" whereby all electric connections, cooling, and networking are as easy as plugging in to a standard socket. It would be a wonderful world to have true plug-and-play datacenters. A simple idea, but with potential for major change in how datacenters are architected in the future. One that my team now needs to rethink.
