When Mike Manos came up with the idea to containerise a Microsoft data center in Chicago, he was really on to something. More and more industry leaders come up with their own idea of dividing data centers into modules that are cheap to transport and install.

The latest vendor to bring us one is HP, which has christened it the Flexible Data Center. Each 'part' is 6.000 sq. ft large, and can be freely added to scale up the facility. HP reckons that they can slash construction times in half.

Of course, HP says their own engineers came up with the idea after talking to customers. Personally, I highly doubt that. However, if what they say about their PUE (only 1.2) is true, than they did a good job. Though I suspect them from being creative in that department as well.