Patent ID: 8077457
Filing Date: 2011-12-13
Classification: G06F,H02J,H05K,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A data center comprising: a utility spine that supplies electrical power, data connectivity, and cooling media, and that exposes a plurality of interfaces through which components may be connected to said utility spine; a plurality of server modules that are connected to the utility spine through the interfaces, each of said server modules comprising one or more racks of servers, each of said server modules receiving said power, said data connectivity, and said cooling media through an interface through which it is connected to said utility spine; and one or more function modules, each of the function modules implementing a function that provides a capability to the data center, each of the function modules being connected to the data center by: (a) being attached to one of said server modules; or (b) being attached to another one of the function modules; or (c) being attached to said utility spine, a first one of said function modules comprising a spine module, said utility spine being composed of one or more spine modules, said utility spine being extensible to accommodate an additional number of modules by addition of a spine module, and being reducible to accommodate fewer modules by removal of a spine module.