How can I top last week’s prediction about Google’s shipping container data centers? By explaining a bit more about how the system came to be and how it will work.

In last week’s column I told how Google has been experimenting with portable data centers built in standard 40-foot shipping containers. The idea isn’t new and it isn’t even Google’s. As far as I can tell it came originally from Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, who wants to replicate the archive here and there around the world and figured that a shipping container filled with servers and disk drives might be the easiest way to do so. Not only is it truly plug-and-play, but it is also a heck of a lot cheaper from a bit-schlepping perspective. Carrying a petabyte data center by ship from California to Australia is the virtual equivalent of an OC-192 optical connection - the world’s most powerful SneakerNet.

It will take 5 years, as one has to get all right. The fast intuitive UI, the security, the marketing and many other things. Looking at a big company, most people only use:

• Browser
• Calendaring app
• Word
• Excel
• Powerpoint

Why did openoffice not have a wider impact so far? Can a web-based suite win without entering the "comopatability/file format" war?

Have a nice and long weekend. It’s the last two days of the Oktoberfest, so I am preparing for some beer.