Selective-access data-center racks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11030285-B2
Application number	US-201816209961-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2018
Priority date	Dec 4, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

Provided is a rack, comprising: a plurality of rack units; and a plurality of lockers each housing a different respective subset of the rack units, wherein respective lockers among the plurality comprise: a first respective barrier disposed between a respective pair of the rack units; a second respective barrier disposed between another respective pair of the rack units; a third respective barrier that is orthogonal to the first barrier and the second barrier, the third respective barrier being moveably or removeably coupled to the rack; a respective volume configured to receive one or more computing devices; and a respective lock configured to secure the third respective barrier to the rack in the closed position when in a locked state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a modular building;
a rack inside the modular building, the rack comprising:
a plurality of rack units each configured to receive rack-mounted computing equipment; and
a plurality of lockers each housing a different respective subset of the rack units, wherein respective lockers among the plurality comprise:
a first respective barrier disposed between a respective pair of the rack units, the first respective barrier being affixed to the rack;
a second respective barrier, the second respective barrier being affixed to the rack;
a third respective barrier that is orthogonal to the first barrier and the second barrier, the third respective barrier being moveably or removeably coupled to the rack;
a respective volume configured to receive one or more computing devices mounted in rack units between the first respective barrier and the second respective barrier and behind a closed position of the third respective barrier; and
a respective lock configured to secure the third respective barrier to the rack in the closed position when in a locked state and permit movement of the third respective barrier when in an unlocked state from the closed position to an open position, thereby providing access to the respective volume,

wherein;
each locker comprises a respective set of network and power connections that are independent of network and power connections of other lockers among the plurality of lockers;
the first respective barrier is configured to prevent physical access to another volume of an adjacent locker among the plurality of lockers when the third respective barrier is in an open position;
the modular building is an edge modular data center hosting, in the lockers, rack-mounted computers of a plurality of different tenants such that each tenant is prevented from physically accessing rack-mounted computers of other tenants by lockers of the other tenants;
the modular building comprises an exterior door with an electronic lock configured to unlock responsive to different credentials of different tenants to provide access to an interior of the modular building; and
respective locks on a subset of the plurality of lockers are configured to unlock in response to the electronic lock of the exterior door being unlocked with a given set of credentials corresponding to a given tenant having rack-mounted computing devices in the subset of the plurality of lockers, such that unlocking the exterior door also unlocks the subset of the plurality of lockers and does not unlock other lockers among the plurality of lockers.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the third respective barrier is coupled to the rack by a hinge.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the third respective barrier is coupled to the rack by a channel along which the third respective barrier or part of the rack is configured to translate as the third respective barrier moves from the closed position to the open position.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the third respective barrier is positioned on a front side of the rack and a rear side of the rack is inaccessible to technicians.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the respective lock is an electronic lock having a user interface, and
the apparatus comprises a remote computer system configured to determine whether to unlock the electronic lock based on whether a user-supplied credential received via the user interface corresponds to a tenant account authorized to access the respective volume; and
memory of the remote computer system stores tenant accounts corresponding to a plurality of different tenants having authority to access different ones of the plurality of lockers.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the rack comprises:
a first rail extending through each of the lockers; and
a second rail extending through each of the lockers;

the first rail and the second rail are configured to cooperate to support respective rack-mounted computing devices in the rack units.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the rack comprises three or more lockers disposed adjacent one another; and
each locker comprises two or more rack units.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the second respective barrier of a given locker is a metal plate; and
the first respective barrier of an adjacent locker that is adjacent the given locker is the metal plate.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
the first respective barrier and second respective barrier are permanently affixed to the rack.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein:
each locker comprises a respective uninterruptable power supply.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each locker comprises a respective self-activating fire-suppression system.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each locker comprises a respective rack control unit coupled to an out-of-band network.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein respective lockers among the plurality of lockers comprise:
a respective adjustable or removable fourth barrier defining a rear of the respective volume, wherein the fourth barrier is configurable to modulate an amount of airflow through the respective volume.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the rack comprises
a first locker among the plurality configured with a first amount of resistance to cooling fluid flow through the respective volume of the first locker; and
a second locker among the plurality configured with a second amount of resistance to cooling fluid flow through the respective volume of the first locker, the second amount being greater than the first amount, wherein the second locker is empty of rack-mounted computing equipment and the first locker comprises rack-mounted computing equipment.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the rack is a wedge-rack having a front face that is larger than a rear face and sides that are angled relative to one another such that the sides are closer to together at the rear face than at the front face.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein:
each locker comprises a pair of wedge-shaped volumes on either side of a portion of the respective volume configured to receive the one or more computing devices.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
a chamber comprising a plurality of wedge-shaped racks, including the rack, each having a respective plurality of the lockers.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , comprising:
an actuator configured to rotate the chamber; and
one or more walls that define a first room of the modular building, a second room of the modular building, and an opening in the one or more walls between the first room and the second room, wherein:
the chamber is positioned to obstruct the opening, such that the opening selectively provides access to different ones of the plurality of wedge-shaped racks based on a position of the chamber controlled by the actuator.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
comprising: a docking station coupled to the building and configured to dock with a drone and recharge the drone while the drone is docked.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the modular building is sized to be transported on a truck to an edge data center site; and
the modular building is disposed at the edge data center site along with a cellular tower.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the lockers comprise blind-mate power connections at a rear portion of the lockers and are configured to host front-access computing equipment.

Assignees

• Vapor Io Inc

Inventors

• Crawford Colton Malone
• White Steven
• Chavez Ben
• Basso Frank

Classifications

• A62C37/40

  with electric connection between sensor and actuator · CPC title

• H05K7/20209

  Thermal management, e.g. fan control · CPC title

• E04H2005/005

  Buildings for data processing centers · CPC title

• H05K7/1497

  Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor · CPC title

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title