The Google Box

Robert X. Cringely writes about a terribly interesting concept with a VoIP angle. He writes about Google putting together a Data Center in a shipping container, and shipping them around the world. With this datacenter footprint many things could happen....

"Once you have a data center at every Internet peering point, you also have a data center in or near every major city in the developed world. That suggests Google might be interested in using the portable data centers for Voice-Over-IP telephony. Sitting 2-3 hops from every telephone and having available Google's own fiber network and traffic shaping to give priority to its VoIP packets, Google could offer world-beating telephony performance, all for less than eBay is paying for Skype."

It's like a "private" Internet with real-time apps as the central applications.

Later on in the article, he speculates on another type of Google box, one that is much smaller...

" But the most important reason for Google to distribute its data centers in this way is to work most efficiently with a hardware device the company is thinking of providing to customers. This embedded device, for which I am afraid I have no name, is a small box covered with many types of ports - USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, etc. Additional I/O that can't be seen is WiFi and Bluetooth. This little box is Google's interface to every computer, TV, and stereo system in your home, as well as linking to home automation and climate control. The cubes are networked together wirelessly in a mesh network, so only one need be attached to your broadband modem or router. Like VoIP adapters (it does that too, through the RJ-11 connector) the little cubes will come in the mail and when plugged in will just plain work. "

Now _this_ is something that is not only scary, but very interesting. With a device like this, the proverbial sky is the limit in broadband-based applications for the residential consumer. I encourage you to have a read and ponder the ramifications of "The Google Box"

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac