For several years now, a growing number of vendors, like HP and Microsoft have been offering ready-to-compute that not only include compute, storage, but also cooling gear -- just plop (well, put gently) into place, and connect up power, connectivity, and whatever cooling is needed.

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Some don't even need a proper data center to house them in.

And it's not just vendors, either; hosting providers like i/o Data Center not only use their own modules, but also offer them directly to customers who might not be availing themselves of i/o's facilities.

For example, HP offers its , a.k.a. "the HP EcoPOD." Amazon has its own Perdix container, and Microsoft offers its .