Intel Reveals "World's Smallest Cloud"

Intel has been flaunting what the company reckons is "the world's smallest cloud data center" though we can't help but think they'd come in for major trouble trying to get it through an airport as carry-on luggage. The proof-of-concept is part of the company's cloud strategy push [pdf link], based on Intel Xeon processors.

Hardware specifications for the compact cloud are unspecified, but it looks to us like Intel has strapped together a pair of 1U servers, each with redundant power supplies and quad-ethernet network connectivity. Inside we're guessing there's a few hard-drives apiece, along with technologies like Intel's "Intelligent Power Node Manager" to balance load across different units (and avoid overheating).

Obviously this isn't something you'd likely buy yourself; the whole portability angle Intel is playing on isn't really that much of a benefit in the real world, after all, as your easily-toted cloud server would also need a pretty sizable internet pipe wherever you decided to plug it in. For regular users, something pre-hosted and managed like Apple's iCloud probably makes a whole lot more sense.