Microsoft will be able to pack up to 300,000 servers into the data center “container farm” it is building on the first floor of its new Chicago data center. By packing the 40-foot shipping containers with data center equipment, Microsoft will be able to manage extraordinarily dense server environments.

"We'll move from about 400 to 450 watts per square foot to 1,200 watts a square foot," said Debra Chrapaty, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Global Foundation Services. "Containers are really, really cool."

Those specs were among the many big numbers shared by Chrapaty in her hour-long keynote address at the recent Microsoft Management Summit, which was noted earlier this week by Dave Ohara, who posted video of the keynote (Windows Media).

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