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Dell is doing everything in their capacity to somehow whither the storm that would ultimately hit the hardware industry the worst. Now the company is aggressively moving into Container based Data Centers business in the hope that recession or no recession companies like Google and Microsoft would go ahead with their data center ambitions. Dell is expecting Microsoft to be a big customer of its Data Center in a Container technology, according to NY Times:

Dell has entered the fledgling market for data centers packaged inside shipping containers with a unique, double-decker design that is code-named Humidor. The company showed off its data-center-in-a-box for the first time during my visit last week to its headquarters in Round Rock, Tex.

These types of systems could appeal to companies that have lost their will to build big new data centers. Rather than paying for a massive, expensive building, a company can order a data-center-in-a-container and plant it in the parking lot. Just add power, water and a network connection, and off you go.

So why would a company like Dell, which prides itself on using volume to lower costs, get into the container game?

That’s easy: Microsoft.

Microsoft has been the main advocate of containers, saying they will form the basis of its future data center designs. Some of Dell’s first containers will go to a new Microsoft data center near Chicago, according to Forrest Norrod, the vice president in charge of Dell’s Data Center Solutions business.

And Microsoft’s interest in the container idea should inspire others to take a look at the technology.