Lego data centers and Minecraft computers

Building a new data center is a costly endeavor, as evidenced by Apple’s data center bid in Reno, Nev. But here’s a novel idea: If you don’t have the cash, build your data center out of Lego® bricks and Raspberry Pi clusters. Then install Minecraft and start computing.

Photo by Tristan Taussac. Creative Commons License 2.0.

That’s right, the increasingly-inventive Minecraft community has come up with several working computers built with blocks in the game. Stick enough of these puppies in your plastic data center and you might just have enough computing power to run Minecraft within Minecraft.

Silliness aside, inventing new, cheap and interesting ways to build data centers is important, especially with companies ever more budget conscious. If experimenting with games and toys is how to spur innovation, then bring on afternoon playtime.