Mac Mini Vault provides colocation of 140 Mac minis for a high-density data center

Jordan Kahn

Mac Mini Vault just announced a customized 48U APC cabinet that accommodates colocation of up to 140 Mac Minis, allowing for a high-density, high-efficiency data center solution.

Shelves specifically designed for the machine make for easy access to all power buttons and ports, with individual slots pre-wired for internet connectivity and power. Tied to the network connection are several Cisco Gigabit Switches with “redundant fiber connections to the data center’s backbone network”.

Each cabinet provides remote power cycling capability thanks to six APC switched Power Distribution Units. The PDUs themselves are powered by an APC UPS with Generac generators for back up.

Also on offer is the Mac Mini Vault RAID Storage Vault service, which will allow you to expand up to 9TB of direct-attached storage for $350/monthly. The Mac Mini Vault colocation service starts at $29.99/monthly (which includes 500GB transfer and 15Mb/s burstable speeds) and also offers an Enterprise package for $50/month (1TB transfer, 30Mb/s). You can check out the sign-up page here.

The company has also recently posted a “Why a Mac Mini?” page detailing the efficiency of their solution and running Apple’s new i5/i7 Mac mini as a cost-effective e-mail server, ftp server, offsite backup, web server etc. Mac Mini Valut is operated by CyberLynk Networks with data centers located 80 miles north of Chicago. You can get a good look at the Mac Mini Vault cabinet in the gallery after the break.
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Hello again from Big Nerd Ranch!

9to5 Staff

[Editors note: Big Nerd Ranch has sponsored two posts on 9to5mac allowing readers to go to Nerd Camp for free - previous post]

Hello one final time, 9to5Mac readers.

Greetings from the environs of greater Atlanta. I’m writing to you from the airport following an altogether enjoyable week at Big Nerd Ranch. My previous two entries to you offered a glimpse of the overall experience of iOS Bootcamp at Big Nerd Ranch, along with a look at how the class sessions can fulfill the promise of a well-rounded education in iOS. For my final report to you, I’d like to say something about the people and social experience of iOS Bootcamp. Read more

Feature

Lion Recovery USB sticks start arriving

Seth Weintraub

Readers have alerted us that their Lion Recovery Sticks have started arriving.  Interesting upgrade from the Snow Leopard Stix that come with the MacBook Airs.

We discovered that you don’t necessarily need to buy these for the list price of $69, Apple will send these free in special cases.

Rather than spend $69 on one of these, you could drop $8 on this fugly Kingston 8GB USB stick and add a bit of this.

Backside below: Read more

App Store volume purchase program for businesses goes live in the U.S.

Mark Gurman

As pointed out by The Loop, Apple’s App Store volume purchase program for businesses has gone live. The program, which is currently exclusive to the United States, allows businesses to easily purchase and distribute applications – with volume-based pricing – to employees. Businesses that are interested can now enroll and you will need the following to get started:

  • Basic contact information to verify your business
  • Dun & Bradstreet number (D-U-N-S) number
  • Corporate credit card or PCard to purchase apps

App Store distribution through this program consists of iTunes redemption codes:

The Volume Purchase Program makes it easy to distribute apps within your organization. When you buy apps in volume or custom B2B apps, you will receive redemption codes for each app. You can control who gets the apps by providing these codes to users via email or an internal website. You can also use third-party Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to manage redemption codes centrally.

A guide with all the instructions is also available from Apple.

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Apple discontinues boxed versions of several software titles at physical stores

Dan DeSilva

Today Apple announced End of Life (EOL) status for several boxed software titles. As of 7/20/11 Apple will be discontinuing boxed versions for the following software at Apple retail and Authorized reseller stores:

  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server
  • iLife
  • iWork
  • Aperture
  • Apple Remote Desktop
  • Xsan
  • GarageBand Jam Packs
  • Mac Box Set

*Retail boxed versions of Logic Express and Logic Studio will still be available in-stores

The aforementioned software titles will only be available from the Apple online store.  The only exclusions are “GarageBand Jam Packs” and “Mac Box Set,” which will no longer be available through any channels.  This is certainly another move by Apple to decrease the Mac user’s dependence on physical media.  Not one of today’s Macs has an optical media drive.  Apple announced this immediate change via a “U.S. Field and Channel Sales” email sent to resellers, Apple consultant Network, and others.  This news comes hot off updates to the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and OS X Lion release. Read more

Feature

Apple Retail has 3 Lion install images and a possible dedicated Lion Caching Server

Dan DeSilva

As we get close to the Lion launch, several tipsters have provided more information regarding the Apple retail overnight and  days after.  Tonight, Apple retail will hold an overnight from approximately 11pm – 7 am to give the retail staff enough time to update the stores visual elements with new marketing materials and re-image all display Macs with Lion.

As previously reported, our tipsters say most stores have recently received an external LaCie hard drive containing Lion installs, but we have received new information that the drives contain 3 different install images for Lion; Normal, Pro, and Joint Venture. 

JointVenture is an enterprise membership program to support businesses running Macs and iDevices.  It is believed that each of these installs will include unique software titles, and some of which could be new.

Furthermore we’ve heard rumblings that some stores will be receiving maxed out Mac Pro towers to be used as Lion distribution caching centers (speculation here).  Some believe that these stations would allow customers to purchase Lion (3.5GB) from the Mac App store and download it directly from the store server in minutes rather than hours it takes over a normal broadband connection.

MacOS X Server and internal builds of Time Capsule allow for Software Update Caching, so this is certainly something within Apple’s capabilities.  Also, Apple told Computerworld that users could come into the store to download Lion last month.

This would also be a huge help to customers who do not have access to a broadband Internet connection or users who want to walk through the install process with an Apple employee during a personal training session.  It would obviously also save Apple some internet bandwidth which at 3.5GB per user adds up.

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