Concept art

Imagine having a natural disaster in your community, like an earthquake or hurricane. You want to get aid from the government as soon as possible so they can give you shelter, food and help out the community. Currently, it can take several days to get relief from the government because it takes time setting up a command center. In terms of disasters, time = lives. The sooner the government can help, the more people will be saved. How would you like it if the prep time for a command center is cut down to minutes and operation in extreme conditions? The people at Elliptical Mobile Solutions manufactures a product that makes it possible. Simon Rohrich, co-creator of S.P.E.A.R. (Supports Enterprise Class Computing), has created a command center that is made of recyclable material, takes up less space and energy and more importantly, be on site in hours.

I found this machine to be very fascinating and interviewed Simon regarding S.P.E.A.R and the process it took to create it:

NS: What does the machine do?
S: The Self Propelled Electronic Armored Rack is a hardened, mobile, self-contained datacenter. It is called the SPEAR. It is the next generation of modular and scalable datacenter building blocks. It has all of the supporting devices needed to run powerful computing/communication, or other electronic solutions in any environment with low quality power as its only requirement. More information is found at www.ellipticalmobilesolutions.com and informative videos at www.youtube.com/ellipticalmobile

NS: How did you come up with the idea?
S: We saw the trend of inflating infrastructure and electrical costs associated with operating high-powered computer equipment. The only way to solve the problem without an expensive rebuild is to provide super efficient infrastructure that can be “nested” inside existing structures, or built into compact pre-engineered buildings. We searched around and filed patents on the S.P.E.A.R. for novelty and on many of the subsystems inside.

Simon Rohrich with his beloved machine.

NS: About how long did it take build?
S: 3-4 years of hard work in a garage in true American Dream fashion. We have since moved to larger facilities and are currently in another round of fund raising.

NS: How many people are in your team?
S: 3 Co- Inventors, and 15 other support personnel.

NS: What was your job before building this machine?
S: I was in the IT field as a cable expert. I helped build the physical infrastructure for computer inside buildings. I have been working on this project full time for almost 4 years. Bill Woodbury II and Joe Robbins have experiences in manufacturing/ machining, and Enterprise IT arenas respectively.

The S.P.E.A.R. in all its glory.

NS: In the long run where do you see your S.P.E.A.R. heading?
S: It is a new technology deployment platform. I imagine FEMA and first responders/disaster management will see its use first as a mobile, hardened communications node. Then the datacenter market will realize that power density (small footprint) and electrical efficiency (25% less power consumption) are primary drivers in the future of IT. A SPEAR based infrastructure will let an enterprise not only use its operational efficiency as a weapon in the marketplace, but be secure and disaster tolerant as well. We intend on packaging S.P.E.A.R.s inside very efficient datacenters in the near future. When facilities are built around our technology, the datacenter becomes as disaster tolerant and efficient as the S.P.E.A.R. module itself. I like to think of it as “design DNA.” The larger structures built on S.P.E.A.R. inherit the S.P.E.A.R.’s attributes.

NS: Besides building the machine, what’s your passion in life?
S: Fixing problems, green technology, inventing, filing patents, history, sustainable living.

NS: So you really are a true nerd. Welcome to the club!
S: Glad to be here. I was hiding for a while. In my experience, being a nerd was not a desirous thing growing up. I wanted to be popular, so I “dumbed” myself down, and failed subjects on purpose to fit in. Drinking, parties and girls were more important to me then. That time ended when a close friend pointed out I was becoming my disguise. I started applying myself. In the meantime, it seems the “Age of the Nerd” is upon us. William Gibson just wrote down what he saw in his crystal ball. Now I revel in my “nerdyness”.

End of Interview

I hope you guys enjoyed the interview. If you need more info on the machine, check out S.P.E.A.R’s official site.

If you have any ideas or suggestions who we should interview next, drop us a line at info@nerdsociety.com and we’ll get back to you!

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