DATA centres are the huge buildings that house the crucial back-end computer systems that power businesses and organisations.

But they don't have to take up prime and costly space that can dent a company's bottomline. The solution is in the Blackbox - a standard 20-foot shipping containter which enables companies to move it around quickly.

The Blackbox was lifted four floors up into Hall 402 of Suntec City where it was unveiled to the media on Tuesday. It is open to the public on Wednesday but pre-registration is required here http://www.sun-promo.com/innovation_roadshow/index.html

Developed by Sun Microsystems, the Blackbox aims to relieve the space crunch and alleviate power and cooling problems faced at data centres on Tuesday.

At the heart of the Blackbox is an innovative advanced cooling system which can cut power and cooling costs by up to 40 per cent and save space requirements by up to eight times.

The Blackbox can be used to augment exisitng data centres which are running out of space, and function as a 'back-up' data centre in the event of a disaster that hits the primary site as well a temporary infrastructure for ad hoc projects.

Singapore is the first stop of the Blackbox's Asian leg of its world tour. The Blackbox will travel to Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and finally, Sydney in December.