GOOGLE HAS gained a US patent for a modular datacentre, suggesting a possible move into IT services, or perhaps more likely, a way to build internal efficiency.

According to the patent, “The modular design enables the modules to be cost effectively built at a factory and easily transported to and deployed at a data center site.”

As noted by Ars Technica, which wrote the first report on this as far as we can see, this makes it sound a lot like other big boxes that basically cram the guts of a server room into a freight crate so that compute capacity can be delivered on an ad hoc basis. These crates are transported to wherever auxiliary IT is needed, for example where main datacentres are maxed out, or because there is a pressing need for systems out on the road. Think of them as analogous to the way fairground operators plug in generator capacity wherever they go. Or something like that.

Sun’s Blackbox got a lot of press last year as an elegant, branded crate (or as elegant a crate as a crate can be) but these things have been around for a long time with big IT firms offering similar services on customer demand.

So how come Google got the patent? Maybe because it’s working with Sun so closely that it was involved in Blackbox design? Maybe because others saw the concept as not patent-able? Or because they felt that other patents will have predated it? One of these, a combination or some, or, quite possibly, none of the above would appear to be the answer.

The intriguing long-shot possibility is that Google will make a stealth move into IT services. Disguised by the infinite riches of search and ad-related revenue, Google is already building a sizeable enterprise business with search appliances, Google Docs productivity programs, and geospatial software. It recently signed a deal with services giant Capgemini to push Docs to big business.

But the bottom line with these datacentre crates are that no significant commercial demand has been sniffed out yet and so, as Ars Technica suggests, it is more likely that this is about adding to the G-men's own enormous demand for internal capacity.