Garage
The Garage is the starting point for a new cloud provider. It introduces the complete physical chain—from the carrier handoff to the switch and onward to the first hosts—inside a compact site where every rack unit and watt matters.
Facility layout
Role in progression
The Garage is deliberately constrained. Its focused hardware catalogue makes the basic operating loop easy to read: mount equipment, connect power and networking, bring capacity online, and serve the first customers. Growth comes from building a stable operation before moving to a larger site.
Space, power, and cooling
Rack height and power are independent limits. The starter environment uses a comparatively small power budget, so a rack can run out of watts while it still has free U. Cooling is also a site-wide ceiling: leaving headroom matters more than filling every available slot.
See 19-inch racks and rack units and power budget for the underlying constraints.
Network edge
The 1×1G Wall ONT terminates the residential carrier line. From there, one copper connection reaches a switch and the servers connect behind it. Cat6A is the default short-run cable for this environment, while the wall rack keeps the small network edge together and separate from the host rack.
Plan for the next site
Hardware missing from the Garage shop may be tied to a later map rather than another objective inside the current location. Build a stable foundation instead of designing around equipment that is not available yet.