24th May 2012

Network Dictionary – Pizza Box

Pizza Box is an all purpose term used to describe a small single function server that is often used by network appliance vendors such as Infoblox, Cisco, BlueCoat, et al to deploys software applications that network teams use (because server people don’t like to share tasks, and network teams find it difficult to share responsibility). Most often these servers are OEM Dell boxes.

The term comes from the fact the the server doesn’t need a lot of horsepower, has lower specification silicon and thus lower cooling requirements. Because of this it can be reasonably small, is 19″ wide and about 20″ deep. Almost the same size as a large pizza box.

Note that pizza boxes are becoming less common / obsolete as these software applications migrate into virtual appliances on VMware.

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About Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus

  • http://www.xdroop.com David Mackintosh

    Depending on your vintage, “Pizza Box” also (originally?) refers to the form factor popular with Sun Microsystems workstations of the SparcStation 1+, 5, 10, and 20 variety, because the unit was almost square, and very nearly the size of a large deep dish pizza delivery box.

    When someone talks about pizza boxes, that’s what I think about.