While this seems cool for some implementations there is a reason we often have separate boxes for compute / storage / routing. Some of these are much more criti

While this seems cool for some implementations there is a reason we often have separate boxes for compute / storage / routing. Some of these are much more critical to have consistently running than the others and it also means it is easier to swap out and do upgrades without having to worry about affecting the other parts of the pie. I think virtualized networking devices like routers are definitely the future but I would still much rather have it as its own separate physical box so that if some hardware fault in a server takes it down the network still functions (not to mention having them on different UPS hardware or different levels of redundancy.) And with servers getting smaller and smaller and the compute required getting more and more power friendly I do not see this as something I would like to use unless I was EXTREMELY space constrained. Where I can see this being super cool though is niche use cases like highly portable servers and whatnot for things like VFX shoots. I once was contracted to built a set of highly mobile and durable servers for mobile rendering of 8K footage. I built the servers into some super durable hard case boxes that are usually used for shipping things like expensive camera equipment, military hardware, etc. The cases even have a valve to equalize pressure in case they get pushed deep underwater (like in the event of a boat capsizing) and a very robust waterproof gasket. Of course for the servers to be running the case must be open (mainly for cooling) but it would have been interesting to network multiple of them together AND other equipment without needing a separate physical device for routing. It would also have made scaling the system much easier if each server could also act as a router - you could bring one or 10 and each could function independently of each other.