Brand new data center from the ground up

He built a brand new data center from the ground up, using what he calls the modern, common standards that have emerged afterwards 35 years of trial and error in the industry. Those include commodity x86 servers running VMware, 10Gig Ethernet throughout, the SaaS model and SOA. By building a new data center from scratch, "we broke the paradigm of people owning their own boxes,'' Carter said.

The technical issues were daunting

While the technical issues were daunting, Carter said the cultural challenges were the hardest, both internally and externally. Carter had to convince FedEx business partners that these changes were for the best. Education is the key, Carter said. "We had to get them in the wheelhouse a little more.''

Looking ahead, Carter said he's excited about using sensor-based computing to create "smart packages." The idea is that FedEx would include a sensor inside a sensitive package. The sensor could report back on everything from temperature to radioactivity level. So, for instance, if the package contained food or medicine that needed to be stored below a certain temperature, the sensor could send an alert if the package were approaching dangerous levels.