There is a really great book that I am forgetting the name of but chronicles the evolution of computers with some beautiful photography. From ENIAC to Apollo control unit to DEC tape reels to Google's first server farm. I need to check my library because it is an excellent recommendation...
It has a chapter on early Google and the Pentium era server nodes they used to build from commodity PC parts. It was literally budget performance oriented hardware that was sandwiched between cork board dividers for electrical isolation, to provide some semblance of a blade server setup. They did it with cheap, scalable hardware that was easy to setup and replace when it broke. It was all about scale. Stack them as high as they'd stack before they'd physically smush the units below them, or fall over. No fancy racks and typical enterprise grade stuff. They focused on bang for the buck and not relying on the usual overpriced big iron vendors.
When I next get a chance I will look for that book in my collection and send you a DM with the recommendation, it is a real gem and a super cool Christmas gift for anyone geeky in your family.
That’s a stretch. Google isn’t running Windows Server with Solarwinds installed, like amateurs.
Probably a lot of companies are though.
Yeah they do have their own hardware but I suspect it's still made in China-- don't quote me on that though.
There is a really great book that I am forgetting the name of but chronicles the evolution of computers with some beautiful photography. From ENIAC to Apollo control unit to DEC tape reels to Google's first server farm. I need to check my library because it is an excellent recommendation...
It has a chapter on early Google and the Pentium era server nodes they used to build from commodity PC parts. It was literally budget performance oriented hardware that was sandwiched between cork board dividers for electrical isolation, to provide some semblance of a blade server setup. They did it with cheap, scalable hardware that was easy to setup and replace when it broke. It was all about scale. Stack them as high as they'd stack before they'd physically smush the units below them, or fall over. No fancy racks and typical enterprise grade stuff. They focused on bang for the buck and not relying on the usual overpriced big iron vendors.
When I next get a chance I will look for that book in my collection and send you a DM with the recommendation, it is a real gem and a super cool Christmas gift for anyone geeky in your family.