Sure, everybody is going to link to this article, but I’m not going to let that stop me. Google has revealed the server hardware it uses, as part of a larger effort to push for more energy efficient data centers. The details of how servers work are interesting, but what’s just as interesting to me is the degree to which the range of possibilities widens as things scale up. When you are rolling out servers by the thousand, it makes sense to design them yourself. I laughed at Google when I read about the study they did to select the right shade of blue, but their hardware efforts show what can be gained from taking a highly data driven approach. This article is a must-read.