[Rjevski]

This is definitely impressive, but most of it could be done with commodity hardware and open source software. Let's say I have a task queue with objects like (1, 2) and my task is to add them together and push the result in a new task queue - what's preventing me from doing that twice to make sure the end result is correct?

Sure, I have to implement it manually, but at least my screen will no longer covered in vomit because of all the buzzwords.

[krylon]

My point was that a mainframe could be a single point of failure, but it engineered to such a degree of reliability and availability, that this is unlikely to be much of a problem. Plus, you can cluster them, you can even build clusters spanning several data centers.

From a technology standpoint, I think they are amazing machines.

The problem, of course, is that they are ridiculously expensive, which is why "open systems" (often meaning PCs running Windows or Linux, but also proprietary Unix system) have replaced mainframes in many places. In a way, I think it is fair to say that Google did something akin to what you propose. (I am told, that proprietary software for mainframes is actually so ridiculously expensive that the already-ridiculous cost of the hardware is not that much of a concern, actually.)

As for the buzzwords, if you find a place where you are safe from them, send me post card, I might move there, too. ;-)