[jasonwatkinspdx]

> At the point that Google's "bunch of cheap computers" was new

It wasn't even new, people just don't know the history. Inktomi and HotBot were based on a fleet of commodity PC servers with low reliability, whereas other large web properties of the time were buying big iron like Sun E10K. And of course Beowulf clusters were a thing.

And as far as I know, google's early ethos didn't come as some far sighted strategy, but just the practical reality of Page and Brin building the first versions of their search engine on borrowed/scavenged hardware as grad students and then continuing that trajectory.

[onecommentman]

The “bunch of cheap computers” approach was being studied and implemented at the National Labs years before Google showed up. Revisionist history?

[jasonwatkinspdx]

Not revisionist I think just more that a lot of people first encountered the concept with the story of Google and don't know it had plenty of precedent.