Water, air, Porsches and servers

Just read today about IBM releasing a new series of water-cooled Web 2.0 servers.

Over 30-years separate these two technologies, one rooted in the main-frame dominated 70's and the other sparsely tied to a collection of technologies representing everything that is modern in the late 2000s.

by pvera

Ironically, a parallel story started at about the same time, in 1973, when the iconic Porsche 911 came out with an air-cooled engine, an anachronism when all major manufacturers had long turned to the more efficient water-cooled engines.

Later, in 1995, the pressure from ever more powerful competitors forced Porsche to abandon the air-cooled engines to the dismay and anger of its fans.

I found it interesting to observe the power of peer-pressure on the way both industries dealt with cooling capacity, one trying to abandon water for fear of being labeled obsolete and the other clinging to air - and obsolescence - for fear of losing its customers.