Google buys 10,000+ Dual Opteron Servers?

A few weeks ago I suggested that Google may become one of AMD’s largest customers in 2006 and judging by the numbers it looks to be true. Google continues to build their infrastructure on AMD technology though that should come as no surprise seeing as there was a recent announcement that they were indeed working with AMD.

I have some friends who work at Google and I know they're doing some huge upgrades there. In any case, as I understand it Google may have purchased another 10,000+ Dual AMD Opteron dual processor servers recently – that’s insane! I'm guessing that they shipped these servers to China to beef up their operations there -- regardless of where they go, it's a pretty impressive sale.

There is also speculation that Google is having problems with AMD and Nvidia hardware but that does not quite tell the entire story. Like any major hardware rollout there are always going to be technical issues to overcome. Imagine adding new hardware in any capacity to a large organization like Google - I believe the problem they face with the rollout has to do with the 64-bit software optimizations and other minor software related issues. Problems or not, it looks like Google will continue to eat up AMD Opterons as they improve their infrastructure.

Now, when Intel launches Woodcrest (their answer to Opteron 200) we should see some good competition on the 2P side, but it could take time to ramp up. In the meantime AMD should still have things wrapped up on 4P and beyond for some time to come.

In any case, I wish the Google team good luck with their expansion. Here's to free VOIP for everyone! Well, we can only hope.