One day all this could be yours: Be Facebook, without being Facebook

So, we're saying HP's Moonshot is a great technology while also saying that proprietary complex hardware is not good in this situation. Hardly a clear message unless I've missed something and other vendors are producing identical kit to what at first glimpse appears to be the very epitome of proprietary complexity. You can't have it both ways unless you have motherboard designers on staff, you can either have the slotty tech like blades or Moonshot, or you can have white box simplicity.

What many people miss though, is that those simple white boxes don't come with firmware and driver management so unless you also have an army of coders who can automate updates this is a step in the wrong direction too.

Very good idea

If at some point in the distant future it is determined that the Facebook business model is no longer viable, it will be a faster process to repurpose their data centers for more productive use if the hardware is standardized. Their creditors will be able to turn around and offer Compute as a Service to the general public very quickly. The hardware vendors are finding what software people discovered a few years ago - technology is becoming invisible, ubiquitous, and free.

From an accounting perspective, a company should avoid at all costs owning hardware or even real estate, as during a rapid change in business conditions, these facilities will quickly become a millstone around their neck.

Scientific studies have already shown that Facebook is anti-social software, its users are generally self-absorbed, have difficulty dealing with reality or forming actual relationships with human beings, so perhaps the next company to run these servers will provide a service that is actually beneficial to humanity.

Study citations