Without getting too wonky about the finer points of “blade servers,” the Xserve is essentially a high-powered Macintosh computer with additional features to help it network with other computers or host websites.
Unlike a normal Mac, the Xserve has redundant power supplies, it can be remotely monitored, and it screws into a mounted rack. Those space-saving racks help business customers maintain clusters of networked machines — and they also protect the servers they contain against damage. That’s an important consideration in the earthquake-prone Bay Area, where a number of Xserve customers …