Why do IT people like to use the word ‘farm’? – e.g. ‘server-farm’, ‘render-farm’. It does not really make sense. What they really mean is factory.
Let us review the meanings:
- Farm:
- a harnessing of natural biological processes – an independent self-sufficient growth process arranged and managed so its useful products can be collected.
- Factory:
- a system of machines for mass production – an entirely artificial construction designed to mechanically make copies of particular intended products.
For serving and rendering, it is obvious which term fits: not farm, but factory. They are more like web-factories and pixel-factories.
However, ‘cubical-farm’ seems right – employees are the cattle herded into groups to harvest their surplus value.