Our friends at Google yesterday introduced its new Google Search Appliance (GSA) 6.0, which we're pleased to tell you is powered by Dell PowerEdge servers from Dell's OEM Industry Solutions Group (Dell OEM). Specifically, the new search appliances leverage Dell's PowerEdge R710 servers, part of Dell's 11th generation of PowerEdge servers that were introduced earlier this year.

Google is selling the search appliance to corporations as a server with enterprise search software to enable companies to index and retrieve data stored on their corporate Web systems. According to Google, the new appliance can index up to 30 million documents, which when connected with other appliances, can now search billions of corporate documents.

As Google's Cyrus Mistry points out in his post ealier today, "It's hard to conceptualize the number 1,000,000,000. One billion sheets of paper could circle the earth at the equator well over five times. Counting to one billion would take about 30 years of your life, even if you never stop to sleep. And if you had to find a single piece of information by sorting through a billion documents it would take you, on average, about 2000 years. Businesses and large organizations have tons of documents and other types of data — some even have a billion documents that need searching, and it's unlikely that employees have 2000 years to dedicate to the hunt." Um, ok, so I'd rather have an appliance looking for that 401k information I needed for my tax return.

Dell's OEM team extensively customized its next generation of PowerEdge servers that power the Google Search Appliance 6.0 for enterprise customers, making it as simple to organize and search information behind the corporate firewall as it is to use Google.com.

Rick Froehlich, vice president and general manager of Dell's OEM team, had this to say about today's announcement: “Businesses that require extensive customization, single-point contact and fulfillment, and high product quality can find the right solution with our Dell OEM team. By combining our industry-leading server platforms with best-in-class design capabilities and supply chain expertise, we helped the Google team immediately deliver a great customer experience.”

Rick's team helped drive specific aspects of the design of the PowerEdge servers to suit the unique needs of appliance solutions like the GSA. Specifically, design and function enhancements, improvements to product stability and lifecycle management support and offering top-tier quality and reliability that appliance OEMs welcome customizing with their brand.

You'll soon start hearing more about Dell's OEM activities here on Inside Enterprise IT and very soon I'll introduce you to Franklin Flint, a senior systems consultant and technology evangelist working on Rick's OEM team.

Take a minute and watch this video that Google created on the new Google Search Appliance. Good stuff.