Servers that run Linux ( probably a relatively small number of Solaris mixed in there too) . Apple is running mild variants of what Amazon , Google, Facebook, etc. are running. For example, they can just copy some of the Open Compute Project design ( many havebeen donated by some of the large players. )
https://www.opencompute.org/
Google, Facebook, and Amazon have thousands of severs that they have built. They don't sell (as retail physical product) any of those to other folks. Apple doing a few data center builds for themselves doesn't translate at all to a retail Mac Pro any more than the other folks.
File serving to a group of 3-100 and what goes on in major ( $100M) cloud data center is way past substantially different.
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IBM uses Macs , iPhones , and iPads in substantial numbers now. They are one of Apple's partners in "Apple products in Enterprise" consulting now. Maybe talking about Lenovo (which bought IBM's PC business).
Yes, but what is that degree. Apple only makes a limited number of products. They are not out to make everything for everybody. So for the stuff that the do make those can be used.
They don't make servers for external consumption. That doesn't mean they don't make cloud data center servers for their own consumption. Apple doesn't "have to" only make Macs for their major data centers. That could make what usually goes in major data centers. They can buy the same stuff that other folks do.
You don't really think they are tracking their whole $100B operation on some Excel (or Numbers ) spreadsheets? Even back when Apple had XServe the overall corporate Financials app , the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system , etc. those were extremely likely not on macOS and Macs ( not only now but just about always not on Macs).
Right tool for the right job. The Fortune 1,000 companies all have operational business software needs. Companies like SAP, Oracle, SalesForce , all
Similarly Apple ( like many other companies) sends gobs of money to Amazon , Microsoft (Azure) , etc. to supplement their server capacity ( and outsource the maintenance work on all of that. )
The "a number of these" depends upon really what are counting. How many "Finance" departments do you think apple has. That's one department which can have one big (and fault tolerant) server to serve up their needs
That is versus counting things like individual employees and what they need.
Why would "personal computers" be used to run large backroom server jobs at any large company; let alone Apple?
Company's only have to "eat its own dog food" for what they actually make. Ford doesn't have to make computers to use computers. Apple doesn't make all computers for every possible computer user. So outside their range they don't have to "eat".
P.S. There have been notions in previous threads that Apple can't fill their development needs with iMac Pro , MBP , and perhaps some mini's thrown in as personal/group clusters. A revised Mac Pro would be nice to have for some of their work but it is not absolutely critical. Several companies are probably going to win WWDC app awards and the prmarily development system they use are MBPs.