As anyone with a pulse knows, Apple makes some pretty slick consumer electronics. But servers, too? Yep. Apple's latest server, the XServe Xeon is finding a lot of love from one top critic, InfoWorld's Enterprise Mac blog. InfoWorld's Tom Yager has taken a close look and likes what he sees.

Apple has taken the iPod Nano design and applied it to the XServe. With one key exception: instead of slipping easily into your pocket, the XServe is easy to take apart. That means faulty parts can be removed and replaced without undoing ribbon cables and unscrewing tiny fasteners with special tools. Instead, the parts slide out of position with just a little pressure - but stay in place during ordinary operation. Talk about "ease of use" for the data center.

There's just one small problem, notes Yager. Apple's XServe, at $2,999, costs twice as much as competing Xeon servers. It's not a given that sysadmins will flock to a more expensive server when they could easily junk and replace a cheaper one - and avoid the hassle of disassembling the XServe to fix a faulty part.