| Principle name | Commodity hardware and infrastructure |
| Statement | Each and every component of the overall system should be capable of being run on inexpensive, widely available, commodity hardware that is easily changeable. |
| Rationale | Supporting and running applications on commodity hardware not only helps keep costs down, but also helps architects to think clearly about their failover strategies in case the hardware dies. This ties in directly with Principles 3 and 4. |
| Implications | Commodity hardware can be a nuisance to work with. Enterprise hardware is too expensive in most cases. The key for any technical architect is to find the balance between commodity hardware and expensive enterprise hardware. |
I would like to iterate one more time that, even though these principles generally remain the same for any system that is data-intensive, the priority of the principles may vary from one system to another and from one use case to the next.