Guides

Tower servers are a type of server form factor that comes as a standalone, upright cabinet, also known as a chassis configuration. By appearance, tower servers resemble traditional desktop tower computers and are considered the most affordable server option. Tower servers are best deployed by smaller organizations that don’t need a full data center. Tower servers use minimal components and software, making it easier for...

File servers are high-powered computers that enable data sharing for a network of users, devices, and clients.  One of the earliest uses of servers was for the simple storage and management of data on an on-premises network. File servers are a central database for the network where permitted devices can access files hosted by the file server, save progress after editing, and ensure the file...

The LAMP stack is a popular software bundle using open source components to build and deliver web applications. Developers know LAMP because it has been a basis for web development since the late 1990s. With open-source tools for an operating system (Linux), web server (Apache), database server (MySQL), and programming language (PHP), the LAMP stack is an efficient and flexible method that enables competition with...

Virtual servers have the same capabilities as a physical server, but not the underlying physical machinery. A physical server can create multiple, separate virtual servers with a hypervisor or container engine using virtualization technology, and the instances share physical server resources like CPU and memory. Not long ago, some feared a future of bustling data centers covering the globe. While that sounds hyperbolic, spatial considerations...

What Is a Server? Servers are high-powered computers built to store, process, and manage network data, devices, and systems. Servers are the engines powering organizations by providing network devices and systems with adequate resources. For businesses, servers offer critical scalability, efficiency, and business continuity capabilities. Whether it's hosting a data-heavy website, setting up a shared drive for a department, or managing thousands of queries every minute,...

If this year's cyberattacks have taught us anything, it's the importance of server backups and data redundancy. While part of the problem is vulnerabilities and zero-day threats catching enterprise networks off guard, the sheer amount of data currently collected, stored, and processed is becoming too much to manage.  Server backups for critical network resources address both of these problems by: Ensuring attackers don't lock network users out...

Containerization is the solution to the roadblocks posed by traditional virtualization. Since their inception, virtual machines (VMs) have enabled organizations to do more with less. A single physical device can contain several isolated, virtual environments through a hypervisor, and the benefits include reduced overhead, convenient mobility, and scalability. Sounds great – but there’s one problem. Virtual machines are heavy units. Because a significant appeal of virtualization...

The power of computers transformed the world in the last century. Today, they serve our critical infrastructure, business operations, and more. Though tempting to think of a universe of physical machines in office buildings and server farms, virtual machines (VMs) have actually been the cornerstone of enterprise computing in the new millennium. A VM gives administrators the power to manage hundreds of virtual computers from...