Servers

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,...

Server security tools used to be focused on safeguarding physical servers. Each box required login credentials, and administrative privileges were required to change anything. Software such as antivirus and malware protection were directly installed on each machine. These days, the physical server is just another endpoint — albeit an important one. There are many ways to protect server resources, including backup, antivirus, patching, intrusion detection,...

Server security services stop the worst from happening. Hackers who get into a single user's systems may find something worth stealing, but chances are there won't be much to gain. It's the servers — with their databases, confidential information, and complete enterprise user files — where bad guys cause the most havoc. Gain access to a server, and you can lock all enterprise systems and...

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...

Blade servers and rack servers are the stock-in-trade of data centers, chosen for their versatility, security, and ability to configure and connect large amounts of computing power in small spaces. But while blade servers and rack servers accomplish the same goal of organizing your server base, they do it in very different ways. Which one of them you choose could have big impacts on...

Web and application servers are often confused, partly because they work together, and partly because some vendors have consolidated web and application servers into dual-use machines. Similarly, the use of terms like “web application server” gives the impression they’re dual units when the reality is that they often are distinct, separate nodes. The critical difference between web servers and app servers is how each delivers...

If you’re planning the data architecture for your organization, chances are good you’re considering blade servers. This server structure is a go-to choice for packing lots of power into small spaces. But there’s lots of ways they differ from other server structures, like rack or tower servers, and those differences will have a big impact on how your data center performs and runs. Let’s...