Servers and Virtualisation - Choosing the Right Server
With so many different types of servers on the market, choosing the right server for your business can be a daunting task. Our experienced consultants can help take the pain out of this selection process by carefully identifying your business needs and then specifying a server solution based on a number of criteria including number of end-users, software requirements, performance, mission criticality, scalability, efficiency, physical environment and of course budget. Our engineers have expertise with a wide range of server applications from simple file/print servers to web servers, database servers and network domain controllers with new and existing active directory implementations.
High Availability Systems
Due to the mission critical nature of server systems, it is important to maximise availibility and eliminate costly downtime. Ensuring that there is built-in redundancy is especially important when it comes to servers. We recommend implementing redundancies at all possible levels including hard drive, memory, network card and power supply. This increases availability and ensures that the server should continue to function even in the event of certain component failures.
Server Operating Systems
Our engineers work extensively with Microsoft Server operating systems including Windows 2003 SBS, Standard and Enterprise Editions and the newest Windows 2008 server operating system. We have also experience with open source operating systems including various Unix and Linux distributions.
Virtualisation
Virtualisation is a proven technology and offers a way of running multiple virtual servers or machines on a single physical server. Virtualisation has many benefits, the foremost being increased hardware utilisation. It is estimated that most Windows physical server systems run at only 15-25% utilisation. Under-utilised server hardware can cost your business in terms of capital and running costs.
There are many virtualisation solutions available, some geared towards small businesses and others for data centres. We are strong advocates of virtualisation and would be happy to tailor a virtualisation solution to suit your business requirements and your budget.
Benefits of Virtualisation
- Save physical space with smaller data centre footprint.
- Reduce hardware costs.
- Reduce energy consumption.
- Smaller carbon footprint.
- Rapid deployment of new servers.
- High availability and easy migration.
