Server Systems and Hardware for Storage
Servers and storage are characterized by a very dynamic technology development and creation of new trends in their architecture and management. Today’s server and storage systems generally achieve reliability, security, efficiency, scalability and manageability, which was formerly only available with mainframe. All that for a very good price/effectiveness ration and costs of ownership. (Total Costs of Ownership, TCO)
In the area of construction and the way of using the server systems and the subsystems linked with it, several main trends appear:
- Specialization
Servers are gaining an ever increasing specialization in individual areas of use within IT. The reasoning behind it is the need for optimal level of stability, effort, manageability, security and operational resistance in the specific areas of deployment and for the management of relevant costs.
Some servers are directly constructed for a specific area of use. Some examples are WEB servers, servers for the use of Telco operators, graphical or video servers, etc.
- Consolidation of elaboration
The development of server construction goes in two main directions. One direction is identified by effective servers with high accessibility, achieved redundancy, robust construction, monitoring and self-correcting mechanisms, and serviceability during operations, etc. The other direction consists of cheap simple servers, which have to be replaced as a whole in case of failure.
Middle and large servers have currently the option of configuring several virtual servers, which operate independent operation systems and applications. This consolidated environment benefits from efficiency, capacity and reliability possibilities offered by robust and effective hardware, but only a rational number of sources can be added. The administration of such server environments and the parameters of security are also simplified.
- Consolidation of storage
Similarly to the consolidation of the operations of applications happens also consolidation of their data storage. The basis for a consolidated storage system is the detachment of storage into an independent network, where the Storage Area Network architecture prevails. This network then has devices for data storage (disk fields, tape libraries, jukeboxes and others) that offer the “storage services” to other surrounding servers.
The devices for data storage in consolidated system also have very advanced effective and reliable technologies that are capable of undisturbed operations as consolidated servers.
Techniques of storage virtualization, management of parallel access, dynamic source sharing, replication techniques and other data operations without server participation as well as the management techniques of storage subsystems are being used.
- Transfer and sharing of workload
As not even the biggest server is totally effective and reliable, other tools for management and distribution of load between servers, or for a parallel processing of activities on several cooperating servers, have to be introduced. The most widely used method is to introduce cluster solutions with the ability to monitor the functioning of the system and applications and to transfer the operations of applications between servers if needs to be. And this both during a server failure or a failure of some of its service, as well as when there is the need to carry out load-balancing acts.
When proposing server and storage infrastructure, we will help you solve the following areas:
- clustering and replication,
- storage virtualization,
- network management storage,
- disaster recovery planning,
- backup, archiving, HSM,
- heavy testing,
- operation monitoring,
- security.
In our server and storage solutions, we use technologies of reputable producers, who guarantee a high level of quality, efficiency and investment security:
