Server hardware
Servers are the workhorse of every IT infrastructure, and new developments are constantly delivering greater processor power, higher performance, more storage capacity and better energy efficiency. From mainframes to blade servers, we analyse the trends and technologies that matter in server hardware.
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Feature
19 Nov 2024
Storage technology explained: Ransomware and storage and backup
We look at ransomware attacks, and the importance of good backup practice as well as immutable snapshots, air-gapping, network segmentation, AI anomaly detection and supplier warranties Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Nov 2024
Storage technology explained: Flash vs HDD
In this guide, we examine the differences between flash storage and HDD, the rise of NVMe and much denser formats such as QLC, and whether or not flash will vanquish HDD in the all-flash datacentre Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
CBRE: Spare datacentre capacity levels to hit all-time low across Europe by end of 2024
Real estate consultancy CBRE has lifted the lid on how growing demand for datacentre capacity, coupled with shortages of land and power in Europe, are having a downbeat impact on vacancy rates Continue Reading
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News
13 Nov 2024
Server manufacturers ramp-up edge AI efforts
There has been a spate of developments in the server space, as manufacturers focus on supporting inference workloads at the edge Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Nov 2024
Storage explained: Consumption models of storage procurement
We look at consumption models of storage purchasing and how cloud operating models have made them mainstream and supplanted the traditional three-year lift-and-shift datacentre refresh Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2024
Nakivo aims at VMware refugees tempted by Proxmox
Version 11 of Nakivo has added Microsoft 365 cloud-to-cloud backups, support for Proxmox virtualisation backups – following Veeam – and NAS file data backups to cloud targets Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2024
Western Digital boosts HDD capacity with 32TB shingled drives
An 11th platter gives extra capacity, while shingled (overlapped) writes – best suited to sequential recording use cases – allow for greater density and big gains in thoughput Continue Reading
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News
24 Oct 2024
Nvidia deepens investment in India’s AI ecosystem
Nvidia is expanding its presence in India through new partnerships focused on building AI infrastructure, developing Indian language models and training AI professionals Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2024
Synology takes aim at enterprise customers and flash storage
Best known as an SME and consumer brand, Synology claims multiple enterprise customers especially in backup and storage of infrequently accessed data, but has plans for flash, too Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Oct 2024
What are tensor processing units and what is their role in AI?
We look at Google’s TPUs – tensor processing units – and ask what makes them different to CPUs, GPUs and DPUs, as well as how you can take advantage of them in AI processing Continue Reading
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News
08 Oct 2024
Foxconn and Nvidia to build Taiwan’s fastest supercomputer
The supercomputer, powered by Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, will drive breakthroughs in cancer research, large language models and smart city initiatives Continue Reading
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News
30 Sep 2024
Google invests $1bn in Thailand’s cloud future
The five-year investment will bolster Thailand’s digital economy, create more than 10,000 jobs each year and support the country’s cloud-first policy Continue Reading
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News
27 Sep 2024
Printing vulnerability affecting Linux distros raises alarm
Security pros need to get in front of a series of vulnerabilities affecting the Cups Linux printing service after an apparently botched disclosure process saw technical details published in advance of a patch Continue Reading
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News
18 Sep 2024
Europol provides detail on Ghost encrypted comms platform takedown
Law enforcement bodies from across the world have revealed how they collaborated to bring down encrypted network Ghost and the new ways of working that have been established with Europol at the centre Continue Reading
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News
17 Sep 2024
Toshiba follows the pack with launch of 24TB and 28TB HDDs
Several months behind Seagate and Western Digital, Toshiba achieves the maximum possible in commercial HDDs and benefits from a speed boost over its rivals Continue Reading
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News
13 Sep 2024
Municipal makeover: Indian cities embrace cutting-edge tech
From AI-powered stray dog management to blockchain-secured building permission certificates, municipal corporations across India are ditching outdated processes for digital tools Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Sep 2024
Kubernetes disaster recovery: Five key questions
We look at disaster recovery for Kubernetes environments, the key challenges to deployment of K8s DR, the risks we aim to mitigate, how to build a plan and the key infrastructure requirements Continue Reading
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Opinion
12 Sep 2024
Why the government should still bet on DSIT’s five key technologies
When the Conservative government launched the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, it identified five key technologies for UK investment. The new Labour government must continue this plan Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Sep 2024
Storage technology explained: Vector databases at the core of AI
We look at the use of vector data in AI and how vector databases work, plus vector embedding, the challenges for storage of vector data and the key suppliers of vector database products Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Sep 2024
Cloud repatriation: How to do it successfully
The keys to reverse migration success include workload selection, how to prepare your on-premise infrastructure and future-proofing the decision to come back in-house Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2024
Flash prices drop as drive production increases but demand lags
Flash prices were high in the early part of this year as a result of manufacturer production squeezes but have since dropped because demand has been slack, with flash now costing just under 10 cents per gigabyte Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Sep 2024
Storage technology explained: Kubernetes, containers and persistent storage
In this guide, we look at the market-leading container platform Kubernetes, how it works, the challenges with persistent storage and backup, and how they have been overcome Continue Reading
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News
28 Aug 2024
Cambridge Enterprise saves big with Keepit SaaS backup
University innovation body avoids hardware spend and saves management time as it switches from tape to cloud-to-cloud backup, instant recovery and decades-long retention from Keepit Continue Reading
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News
27 Aug 2024
AI innovation key to UK business, but obstacles threaten progress
AI is seen by IT leaders as essential, but it requires innovation, skills and infrastructure – all of which are under pressure from day-to-day firefighting, energy costs and cyber threats Continue Reading
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News
26 Aug 2024
Linus Torvalds discusses Linux development, security and AI at KubeCon
Linus Torvalds delves into the challenges in Linux development, the importance of swift security responses, and artificial intelligence’s future role in kernel programming Continue Reading
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News
21 Aug 2024
QiStor flashes key-value storage software for hardware acceleration
US-based startup will develop storage software allied with FPGA chips to allow data storage to bypass spinning disk era block addressing to speed performance and cut energy use Continue Reading
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News
19 Aug 2024
Singtel expands GPUaaS offering to Southeast Asia
Singapore telco teams up with the Bridge Alliance industry group to bring its GPU-as-a-Service to enterprises across Southeast Asia Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2024
ASEAN organisations lack mature AI strategy
IBM-commissioned study reveals that while ASEAN organisations are engaging with AI, only 4% have reached a transformative level of AI maturity Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2024
Oracle Exadata Exascale: Big architecture shift for small workloads
Exascale is multitenant architecture for Oracle Database that promises performance equal to dedicated infrastructure and savings compared with existing products, with AI workloads in mind Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Aug 2024
AI interview: Thomas Dekeyser, researcher and film director
On the politics of ‘techno-refusal’, and the lessons that can be learned from a clandestine group of French IT workers who spent the early 1980s sabotaging technological infrastructure Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Jul 2024
CrowdStrike update chaos explained: What you need to know
A botched software update at cyber security firm CrowdStrike has caused IT chaos around the world. Learn more about the global CrowdStrike update outage as it develops Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jul 2024
Kubernetes at 10: The long road to mastery of persistent storage
Jan Safranek of Red Hat saw containers emerge as an exciting new way of deploying applications, but it took several additions to make it the mature enterprise platform it is today Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2024
CrowdStrike chaos shows risks of concentrated ‘big IT’
The concentration of so much mission-critical technology in the hands of a few large suppliers makes incidents like the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage all the more dangerous Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2024
CrowdStrike update snafu affected 8.5 million Windows devices
About 8.5 million devices globally were hit by the botched CrowdStrike update, with a significant number now back online and operational Continue Reading
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Opinion
19 Jul 2024
What happens when the IT infrastructure is too big to fail?
Today’s global outage of Microsoft is rapidly sending shockwaves across all sectors, demonstrating the risk of having a single point of failure Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Jul 2024
Interview: Nvidia on AI workload demands and storage performance
We talk to Charlie Boyle of Nvidia about AI impacts on storage I/O, key performance metrics for storage for AI, and storage attributes required across differing AI workloads Continue Reading
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Definition
18 Jul 2024
What is a headless server?
A headless server is a computer without a local interface to interact with. Headless means that it does not have a monitor or other peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse. Continue Reading
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News
16 Jul 2024
Massive hyperscaler GenAI spend raises questions on costs
How much will IT buyers be expected to pay, as hyperscalers ramp up investment in AI-powered servers to support GenAI? Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2024
Synnovis attack highlights degraded, outdated state of NHS IT
More cyber attacks against the health service are likely, and will succeed if something isn’t done to address the increasingly elderly NHS IT estate, experts are warning Continue Reading
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News
02 Jul 2024
Interview: Nvidia on AI workloads and their impacts on data storage
We talk to Charlie Boyle of Nvidia about data challenges in artificial intelligence, key practical tips for AI projects, and demands on storage of training, inferencing, RAG and checkpointing Continue Reading
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News
27 Jun 2024
Gulf Edge to operate Google Distributed Cloud in Thailand
The Gulf Energy subsidiary will offer Google’s sovereign cloud service in Thailand with a focus on air-gapped configurations Continue Reading
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News
24 Jun 2024
Macquarie Cloud debuts Australia-first hybrid offering
Macquarie Flex brings Azure services to a broader set of workloads that are not suited to run natively on public cloud Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2024
Nuclear waste body cuts energy use by 20% as Pure replaces HPE
French nuclear waste agency Andra has cut storage energy use by 20% and strengthened its disaster recovery capabilities by deploying Pure Storage and 10-year controller upgrades Continue Reading
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News
05 Jun 2024
Bond University deploys Nutanix for on-premise servers
Australian university has migrated 700 on-premise servers to Nutanix following impending hardware refresh and desire to improve disaster recovery Continue Reading
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News
04 Jun 2024
Mad Max production company gets Dell PowerScale to leverage generative AI
One supplier enters, one supplier leaves: Australian film production company replaces HPE with Dell storage and compute as it leverages GenAI Continue Reading
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Feature
29 May 2024
Storage technology explained: File, block and object storage
We ask the key questions about file, block and object storage: how they work on-premise and in the cloud, global file systems, and file and object locking Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2024
Executive Interview: Why Dell wants to be your one-stop AI shop
At Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town as Dell staked out an all-encompassing strategy ahead of an anticipated goldrush. Dell’s Nick Brackney explains why the tech giant believes it's onto a winner Continue Reading
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News
26 May 2024
Nutanix beefs up AHV hypervisor, doubles down on AI
Nutanix takes aim at VMware with enhancements to its AHV hypervisor along with tighter integrations with Nvidia and Hugging Face to simplify AI deployments Continue Reading
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News
20 May 2024
Dell Technologies World: AI at core of Dell’s next chapter
With a significant anniversary just passed, Dell CEO Michael Dell was in reflective mood as he looked ahead to the impact of artificial intelligence on the tech giant’s product stack Continue Reading
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News
20 May 2024
Toshiba shows 32TB HDDs with heat-assisted and shingled drives
Drive maker demonstrates 32TB and 31TB capacity hard drives that boost write density by use of heat and microwave assistance plus shingled – overlapped – drive tracks Continue Reading
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Podcast
01 May 2024
Podcast: 32TB HDDs by 2029, but how much bigger can they get?
We talk to Rainer Kaese of Toshiba about the roadmap for conventional magnetic recording on hard disk drives, the roadmap to 32TB, and what it would take to get to 100TB or 200TB Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Apr 2024
Storage technology explained: AI and data storage
In this guide, we examine the data storage needs of artificial intelligence, the demands it places on data storage, the suitability of cloud and object storage for AI, and key AI storage products Continue Reading
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News
10 Apr 2024
Breakthrough may herald secure home quantum computing
An emerging approach to quantum security dubbed blind quantum computing may one day help spur mass adoption of quantum computing safely and securely, using technology that is already available today Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Apr 2024
Seven ways to be sure you can restore from backup
Backups are no good if you can’t restore from them. We look at key elements of backup restoration, including backup audits, RPOs and RTOs, and how and when to test backups Continue Reading
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News
02 Apr 2024
Flash storage prices rise by 25% as manufacturers chase profitability
Analysis of 30,000-plus drive prices shows cost of flash drives per gigabyte rose sharply since October 2023, as memory manufacturers limit supplies and increase prices Continue Reading
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Podcast
28 Mar 2024
Podcast: What is distributed cloud storage and what are its benefits?
We talk to Enrico Signoretti of Cubbit about how distributed cloud allows customers to control their data in hybrid and multicloud storage and the workloads the company targets Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2024
Alletra MP hardware changes see HPE orient arrays towards AI
HPE doubles controller nodes, boosts capacity with denser drives, cuts caches and builds in 100Gbps links to bring denser, faster storage aimed at all parts of the AI/ML pipeline Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2024
GTC 2024: Storage suppliers queue up to ride the Nvidia AI wave
Storage supplier announcements at Nvdia conference centre on infrastructure integration, tackling the GPU I/O bottleneck and AI hallucinations by running Nvidia NeMo and NIM microservices Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2024
Vast targets AI checkpointing write performance with distributed RAID
AI checkpointing operations targeted by Vast Data as it touts QLC-based storage for AI workloads Continue Reading
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News
15 Mar 2024
Global McDonalds IT outage result of third-party error
An IT outage that forced McDonald's to temporarily shutter thousands of restaurants has been blamed on a configuration error by a third-party supplier, but there is no suspicion of foul play Continue Reading
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News
05 Mar 2024
AI-acceleration deployments curbed by datacentre design considerations
In addition to a shortage of GPUs for AI-optimised servers, IT leaders need to consider how well their datacentre power and cooling will cope with artificial intelligence workloads Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Mar 2024
Pseudo-SLC flash storage: What is it, what’s it good for and what does it cost?
Pseudo-SLC takes MLC, TLC flash and changes data storage at cell level to get better endurance and performance, but it’s mostly aimed at edge applications and is costly Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Feb 2024
Broadcom’s VMware acquisition explained: The impact on your IT strategy
In this guide, we look at Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and how it influences your IT desktop, server, cloud and supplier management strategies Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2024
Storage and backup spend in 2024 targets risk and resilience
The TechTarget and ESG spending intentions survey finds big bias towards averting risk and building organisational resilience, but on-premise storage a significant planned outlay Continue Reading
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Podcast
14 Feb 2024
Podcast: What is the impact of AI on storage and compliance?
Start now looking at artificial intelligence compliance. That’s the advice of Mathieu Gorge of Vigitrust, who says AI governance is still immature but firms should recognise the limits and still act Continue Reading
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Podcast
13 Feb 2024
Podcast: What are snapshots? Can they replace backup?
We talk to Shawn Meyers, field CTO at Tintri, who defines snapshots, why they are no substitute for backups, and the effect on recovery of snapshot granularity Continue Reading
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News
13 Feb 2024
What will result from Cohesity’s Veritas acquisition?
The $7bn backup giant will leverage huge assets in enterprise customer base, compliance and governance intelligence, AI, R&D, and Kubernetes backup and storage Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2024
Singtel ropes in industry partners in datacentre push
Singtel inks partnerships with Nvidia, Gulf Energy, Medco and others in its efforts to grow its datacentre business and support AI adoption in Singapore and Southeast Asia Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2024
Seagate uses HAMR to hit 30TB in Exos hard drives
HDD giant Seagate unveils 30TB Exos drives with higher areal density, aimed at hyperscaler customers, with products at 50TB promised for 2028 in its roadmap Continue Reading
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News
30 Jan 2024
We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why
Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance Continue Reading
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News
30 Jan 2024
Inside India’s supercomputing journey
India is looking to shore up its supercomputing capabilities, but more needs to be done to realise its ambition of becoming a world leader in the field Continue Reading
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News
23 Jan 2024
NVM Express boosts computational storage standards
New command sets allow for computational storage with NVMe flash and includes frameworks to allow local memory usage in processing workloads on storage hardware Continue Reading
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News
16 Jan 2024
AMD bets on India, doubles down on AI
The chipmaker recently inaugurated its largest global design facility in Bangalore as part of a $400m investment in India to support its expanded portfolio and build artificial intelligence capabilities Continue Reading
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News
11 Jan 2024
QLC made gains but storage innovation focus was on software in 2023
Storage hardware innovation has taken a back seat – QLC flash excepted – as the big storage suppliers build around software-based variants and optimisation on modular product sets Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Jan 2024
How to purchase the best server hardware for small businesses
Before buying a server, it's important to assess an SMB's needs. Review these seven steps outlining the factors an organization should consider before purchasing a server. Continue Reading
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Answer
12 Dec 2023
Rack vs. blade server: What's the difference?
Components in a physical data center are held in rack servers or blade servers. Learn the differences, what type of environment you need and which server uses work best. Continue Reading
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News
07 Dec 2023
CIO interview: Keith Woolley, chief digital information officer, University of Bristol
With Bristol set to host the UK’s biggest supercomputer, its technology chief is looking to make the most of internal and international collaboration to drive digital improvements Continue Reading
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Blog Post
07 Dec 2023
AI: Killer app or planet killer
Looking at the latest quarterly earnings filings from the leading server makers shows they are all experiencing a significant boost in sales, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). HPE CEO, ... Continue Reading
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News
06 Dec 2023
How a Node4 virtual datacentre proved better than MS cloud for mental health charity
Charity Together For Mental Wellbeing managed to migrate legacy servers into a new virtual environment and fix a major disaster recovery issue Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Dec 2023
Dell EMC: Storage giant shifts gear to cloud operating models
Storage profile: We look at Dell EMC, the result of the biggest tech acquisition ever, and find a company well set for ubiquitous cloud operating models and as-a-service Continue Reading
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News
22 Nov 2023
Nebulon upgrades SPU to Medusa2 with Nvidia DPU hardware
Nebulon aims to replace HCI with its OS on an offload card that it claims reduces server resource use by 25%. Medusa2 uses Nvidia DPU hardware and its own cloud control plane Continue Reading
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E-Zine
21 Nov 2023
Can AI take education to a new level?
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine how large language models are being used to teach, support and assess students, enhancing education rather than impairing it. We look at how the AI revolution is impacting the semiconductor sector as the big tech companies put off server upgrades. And we find out how generative AI is changing the way enterprise software works. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2023
IT not ready for AI, Pure Storage survey finds
Storage, compute and networking hardware won’t cope without upgrades, and that often means total IT infrastructure overhaul Continue Reading
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Blog Post
17 Nov 2023
Do IT leaders need server upgrades?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the new Moore’s Law. Semiconductor manufacturers may strive to double processing power every two years, but that is not what their largest customers actually ... Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Nov 2023
DPU 101: What are DPUs, what do they do, and who supplies them?
We look at data processing units, the latest in a line of hardware offload devices that emerged in the era of composable infrastructure. They come as hardware and even in the cloud Continue Reading
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News
14 Nov 2023
Chip sector gears up for AI revolution
While Nvidia has established its AI dominance, Intel has been working on AI chips running on supercomputers Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2023
VMware consolidates AI push at Explore in Barcelona
VMware’s vision is of ‘cloud smart’ enterprises that run on-premise, in multiclouds and in the ‘edge cloud’, with secure and compliant generative AI fuelling efficient business processes Continue Reading
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Definition
03 Nov 2023
client-server network
A client-server network is a distributed communications architecture in which a centralized server receives and responds to requests for services and data from multiple clients. Continue Reading
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News
26 Oct 2023
Facebook pins future on Quest 3 and AI development
Parent company Meta has focused on establishing Twitter rival Threads and its new augmented reality headset Quest 3 Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2023
Dell updates PowerStore, PowerMax and PowerFlex storage
Dell storage upgrades include improved AIOps, lower energy usage, real-time HA failover, seamless hardware replacement, and enhancements to take advantage of DPU acceleration Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Oct 2023
Five key questions about disaster recovery as a service
Disaster recovery as a service builds recovery data and systems into the cloud, accessible from anywhere. We look at the difference vs cloud backup, DRaaS use cases, the cost, and the firms that provide it Continue Reading
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News
19 Oct 2023
How AWS is building a tech stack for generative AI
Olivier Klein, chief technologist for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services, dives deeper into the technology stack the company has built to ease GenAI adoption Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2023
Flash prices drop towards spinning disk levels in 2023
Number-crunching data on 17,000-plus drive prices shows cost of flash drives per gigabyte fell by around 10% in past six months while hard disk drive per-gigabyte prices stood still Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Oct 2023
Will computational storage meet data processing demands?
Computational storage promises performance for workloads that can benefit from dedicated oomph, but it’s not a cure-all. It may come at a cost, and with added application complexity Continue Reading
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Feature
26 Sep 2023
IBM reorients to offset historic storage hardware decline
Storage profile: We look at IBM and the strategic shifts it has made towards the cloud, cloud-native and as-a-service offerings that aim to reverse a long-term decline in revenues Continue Reading
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Definition
25 Sep 2023
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the world's first general-purpose electronic computer. Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Sep 2023
Toyota car plant outage shows database capacity planning is vital
How could database deletes and re-organisation take out car production for 36 hours at 14 plants? We drill down into the details of database capacity planning Continue Reading
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News
20 Sep 2023
How Google is priming its infrastructure for the AI wave
The technology giant is integrating purpose-built hardware with an optimised software stack to meet the heightened computational demands of next-generation AI workloads Continue Reading
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News
19 Sep 2023
New revelations from the Snowden archive surface
A decade after Snowden exposed NSA’s mass surveillance in cooperation with the British GCHQ, only about 1% of the documents have been published – but three major facts can finally be revealed thanks to a doctoral thesis in applied cryptography by Jacob Appelbaum Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Sep 2023
SME disaster recovery: Five key points to consider
We look at key DR considerations for SMEs, including RPOs, RTOs, infrastructure needed for effective continuity and the right combination of cloud and in-house provision Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Sep 2023
CXL in the datacentre: Boosting memory for hungry workloads
We look at CXL, how it revolutionises connectivity between memory components, potentially saves energy, and adds oomph to heavily memory-dependent workloads such as AI analytics Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Sep 2023
HPE storage comes with full IT stack, hybrid cloud and as a service
Storage profile: We look at HPE, its Alletra storage refresh, and Greenlake and the ways the company is re-branding as a full-stack provider across on-prem and hybrid cloud Continue Reading