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.
-
News
18 Dec 2024
Top 10 Kubernetes and storage stories of 2024
In this 2024 review, Computer Weekly looks at Kubernetes’ evolution from stateless application runtime to enterprise-ready environment for cloud-native with persistent storage and data protection Continue Reading
-
News
11 Dec 2024
IaaS firm uses Pure Storage as a service for ‘virtual datacentres’
Espresso Gridpoint moved from largely NetApp to Pure Storage FlashBlade file and object for its ‘virtual datacentres’ business model that offers VMware, Hyper-V and ProxMox VMs Continue Reading
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
News
05 Sep 2023
VMware builds vSAN Max, consolidates multicloud and online deployment
VMware launches new iteration of vSAN Max with up to 8.6PB of independently scalable storage, NSX gets a “+” as it unifies networks and Ransomware Recovery ups efficiency Continue Reading
-
News
23 Aug 2023
VMware works with Nvidia to deliver generative AI cloud
The two companies are collaborating on a platform that uses Nvidia GPUs and VMware cloud infrastructure Continue Reading
-
News
21 Aug 2023
Simplyblock targets ‘complex’ Ceph with software-defined NVMe
German startup Simplyblock aims to deliver low-cost high-performance flash and NVMe-over-TCP storage for service provider customers, and has Ceph deployments in its sights Continue Reading
-
News
16 Aug 2023
ITAM influence on cyber risk becoming a factor in credit ratings
Credit agency S&P Global Ratings warns that organisations that pay inadequate attention to IT asset management as a factor in their cyber risk management processes may find their creditworthiness takes a dive Continue Reading
-
News
15 Aug 2023
Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box aims hyper-converged at AI/ML use cases
Nutanix targets a pre-configured bundle of AI/ML and GPT software with hyper-converged infrastructure and GPT to help organisations safely take advantage of learning networks Continue Reading
-
Podcast
08 Aug 2023
Podcast: HDDs have a long life ahead in certain workloads
Spinning disk hard drives are far from dead, and with data volumes set to explode, there are use cases that suit them well. That’s the view of Rainer Kaese of Toshiba in this podcast Continue Reading
-
News
07 Aug 2023
HPE’s Alletra MP marries storage to cloud and software-defined choices
HPE’s Alletra was launched in April with an architecture that ties in with GreenLake consumption purchasing, SaaS configuration and addition of software-defined storage services Continue Reading
-
News
11 Jul 2023
EU formally grants data adequacy to US
The European Commission has formally granted the US data adequacy, allowing companies and organisations to freely transfer personal data across the Atlantic via the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. But privacy activist Max Schrems has already committed to legally challenging the decision Continue Reading
-
Feature
29 Jun 2023
Software-defined storage: What’s available from key players
What’s available in software-defined storage from the big storage players, software-defined storage specialists, and SDS options focused on cloud, virtualisation and containers Continue Reading
-
Feature
28 Jun 2023
Hitachi Vantara: Small part of a big corp and analytics focus
We look at Hitachi Vantara, its storage, its cloud offer, the workloads it targets, and its efforts in containerisation and consumption models of storage purchasing Continue Reading
-
News
19 Jun 2023
Nakivo adds ransomware scanning and new restore options
Backup maker adds malware scanning with big names in security to immutable backup copy functionality. “Tape’s not dead” either, with restore from the venerable medium now possible Continue Reading
-
News
16 Jun 2023
Lenovo ups ante on AI infrastructure investments
Lenovo is investing $1bn over three years to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure offerings, including services to help organisations deploy and tap AI capabilities in a responsible manner Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Jun 2023
Software-defined storage: What it is and variants available
SDS is available in numerous variants. It is usually cheaper, flexible to deploy and brings storage efficiencies, but there are pitfalls in complexity, management and performance Continue Reading
-
News
01 Jun 2023
DE-CIX switches on Internet Exchange in Finland
Comms tech provider celebrates 10 years of partnership with Internet Exchange operator and home to leading carrier and datacentre neutral interconnection ecosystem Continue Reading
-
News
25 May 2023
BASF ramps up petaflops with new Quriosity HPE-build hardware
The AMD-powered 3 petaflops supercomputer will offer BASF the ability to run more complex simulations of chemical processes Continue Reading
-
News
23 May 2023
Aston Martin gets F1 pole position with NetApp storage
AMF1 race team tracks hundreds of car sensor metrics for raceday and post-event analysis that has seen it surge forward in recent Formula One rankings with NetApp NVMe storage Continue Reading
-
News
17 May 2023
CTO interview: Europe benefits from energy gains in AMD chips
AMD’s chief technology officer explains how the latest chip technology can help European organisations solve the energy puzzle facing IT departments Continue Reading
-
Feature
12 May 2023
PLC flash: The next generation or a mirage?
PLC could be productised within two years, but chip makers might not think it worth the effort. Will managing multiple voltages be more hassle than adding layers to existing flash? Continue Reading
-
News
08 May 2023
How lab grown neurons could power the future of AI
Melbourne-based Cortical Labs’ lab grown neurons could speed up AI training in a more energy efficient way and its work has caught the eye of hyperscalers and Amazon’s CTO Continue Reading
-
News
02 May 2023
Seagate launches 22TB IronWolf straight into QNAP NAS partnership
Seagate’s 22TB IronWolf Pro HDD equals Western Digital for capacity. Of the big drive makers, only Toshiba now lags behind. QNAP NAS to offer petabyte capacities with new Seagate drive Continue Reading
-
Podcast
02 May 2023
Podcast: No more hard disks in five years, says Pure
We talk to Shawn Rosemarin of Pure Storage, who argues there will be no more hard drive sales in five years because energy costs and capacity needs can only be fulfilled by flash Continue Reading
-
News
04 Apr 2023
HPE launches GreenLake for File and Block, and unified arrays
HPE upgrades its storage-as-a-service offer with Greenlake for File and for Block, configurable via the cloud but deployable on-prem. Meanwhile it shows new Alletra MP arrays Continue Reading
-
Podcast
24 Mar 2023
IT sustainability: A Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
We speak to Gartner’s Annette Zimmerman about the circular economy and IT sustainability Continue Reading
-
Feature
24 Mar 2023
HDD specs: Assess SATA vs SAS, sustained data rates and block size
In part two of a two-part series, we look at sustained data rates in hard disk drive specs, SATA versus SAS, drive security, and how HDD makers pack density into products by shingling Continue Reading
-
News
22 Mar 2023
Why Veeam thinks ransomware warranty payouts are unlikely
Veeam Data Platform v12 offers a financial guarantee to customers that can’t restore after ransomware attacks, but the backup supplier is convinced it won’t be making many payouts Continue Reading
-
Feature
21 Mar 2023
HDD specs: Assess MTTF, AFR and UER to get the drives you need
In part one of a two-part series, we look at key hard disk drive specs, including mean time to failure, annual failure rate and unrecoverable error rate, and how they relate to each other Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
21 Mar 2023
The risks of an imbalance in AI
In this week’s Computer Weekly, a leading AI expert explains the risks of an arms race in artificial intelligence caused by the domination of private sector providers. Our latest buyer’s guide examines ways to reduce IT’s energy use. And we analyse the latest damning revelations from the Post Office scandal inquiry. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
-
News
06 Mar 2023
How to get mainframe modernisation right
Around a third of mainframe modernisation efforts fail, but that doesn’t need to be the case if organisations can harness the best of mainframe and distributed architectures, according to Rocket Software Continue Reading
-
News
27 Feb 2023
How Dell is future-proofing its business
Dell Technologies is building a more resilient supply chain, investing in growth areas like edge and multicloud, and responding to shifts in consumption models to position itself for long-term growth Continue Reading
-
News
20 Feb 2023
Veeam bundles backup products into Veeam Data Platform
Backup and data protection specialist Veeam upgrades and rebrands, with a focus on the challenges of ransomware and rapid recovery, and a claimed 500 new functions Continue Reading
-
News
14 Feb 2023
Dell tells suppliers to diversify fab and backend facilities
Dell calls for chip suppliers to diversify their fabrication and backend facilities by the end of 2024 to improve its supply chain resilience Continue Reading
-
Definition
13 Feb 2023
cache server
A cache server is a dedicated network server or service acting as a server that saves webpages or other internet content locally. Continue Reading
-
News
08 Feb 2023
Rakuten targets big edge deployments with Symworld Cloud
Japanese giant Rakuten bought Kubernetes management platform Robin.io and put it in 50,000-plus telco antennas. Now it aims Symworld Cloud at enterprise edge deployments Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
07 Feb 2023
Running Out Of Energy...
Ironic, at a time when energy and oil companies are announcing record profits, the issue of energy – or a lack of it – is, or should be, a major concern for IT professionals, but seemngly isn't. ... Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Feb 2023
Backup maintenance: Make sure backups can deliver
Deploying backup but overlooking the need to make sure it works is a common error. We look at the why and how of backup maintenance to help ensure you can recover from your backups Continue Reading
-
News
25 Jan 2023
Leeds Building Society uses AIops in Dynatrace to improve observability
Automation and AI is improving how the service delivery team assesses the business impact of an IT service degradation Continue Reading
-
Feature
24 Jan 2023
IT’s shift to the cloud: Veeam’s data protection report in detail
With half of servers in the cloud, most backup and nearly all disaster recovery cloud-centric, the shift to the cloud is significant – but container backup is one area that is yet to settle down Continue Reading
-
News
20 Jan 2023
DataCore software-defined storage helps car firm avoid breakdowns
Bontaz used to face regular IT outages that took too long to recover from. Then it got DataCore software-defined storage and the ability to rapidly recover from downtime Continue Reading
-
News
20 Jan 2023
Atempo plots course to containerised backup with S3 storage
Containerised modularised backup services will allow integration with third-party systems and backup storage unified onto S3 object storage for cost and analytics purposes Continue Reading
-
News
11 Jan 2023
Internet shutdowns cost global economy $24bn in 2022
Deliberate disruption of people’s access to the internet by governments is having a substantial economic impact and contributing to a range of human rights abuses, primarily against protestors Continue Reading
-
Feature
19 Dec 2022
Storage hardware shortage causes and how to mitigate them
We look at the IT supply chain shortages that have hit data storage equipment, their causes and what organisations can do to work more smartly to mitigate them Continue Reading
-
Definition
13 Dec 2022
AS/400 (IBM iSeries, AS/400e, eServer iSeries/400, Power Systems)
The IBM Application System/400 -- or AS/400 -- is a family of midrange computers that was released in 1988, succeeding both System/36 and System/38 platforms. Continue Reading
-
News
07 Dec 2022
Survey: Most want green IT but many won’t get it soon
IT – and storage in particular – consume huge amounts of energy but sustainability targets are proving to be elusive, according to a survey commissioned by Pure Storage Continue Reading
-
News
30 Nov 2022
HPE’s earnings reveal a shift back to less pricey servers
HPE has been focused on higher-end servers due to supply chain issues, but as these ease and memory costs fall, it is set to readjust pricing Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
08 Nov 2022
How the US-China chip war will affect IT leaders
In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the US ramps up semiconductor sanctions on China, we examine the ramifications across the tech sector. Cyber criminals are turning to new forms of encryption – we talk to the Dutch researchers trying to catch them. And we look at what cloud providers need to do to improve customer experience. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
-
News
03 Nov 2022
Russia risks shortage of PCs and software
Russian consumers and businesses could face a shortage of IT equipment including PCs and software Continue Reading
-
News
31 Oct 2022
SoftIron’s HyperCloud to ease private cloud deployments
SoftIron claims its technology stack fully automates the provisioning of storage, compute, networking and infrastructure services, providing a fully functioning, multi-tenant cloud Continue Reading
-
News
17 Oct 2022
GRAID puts RAID on a GPU for cut-price disk protection and rebuilds
US startup puts its software on Nvidia graphics cards to offload RAID processing and throughput of 110GBps throughput across up to 32 NVMe solid-state drives Continue Reading
-
Feature
29 Sep 2022
Carbon copies: How to stop data retention from killing the planet
Our society has a serious digital hoarding problem, which is coming at a cost to the environment. But what can be done to address it? Continue Reading
-
News
28 Sep 2022
Russia ready for complete switch to domestic IT infrastructure
In a bid to counter sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government is implementing a policy of import substitution in the country’s domestic IT sector Continue Reading
-
Podcast
16 Sep 2022
Energy crisis IT impact: Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
In this special edition of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Gartner analyst Tiny Haynes discusses datacentre energy management. Continue Reading
-
News
31 Aug 2022
HPE supply chain issues drive up server prices
HPE’s latest quarterly results show the company is trying to combat its order backlog by encouraging customers to buy next-gen servers Continue Reading
-
News
24 Aug 2022
Alibaba Cloud unveils RISC-V chip development platform
The Wujian 600 chip development platform will help developers build systems-on-chip to support edge applications such as home robots, medical imaging and video conferencing Continue Reading
-
Feature
23 Aug 2022
Bfloat16: What it is and how it impacts storage
Bfloat16 is an emerging way to handle very large numbers, developed by Google for its machine and neural learning and prediction. We look at what it means for IT and storage Continue Reading
-
News
17 Aug 2022
Indian semiconductor component market to hit $300bn by 2026
India’s semiconductor component market will see cumulative revenues climb to $300bn by 2026, amid growing demand for mobile devices and industrial products Continue Reading
-
News
15 Aug 2022
Lightbits offers NVMe-over-TCP at 5x less than NVMe-over-FC et al
Lightbits builds NVMe-overTCP SAN clusters for Linux servers with Intel cards that accelerate network processing to give millions of IOPS with storage for public and private clouds Continue Reading
-
08 Aug 2022
How shrinking economy impacts IT spending
As inflation rises, purse strings are tightening at the technology giants, which is set to have a material impact on chipmakers and providers of IT equipment. Continue Reading
-
Podcast
05 Aug 2022
Podcast: How storage AIOps is revolutionising hybrid cloud ops
We talk to Tintri about storage and AIOps, which is the application of AI and machine learning-based software to monitor storage infrastructure to be able to detect patterns and predict failure, the need to upgrade, and so on Continue Reading
-
Podcast
03 Aug 2022
Podcast: Storage at the edge – impact and opportunities
We talk to Tobias Flitsch of Nebulon about the rise of edge computing and how that will drive demand for more storage that needs to be secure and resilient and centrally manageable Continue Reading
-
News
02 Aug 2022
How worsening economic climate impacts IT spending
As inflation rises, purse strings are tightening at the tech giants, which will have a material impact on chipmakers and providers of IT equipment Continue Reading
-
News
29 Jul 2022
‘We must do better’ says Gelsinger on Intel’s latest results
Chipmaker has reported a massive decline across its major business divisions Continue Reading
-
News
27 Jul 2022
Microsoft anticipates $3.3bn savings by extending server life
Thanks to new software tools and better hardware, Microsoft plans to upgrade servers and network equipment every six years Continue Reading
-
News
13 Jul 2022
NHS trust cuts costs and refresh cycle with Wasabi cloud storage
Imperial College NHS Trust expects to saves 30% in storage costs and cut back on five-year refresh headaches in a move that has seen backup and archive data move to the Wasabi cloud Continue Reading
-
News
04 Jul 2022
How Lenovo is making the transition into services
Although Lenovo is late to the as-a-service game, it is making headway through its One Lenovo and services-led transformation strategies, says a top company executive Continue Reading
-
News
01 Jul 2022
US court rules no conflict of interest in tech firms’ mining deaths case
A US district court judge who dismissed a forced labour case against five technology companies was found to have investments in four of the firms, with a separate court now ruling against the victims’ motion for reversal that there was no conflict of interest Continue Reading
-
Feature
28 Jun 2022
CEA-Leti and the Silicon Valleys of Grenoble, France
At the intersection of three valleys in the French Alps lies the city of Grenoble, a hotbed of microelectronics, where much of the innovation is fuelled by CEA-Leti Continue Reading
-
News
13 Jun 2022
Dell server, storage, PC sales grow despite component supply chain woes
Dell executives cite the company’s use of “alternative” component supply chains as server, storage and PC sales grow despite difficulties for most of the market sourcing parts Continue Reading
-
Opinion
10 Jun 2022
IT Sustainability Think Tank: Incorporating circular economy principles into IT procurement
With sustainability moving up the boardroom agenda, CIOs and IT managers should look to revamp their IT procurement strategies to align with the principles of the circular economy, but where should they start? Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Jun 2022
IT departments need holistic circular economies to fight climate change
With sustainability moving up the boardroom agenda, IT managers should revamp procurement strategies to align with the principles of the circular economy, but what does this mean for managing the IT lifecycle? Continue Reading
-
E-Zine
31 May 2022
Trial and error – why the law on computer evidence must change
In this week’s Computer Weekly, the Post Office IT scandal highlighted the problem with computer evidence – we examine the need for legal reform. We assess the nuclear option for sustainable datacentre power. And we find out how IT experts can improve their soft skills and boost their career prospects as a result. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
-
News
20 May 2022
Microsoft drops emergency patch after Patch Tuesday screw up
Microsoft fixed a certificate mapping issue that caused server authentication failures on domain controllers for users that had installed the most recent Patch Tuesday updates Continue Reading
-
Feature
25 Apr 2022
Growing prospects for edge datacentres
Although the value that edge datacentres provide is not in question, for many companies, the journey to adoption is far from fixed Continue Reading
-
Feature
08 Apr 2022
Storage requirements for AI, ML and analytics in 2022
We look at what is needed for artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the pros and cons of block, file and object storage to store and access very large amounts of often unstructured data Continue Reading
-
Feature
06 Apr 2022
Snapshots best practice: Five key things you need to know
We look at snapshots best practice, including the way they work, why they are not the same as backups, how to avoid heavy processing overheads and key user permissions tweaks Continue Reading
-
News
25 Mar 2022
Cisco adds HCI, UCS, software to hybrid cloud infrastructure
Cisco's latest hardware and Intersight tie-in to public cloud Kubernetes bolster its hybrid cloud products for customers. But their appeal outside the user base is uncertain. Continue Reading
-
News
24 Mar 2022
Ad agency slashes NetApp costs with Datadobi data migration
US-based branding agency needed to migrate 20TB of large files to new NetApp hardware, but unwilling to stomach the vendor’s migration costs it chose Datadobi instead Continue Reading
-
News
22 Mar 2022
NetApp Cloud Insights gets AI monitoring and ransomware detection
Cloud Insights adds artificial intelligence-based continuous audit and monitoring of entire IT estate and generates impact assessments from performance events, plus anomaly alerting for ransomware Continue Reading
-
News
17 Mar 2022
How multiphysics simulation might accelerate the advent of quantum computing – and vice versa
Sophisticated tools that simulate more than one physical phenomenon at a time may help designers home in on optimal architectures for quantum computers at less cost – and much faster Continue Reading
-
News
07 Mar 2022
Micron 7450 aims its 176 TLC layers at QLC flash use cases
New 176-layer tech brings densely packed flash cells in drives that come in 2.5”, M.2 and EDSFF form factors, aimed at datacentre workloads from archive to database storage Continue Reading
-
Feature
01 Mar 2022
Software firm saves storage array costs with Nutanix hyper-converged
Banking SaaS provider Vialink needed more IOPS when its NetApp arrays slowed up, but Nutanix hyper-converged proved a better package than Pure Storage and Dell EMC, too Continue Reading
-
News
21 Feb 2022
Backup heads to cloud as ransomware hits 76% and RTOs/RPOs fail
Veeam survey finds most can’t recover the data they want or do it in time, ransomware is now a ‘disaster’, use of the cloud is increasing, but the datacentre is still very important Continue Reading
-
News
15 Feb 2022
Nebulon gets Ansible collection for datacentre deployment
Provider of cloud-managed and hardware-accelerated – formerly ‘cloud-defined’ – storage makes further moves towards its smartInfrastructure vision, with Terraform support coming Continue Reading
-
News
14 Feb 2022
India to invest $1bn in quantum computing
India plans to invest $1bn over the next five years to advance its capabilities in quantum technology, but it will need to have a tailored approach and to address the skills gap to succeed Continue Reading
-
Feature
09 Feb 2022
Posix vs object storage: How much longer for Posix?
We look at Posix compliance in storage and why it is being challenged by object storage and the need to scale much further than Posix-oriented storage was ever intended to Continue Reading
-
News
26 Jan 2022
Storage tech brief: Look out for PCIe gen 5 drives in 2022
PCIe 5.0 will offer bandwidth up to 128GBps per drive. We look at what’s available and when, including in the new EDSFF form factor, as well as looking forward to PCIe gen 6 Continue Reading
-
Feature
24 Jan 2022
EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre
Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground Continue Reading
-
Feature
14 Jan 2022
Finland moves to industrialise quantum computing
For the Finnish government, now is the time to start preparing for the day when quantum computers will have practical value Continue Reading
-
Blog Post
10 Jan 2022
Is the commodity server bandwagon running out of steam?
The term “paradigm shift” gets flung about far too much in IT, but we may be at one of those few times that genuinely deserves it. For decades now, specialised hardware devices have been losing ... Continue Reading
-
Feature
07 Jan 2022
New supercomputer opens doors for researchers in Sweden
More than twice as powerful as its predecessor, a new supercomputer ushers in new opportunities for researchers who rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning Continue Reading
-
Feature
22 Dec 2021
Scale-up vs scale-out: Horizontal vs vertical scaling for storage
We look at the differences between scale-up and scale-out in storage – or horizontal vs vertical scaling – and the key ways it can be carried out on-prem and in the cloud Continue Reading