TECHNOLOGY
50
“ The constant change in information and ever evolving needs of customers means there must be faster and more efficient solutions to turn data into information that empowers businesses ”
— Kamran Amini , Lenovo Data Center Group
has a physical presence , a CPU , some RAM , and some sort of internal storage from which the operating system is loaded and is booted . There are several types of physical server , including towers ( low cost , low power systems used in edge networks or when the operator can ’ t justify building a full rack ), rackmount servers ( the typical building blocks of a data centre , usually placed together in groups and organised in rows ), and blade servers ( easily the coolest sounding type , these units designed to be super modular , allowing operators to scale quickly and easily ).
On the other hand , virtual servers work by installing a Hypervisor , software that provides the ability for a single server to run multiple computing workloads as though they were running on multiple servers . These virtual machines have become the industry standard upon which the majority of companies host their virtual environments . There are several benefits to using virtual servers instead of physical hardware , from provisioning , management and configuration to scalability and automation . Purchasing , installing and setting up a physical server can take days or even weeks . By contrast , allotting space in a virtual server theoretically takes a few seconds , and when that space isn ’ t needed any more , the company just stops paying for the rackspace .
That ’ s not to say that virtual servers aren ’ t without their drawbacks . Your own IT staff won ’ t have access to any physical resources , making problem solving a potentially complicated process . Also , since servers are typically billed by usage over time , they can end up costing more in the long run than installing owned hardware . Virtual servers also
OCTOBER 2020