In today’s digital world, a server plays key roles in any IT infrastructure. Servers power websites, apps, manage data storage and business networks. Whether hosted on-site, or in the cloud, modern servers are fast, scalable, and reliable. Businesses of all sizes use them to stay connected and run smoothly. Let’s learn more.
In this Article
- What are Servers?
- Types of Servers
- Choosing the right Server for your business
- Current Trends in Server Market
- More about Servers
- Final Thoughts
What are Servers?
A server is a specialized computer, or software system in an IT infrastructure that provides data, resources and/or services to other computers called ‘clients’, over a network. Example scenarios: Offices where employees access files from a central location; providing online services to users in a network; hosting an application for a specific department in an office.
Types of Servers
1. Tower Servers
These are computer servers housed in upright, standalone server rack cabinets. Tower servers look like desktop personal computers (PCs). It’s easy to deploy them, but needs more space while scaling up. A tower server is ideal for small businesses, or branch office IT infrastructure.
2. Rack Servers
Rack server a.k.a rack-mounted server is a type of server designed for installing in a standardized rack frame. Typically, rack servers are 19 inches wide. As you scale up, you can stack several servers vertically. They offer good airflow and cable management. Generally, rack servers are found in data centers and enterprise environments.
3. Blade Servers
Blade servers are modular, high-density servers designed to save power and space. They are thin, stripped-down systems that slide into a shared blade enclosure (chassis), which provides centralized power, cooling, networking and management. Blade servers are for complex or high-performance IT environments like data centres that achieve more using less space.
4. Edge Servers
Edge servers are specialized servers that operate at the edge of an IT network. Meaning, they are placed closer to end-users, or data sources for faster data processing with least latency. Typically, edger servers work in tandem with a main data center, and process, store and deliver data locally. This avoids back and forth sending of information to the data center or central cloud. Edge servers are common in healthcare, manufacturing industries and smart cities.
5. GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) Servers
These are high-performance computing servers having graphics processing units (GPUs) alongside traditional central processing units (CPUs) in them. Unlike CPUs that do sequential task execution, GPUs can handle thousands of tasks simultaneously. GPU servers are ideal for doing complex, compute-intensive tasks that require massive parallel processing and deep learning. Generally, they are used in workloads involving artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data analytics.
6. Virtual & Cloud Servers
These are software-defined servers hosted on physical machines, or in the cloud. They offer scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency. When unsure of how much computing power you would need, or scaling up based on computing or storage demand, cloud servers come handy.
Choosing the right Server for your Business
Choosing the right server for your business IT infrastructure depends on your potential workload, budget and scalability needs.
Here’s a quick matrix to help you make an informed decision:
| Selection Criteria | Suitable Server |
| 1. Small office, or Low traffic | Tower Server |
| 2. Growing business | Rack Server with RAID 10 |
| 3. AI (artificial intelligence) or ML (machine learning) workloads | GPU (graphics processing unit) server, or Cloud GPU (cloud-based/virtual machine with access to GPU resources) |
| 4. Real-time edge processing | Edge Server |
| 5. Budget-conscious scale up | Virtual or Cloud Server |
| 6. High-density data center | Blade Server |
Also consider these important aspects
- Security:
It’s better to have servers with built-in trusted platform modules (TPM). TPMs are security chips embedded in modern motherboards/CPUs. They secure boot, provide cryptographic functions, and integrate your data loss prevention (DLP) and mobile device management (MDM) measures. In effect, you get a layered security architecture that ensures device integrity at startup, data encryption, security policy enforcement, and centralized control over endpoints. - Redundancy:
To ensure redundancy and seamless operations, consider your RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) levels, have two independent power supplies and failover clustering (for automatic transfer of workload to another node in case of a failover) in place. - Cooling:
Keeping your server and other IT infrastructure in cool temperatures is crucial to maintain its efficient performance and longevity. Depending on your server density, choose between air and liquid cooling. Compared to air cooling, liquid cooling is more efficient. It enables better heat management, lesser energy use and supports high performance workloads in compact spaces.
Current Trends in Server Market
- Emergence of ARM-based servers:
Currently, ARM or Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) Machine-based servers are disrupting the dominance of x86 series processors in hyperscale and cloud-based IT environments. ARM based servers are high-performing as well as energy efficient. - Expansion of edge computing:
Recently, edge servers are becoming critical in latency-sensitive applications. In 2025, 75% of business data is expected to be processed by edge computing (where data processing is done closer to the data source). - AI-enhanced server management:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking up server management processes like predictive maintenance, automated scaling and anomaly detection. That helps reduce downtimes and human errors. - Composable infrastructure:
It’s an IT framework where software manages compute, storage and networking resources based on workload demands. Composable infrastructure boosts agility and efficiency of resource utilization and IT operations. - Sustainability Focus:
Today, more and more organizations are emphasizing on meeting their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. In this context, green data centers are gaining popularity. Sustainability aspects like renewable energy use, recyclable hardware, efficient cooling are becoming priorities now. - Adoption of liquid cooling:
These days liquid cooling is replacing traditional air cooling as server density grows. Liquid cooling systems use liquid coolant to keep your hardware cool. Like mentioned earlier, liquid cooling is more efficient and reduces energy costs.
More about Servers
Personal computers (PCs) are used by individuals to do personal level tasks. PCs come with basic level central processing units (CPUs), random access memory (RAM) and single power supplies. On the other hand, servers are advanced computer systems to do business operations. Servers have superior CPUs, error correcting code (ECC) memory and redundant power supplies. They can work 24/7, doing thousands of tasks simultaneously.
Server uptime refers to the amount of time a server stays operational without network interruptions or downtimes. Maintaining high server uptime (e.g. 99.999% uptime) is crucial for businesses providing uninterrupted services 24/7.
Server virtualization is the process of dividing a single physical server into multiple independent virtual servers using specialized software called hypervisor. Virtualization improves network resource utilization and scalability.
Modern servers support energy-efficient IT designs, dynamic power management and are often part of composable or cloud-based IT infrastructures. Sustainability focus helps organizations reduce their hardware wastage and carbon footprint.
Final Thoughts
In IT infrastructure, the server landscape is evolving rapidly. Traditional servers are giving way to advanced architectures that support modern workloads like AI, big data analytics and IoT(internet of things).
In this article, we have discussed different types of servers, how to choose the right server for your business and recent trends in the server market now.
Whether you’re setting up a new office, or optimizing existing IT infrastructure, being updated helps in prudent decision making. To have a resilient and future-ready IT setup in your business.
🌞Stay ahead in IT infrastructure. Choose the right servers and future-proof your business. Share your thoughts in the comments!
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