Server Room: Yes, but which one is right for your company?

Today, the question is no longer whether a business needs a server room, but rather – what kind. However, getting a good answer to that question doesn’t always lead to purchasing the right solution..

It used to be simpler – there’s no doubt about that. This opinion applies to IT infrastructure as well, including servers. As data volumes grew, server rooms expanded. For a time, this process was linear. You could add a floor or two to a three-story building, but you couldn’t keep going indefinitely; the building simply wasn’t designed for it, and the foundations wouldn’t hold the weight. Meanwhile, data began to grow exponentially. Digitalization, GDPR, management systems, process optimization – selecting the right technology to provide optimal processing capabilities became a key issue.

Nowdays, almost every enterprise, regardless of scale or profile, needs servers. The question is: which ones to choose? The decision is difficult, not only because it’s harder to navigate the ever-growing offers from hardware manufacturers. Decision-makers and administrators often stick to traditional solutions rather than innovative ones for a simple reason: if something goes wrong, they can always say they chose a proven path.

The virtual Server Room…

In this somewhat long introduction, we wanted to highlight that innovative server solutions are often adopted more slowly than they deserve. Undoubtedly, the biggest change we have seen in years is the Cloud. In short, it is a server room in an outsourced service model. You can access resources, services, and computing power as if your servers were in the next room, even though they are physically dispersed across the globe. Such solutions are best for large companies where investing in a full server infrastructure requires significant capital. It’s not just the hardware that costs money, but also the properly prepared facilities and professional maintenance. Usually, the economic calculation favors this choice – one “only” needs to calculate what is more cost-effective.

Your own Server Room?

In opposition to this concept is building your own network with your own hardware. For large enterprises, this means owning the entire hardware infrastructure, software, and, of course, IT support. Storage is the foundation of every server room. Most often, these are disk arrays where data is stored. These arrays are connected to servers providing computing power via switches and networks. The servers run virtualization software, and at the very top of this structure, virtual machines are launched.

Many enterprises built their IT structures before the cloud boom. Returning to our construction metaphor, it is certainly easier and cheaper to add a few floors to an existing skyscraper than to build everything from scratch. There are also companies that simply do not want to outsource because they prefer to keep all data on-site. On one hand, statistically, server farm failures are very rare. On the other hand, when they do happen, they are spectacular. Much like plane crashes: air travel is among the safest forms of transport, but every disaster is heard around the world.

HCI – two in one

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) is one of the latest concepts in server solutions. The idea is very simple: you have a standard server built on x86 processors – either Intel or AMD – that integrates all the previously mentioned components. From the user’s perspective, this setup performs the functions of an entire server infrastructure, including arrays, servers, switches, networking, software and virtual machines. Expanding a server room based on HCI architecture is incredibly simple, as it involves adding subsequent modules. Unlike a traditional server room, there is no “foundation” problem and you avoid the complication where upgrading one element is expensive and might not yield benefits without scaling the rest. In practise, an HCI server can be compared to having a local cloud on-site.

A crucial feature of HCI is scalability, allowing the solution to be perfectly matched to the enterprise’s needs. Everything suggests that this is an ideal solution for cases where the software and systems used are “cloud-ready,” but the client prefers to keep everything local. It is also perfect for those who need specific infrastructure but do not want to invest in traditional solutions, which – compared to the cloud or HCI – are the most costly.

Old, proven ways

This brief comparison shows that HCI is an option that balances the pros and cons of a modern server room. So why isn’t it the most popular choice? Perhaps the conservative mechanism mentioned earlier is at work, warning against innovation and suggesting safe, old, proven methods that have always worked. Or perhaps it is simple mistrust? Mini-PCs the size of a stick of butter were available years ago. They had every advantage – they saved space, used less energy, and were quiet. Yet, for a long time, no one bought them. What once took up a large area of your office could be replaced by a kit that fits under a desk. Today, we all know that a mini-PC is just as functional as a good old desktop.

Perhaps it is the same with servers – it just takes time.