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Insights · Buyer Guides

Buyer Guides

37 articles in this category

Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen12 buyer's guide: maxed-out 2U for AI-adjacent workloads (UK)

The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen12 takes the most popular 2U server and brings it into the AI-adjacent era: the newest Intel Xeon generation, faster memory

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 buyer's guide: the 2U all-rounder for virtualisation and storage (UK)

If one server has been the default choice for UK virtualisation and mixed workloads, it is the HPE ProLiant DL380. The Gen11 carries that on: a 2U dua

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen12 buyer's guide: next-gen Xeon 1U compute for 2026 (UK)

The HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen12 is the latest turn of HPE's most popular 1U server, built around the newest Intel Xeon generation and a refreshed platfor

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE Edgeline and edge compute: specifying rugged servers for retail, industrial and remote sites (UK 2026)

Edge compute is where the assumptions of the data centre break down. There is no cold aisle, often no IT staff, sometimes no proper rack, and the box

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen11 buyer's guide: is the 1U workhorse still worth it in 2026? (UK)

The HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen11 has been the default 1U dual-socket server for a huge number of UK estates: dense, well-supported, and ideal for virtuali

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Dell PowerEdge T560 tower buyer's guide: a quiet, expandable server for branch and SMB (UK 2026)

Not every business has a rack, a server room, or even a cupboard with proper cooling. Plenty of UK offices, branches and small sites need datacentre-g

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Dell PowerEdge R960 buyer's guide: maximum four-socket capacity for mission-critical workloads (UK 2026)

When a single workload outgrows everything else you run, the answer is sometimes one very large server rather than a fleet of medium ones. The Dell Po

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Dell PowerEdge R860 buyer's guide: four-socket scale-up for in-memory databases (UK 2026)

Most workloads scale out, but a stubborn few scale up: SAP HANA, large in-memory analytics, and consolidation targets that want every VM on one fault

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

New vs refurbished enterprise servers: the 2026 economics for UK buyers

New versus refurbished is usually argued on instinct - new feels safe, refurbished feels cheap - when it is really a numbers question. Over a five-yea

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE GreenLake explained: consumption-based hardware and the real CapEx vs OpEx maths (UK 2026)

HPE GreenLake promises the cloud's pay-for-what-you-use model on hardware that lives in your own data centre or colocation space. For finance teams ti

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

iDRAC vs iLO vs XClarity: comparing server management controllers in 2026 (UK)

Every enterprise server has a small computer inside it whose only job is to manage the server itself, and which one you get depends on the brand: Dell

· 10 min read
Servers · Compute · Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge vs HPE ProLiant vs Lenovo ThinkSystem 2026: UK server buyer's guide

Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, and Lenovo ThinkSystem are the three platforms 90% of UK enterprise server refresh decisions land on. All three offer co

· 12 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

UK server lead times in 2026: what to expect and how to de-risk delivery

Lead time is the variable that quietly wrecks more infrastructure projects than budget does. A server that is perfect on paper is useless if it lands

· 11 min read
Procurement · Buyer's Guide

How to choose your UK IT partner (without vendor bias)

Choosing a UK IT partner has more impact on long-term IT operations than most procurement teams credit. Good resellers compress procurement cycles, ge

· 7 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Supermicro BigTwin and GrandTwin multi-node servers: maximum density per rack U (UK 2026)

When you need many servers in as few rack units as possible, discrete 1U boxes start to waste space, power and money on duplicated infrastructure. Sup

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

How to get an enterprise server quote in the UK (and what to send us)

The fastest way to get an accurate enterprise server quote is to send the right information up front - and the slowest is a one-line email asking for

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Dell PowerEdge 16G to 17G: the generation jump UK buyers should understand (2026)

Dell PowerEdge generations move in steps, and the jump from 16G to 17G is a meaningful one: a new processor platform, faster memory and interconnect,

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE Synergy in 2026: is composable infrastructure still the right bet?

Composable infrastructure was pitched as the answer to rigid hardware: pools of compute, storage and fabric that software carves into whatever a workl

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Supermicro vs tier-1: when open standard servers beat Dell, HPE and Lenovo (UK 2026)

Most UK buyers reach for Dell, HPE or Lenovo by default, and for good reason: tier-1 vendors bundle support, lifecycle tooling and a known quantity. B

· 10 min read
Power · UPS · Buyer's Guide

APC vs Eaton vs Riello UPS UK 2026: which UPS brand for which use case

APC by Schneider Electric, Eaton, and Riello dominate UK UPS sales — between them they cover SMB rack UPS through data-centre 1.5 MW chassis systems.

· 9 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant tower servers: MicroServer, ML110 and ML350 Gen11 for UK SMBs and branch offices

Not every business has a rack, a server room or a cooling plant. Plenty of UK SMBs and branch offices need exactly one capable server that sits quietl

· 10 min read
Procurement · Buyer's Guide

How to buy refurbished enterprise hardware in the UK safely

Refurbished enterprise hardware — servers, storage, switches, firewalls — is a legitimate procurement option that most UK IT buyers under-consider. Ty

· 8 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant Gen11 to Gen12: what actually changed and whether to upgrade (UK 2026)

A new server generation always promises more, but the question that matters to a buyer is narrower: what actually changed, and is it worth moving for

· 10 min read
Data Centre · KVM · Buyer's Guide

Raritan vs Vertiv KVM-over-IP UK 2026: data centre console buyer's guide

Raritan and Vertiv (Avocent) are the two dominant KVM-over-IP brands in UK enterprise data centres. Both ship 1080p + 4K platforms, both have FIPS 140

· 8 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL580 buyer's guide: mission-critical four-socket scale-up (UK 2026)

Some workloads cannot be allowed to fail, and cannot be spread across a cluster either. For those, the answer is one very large, very resilient server

· 11 min read
Data Centre · Procurement · Buyer's Guide

How to pick a UK colocation data centre: the procurement framework

UK colocation is a mature market — Equinix, Digital Realty, Telehouse, Pulsant, ARK, IONOS, Custodian and 20+ regional operators. The right choice dep

· 8 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem SD and SE series: dense multi-node and edge servers (UK 2026)

Mainstream buyer guides focus on the 1U and 2U rack servers most organisations buy, but Lenovo's ThinkSystem range has two specialist families that so

· 9 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen11 buyer's guide: four-socket 2U for in-memory and consolidation (UK 2026)

There is a specific moment when scaling out stops making sense: when one workload, or one dense consolidation target, would rather live on a single la

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem ST650 tower buyer's guide: datacentre-grade power for the office (UK 2026)

Not every organisation has a rack, but plenty still need serious server capability. The ThinkSystem ST650 is Lenovo's senior tower: a dual-socket, exp

· 9 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR860 buyer's guide: 4U mission-critical, GPU-capable scale-up (UK 2026)

Some workloads need both a large coherent system and room for accelerators or extensive I/O, and that combination is hard to deliver in a dense 2U. Th

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR850 V3 buyer's guide: four-socket 2U for scale-up workloads (UK 2026)

Most servers scale out: you add nodes. Some workloads scale up instead, demanding more cores and far more memory inside a single coherent system than

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V3 vs V4: choosing the right 2U virtualisation host (UK 2026)

The ThinkSystem SR650 is Lenovo's 2U all-rounder, and for most UK buyers it is the default virtualisation host: enough drive bays, enough PCIe, enough

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V3 vs V4: the 1U mainstream upgrade decision (UK 2026)

The ThinkSystem SR630 is Lenovo's flagship 1U, and for years it has been a quiet, reliable default for virtualisation and general compute. The arrival

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

1U vs 2U vs 4U servers: a form-factor buyer's guide for 2026 (UK)

Rack height looks like a trivial line on a quote, but it quietly decides how many drives you can fit, whether a GPU will physically go in, how the box

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL340 Gen12 buyer's guide: the storage-dense 1U newcomer (UK 2026)

Most 1U servers force a hard trade: you can have compute or you can have drives, but not many of both. The ProLiant DL340 Gen12 is HPE's answer to tha

· 10 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

Supermicro GPU SuperServer buyer's guide: cost-effective AI inference and training nodes (UK 2026)

When a team needs more accelerators per pound than an integrated appliance will give them, the open-hardware route usually points at Supermicro. Its G

· 11 min read
Server Infrastructure · Buyer Guide

HPE ProLiant DL320 Gen12 buyer's guide: single-socket 1U for edge, VDI and dense hosting (UK 2026)

The reflex when buying a 1U HPE server is to reach for the dual-socket DL360. For a large share of real workloads that is a socket too many. The ProLi

· 10 min read