MinIO vs Ceph vs Scality: matching host hardware to each SDS platform (UK 2026)
MinIO, Ceph and Scality are three of the software-defined storage platforms UK teams reach for when they want to own their storage, and choosing between them is usually argued on features and licensin…
Best RAID for video surveillance / NVR (2026)
Surveillance storage is a constant, sequential write from many cameras with long retention — so the best RAID is capacity-led, resilient and built on surveillance-rated drives. Size your retention in …
Best backup software UK 2026: Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Veritas, M365 Backup, Acronis, Druva — the full picture
Most UK backup shortlists narrow to Veeam, Rubrik and Commvault — but the market now includes Microsoft 365 Backup (native, since 2024), Acronis (SMB through mid-market) and Druva (SaaS-only). This pi…
Dell PowerEdge XE9680, XE8640 and XE7745: choosing a Dell AI / GPU server in 2026 (UK)
Dell's PowerEdge XE line is its purpose-built AI and GPU range, and choosing within it is really a question about your workload, not your budget. An eight-GPU training node, a balanced four-GPU box an…
How to choose an EDR platform: a 7-question framework for UK IT teams
Most UK organisations setting out to choose an EDR platform end up shortlisting CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Sophos, and Microsoft Defender XDR — the four we cover in our head-to-head. But the right answ…
Migrating from legacy VPN to ZTNA (Zscaler or Prisma Access): 90-day UK playbook
Legacy IPSec / SSL VPN concentrators were the model for the 2000s — they don't fit a hybrid-work, multi-cloud, M&A-active 2026 estate. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) via Zscaler ZPA, Palo Alto Prism…
NUMA explained: why server topology decides your real performance (UK 2026)
Two servers with identical core counts, identical memory and identical clock speeds can post very different real-world numbers, and the usual reason is NUMA. Non-Uniform Memory Access is the single mo…
Best RAID for databases (SQL, Oracle, Postgres)
Databases are write-heavy and latency-sensitive, so the best RAID minimises the write penalty and keeps latency predictable — which almost always means RAID 10 on flash. Size it in the RAID 10 calcula…
JBOD expansion shelves explained: adding capacity without adding servers (UK 2026)
When a storage server fills up, the instinct is to buy another server. Often that is the wrong, expensive answer. A JBOD, a just-a-bunch-of-disks expansion shelf, is an enclosure full of drive bays wi…
Best firewall UK 2026: FortiGate vs Palo Alto vs Cisco Firepower vs Juniper SRX
Most UK firewall RFPs land on the same shortlist: FortiGate, Palo Alto, Cisco Firepower, Juniper SRX. They all do NGFW + IPS + SSL inspection + ZTNA + SD-WAN. The differences that matter aren't featur…
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