Specifying a Veeam backup repository: hardware for a hardened, fast-restore target (UK 2026)
Plenty of guides tell you which backup software to buy. Far fewer tell you how to build the box the backups land on — and a badly-specified repository is where slow restores and broken immutability come from. This is how…
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 that compromise, a 1U designed to carry an unusually generous number of d…
What is a DPU (SmartNIC)? Offload, isolation and vSphere DPU explained
A DPU, or data processing unit, is the third programmable processor that has quietly appeared inside modern servers, alongside the CPU and the GPU. In its more familiar guise it is a SmartNIC: a network card with its own…
HDD vs QLC vs TLC: choosing and tiering storage media in 2026 (UK)
Storage media is not a single choice any more, it is a portfolio. Spinning disk, QLC flash and TLC flash each occupy a different point on the cost, speed and endurance curve, and the cheapest estate is almost never built…
Specifying an Active Directory domain controller without over-building it (UK 2026)
The domain controller is the server people reflexively over-build. It sits at the centre of everything, so the instinct is to throw a big two-socket box at it - which is almost always the wrong call. Active Directory is …
How much storage (and what tiers) does your server need? (UK 2026)
Internal server storage is usually sized by guesswork: a capacity number plucked from the last server, a single drive type for everything, and no thought to how the boot, cache and data layers should differ. That leaves …
Single-socket vs dual-socket servers: which do you actually need? (UK 2026)
For two decades the default enterprise server was a dual-socket box, and most buyers still tick that option without thinking. That habit deserves a fresh look. Modern single-socket Intel Xeon 6 and AMD EPYC processors no…
Specifying a SQL Server or Oracle database host: cores, licensing and NVMe (UK 2026)
A database host is the one server where buying the wrong CPU costs you twice — once for the silicon, and every year after in per-core database licences. Get the core count, memory and storage latency right and a modest t…
What is CXL (Compute Express Link)? A plain-English guide for server buyers
CXL, or Compute Express Link, is one of those acronyms that has gone from research curiosity to a line item on server spec sheets in a remarkably short time - and most buyers have never had it explained plainly. In one s…
Add a JBOD or buy another server? A decision framework for storage growth (UK 2026)
You are out of disk. The instinct is to buy another server, but that is often the expensive answer to the wrong question. If the existing host still has spare CPU, memory and controller headroom, bolting on a JBOD expans…
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