First boot with iDRAC and iLO: initial server setup the right way (UK 2026)
The baseboard management controller is the first thing you should configure on a new server and the one most people configure last - if at all. Dell iDRAC and HPE iLO give you full remote control of a…
How to spec a server in 2026: a practitioner's walkthrough
Most server sizing mistakes happen at the spec stage — undersized RAM, overspecified CPU, wrong drive form factor, missed network throughput requirement. This walkthrough gives you the actual decision…
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 quietly in a cupboard or under a desk and just works. HP…
Cloud vs on-prem TCO 2026: the honest UK mid-market analysis
Cloud is not always cheaper than on-prem. This is now widely acknowledged — yet most UK mid-market organisations still under-model on-prem TCO + over-model cloud TCO when comparing. This is the honest…
PCIe 6.0 and CXL memory pooling: what UK infrastructure teams should plan for
For thirty years a server's memory has been welded to its CPU sockets: every host carries its own DRAM, most of it sits idle most of the time, and you cannot lend a spare gigabyte from one machine to …
RAID rebuild & ZFS resilver explained (times & risk)
A rebuild (or ZFS resilver) is when the array reconstructs a failed drive — and it's the riskiest moment in an array's life. Here's how long it takes, why it's risky, and how to shrink both. Estimate …
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. Typical savings are 50-75% vs new equivalent. Done w…
EOL and EOSL planning: when to refresh, extend or re-support your servers (UK 2026)
Every server reaches a point where the vendor stops selling it, then a later point where the vendor stops supporting it, and the gap between those two dates is where a lot of UK IT budgets are quietly…
RAID write penalty explained (and IOPS impact)
The RAID write penalty is the hidden tax that makes parity RAID slow for writes: each host write costs several back-end disk operations. Here's the maths — and see it in your IOPS in the RAID calculat…
How much server RAM do you need? Right-sizing memory in 2026 (UK)
Memory is the dimension a server most often runs out of first - and the one most often guessed at. How much RAM you need is a methodology question, not a number you can copy from someone else's build,…
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