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. …
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 AM…
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 …
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 explain…
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, bolt…
Spec'ing a VDI host in 2026: GPU, RAM density and users-per-host (UK)
A VDI host is not a general virtualisation host with desktops bolted on. The economics live and die on users-per-host, and that number is set by three things working together: how much frame buffer ea…
JBOF and NVMe flash enclosures: when all-flash disaggregation makes sense (UK 2026)
A JBOF, a just-a-bunch-of-flash enclosure, is the all-NVMe answer to a question that storage architects have asked for years: why should fast drives be trapped inside the server that happens to own th…
Building a file and NAS server: capacity, ZFS or Storage Spaces and 10/25GbE (UK 2026)
A file server looks like the simplest box in the rack until you have to build one that stays fast for fifty people, never loses a byte and still has room to grow in three years. Capacity is the easy p…
DIMM population rules: how to fill memory slots for full bandwidth (UK 2026)
Two servers with identical CPUs and the same total RAM can differ by a third in memory bandwidth, purely because of how the DIMMs were placed in the slots. Memory population is not cosmetic - it decid…
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 GPU SuperServer families cover everything from a si…
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