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 is cooled, and how many servers a rack will hold.…
vSAN ready nodes in 2026: certified hardware, disk groups and sizing after Broadcom (UK)
A vSAN cluster is only as supportable as the hardware underneath it, and vSAN is unusually fussy about that hardware. Buy a server that merely looks adequate and you can end up with a configuration VM…
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 co…
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 …
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 netwo…
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 i…
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…
Insights is one of the four article libraries in the Servnet Hub. The others are Learn (plain-English explainers), News (same-day analysis) and Research (original data studies).
Monthly IT briefing
New product launches, security alerts, vendor pricing changes — straight to your inbox once a month. No spam, no sales calls — you can unsubscribe with one click.
We use your email address to send you the briefing you asked for. It is stored on our own systems, and our email service providers (Brevo and Microsoft 365) handle it for us. We don’t sell it or give it to other organisations for their own marketing. You can unsubscribe at any time. See our Privacy Policy.
Talk to a UK specialist
Get expert advice or a no-obligation quote — servers, storage, networking, maintenance, finance and cloud. We reply the same working day.