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…
Hyperconverged ROI: when HCI beats three-tier infrastructure
Hyperconverged (HCI) replaced three-tier (separate compute + storage + network) as the default mid-market virtualisation architecture between 2016-2024. But HCI doesn't fit every workload. This is the…
Dell PowerEdge T560 tower buyer's guide: a quiet, expandable server for branch and SMB (UK 2026)
Not every business has a rack, a server room, or even a cupboard with proper cooling. Plenty of UK offices, branches and small sites need datacentre-grade capability sitting under a desk or in the cor…
Best RAID for virtualization (VMware/Proxmox/Hyper-V)
Virtualisation hammers storage with mixed, random I/O from many VMs at once — so the best RAID prioritises IOPS and low latency. Here's how to choose for VMware, Proxmox or Hyper-V, and size it in the…
Migrating from legacy AV to modern EDR (CrowdStrike or SentinelOne): UK playbook
Legacy signature-based antivirus (Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, ESET) is end-of-life for ransomware defence. Modern EDR — CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Sophos Intercept X, or Microsoft…
The EU AI Act: UK impact analysis for IT teams
The EU AI Act entered force August 2024 with phased application through 2027. UK organisations deploying AI in EU markets, AI vendors serving EU customers, and UK-headquartered firms with EU subsidiar…
HPE Apollo vs standard rack server density: the break-even analysis
A dense storage chassis like the HPE Apollo is not automatically the right answer just because it holds more disk. It carries its own costs and constraints, and for smaller deployments a couple of sta…
Best SASE platform UK 2026: Zscaler vs Palo Alto Prisma vs Netskope vs Cato vs Microsoft Entra Internet Access
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is now the default replacement for legacy VPN + perimeter firewall + URL filtering. The UK shortlist is Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma Access, Netskope, Cato Networks — an…
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