Dell PowerEdge R960 buyer's guide: maximum four-socket capacity for mission-critical workloads (UK 2026)
When a single workload outgrows everything else you run, the answer is sometimes one very large server rather than a fleet of medium ones. The Dell PowerEdge R960 is the top of Dell's four-socket line…
Manufacturing OT/IT convergence: a UK practitioner's view
UK manufacturing IT/OT convergence has been talked about for a decade. In 2026, NIS2 + IEC 62443 + targeted ransomware attacks have made it operationally urgent. This is the practitioner's view from S…
Object storage server hardware: speccing nodes for S3-compatible workloads (UK 2026)
On-prem S3-compatible object storage has gone from niche to mainstream, driven by backup targets, data lakes, application object stores and the simple economics of owning capacity rather than renting …
Best RAID for a home media server (Plex/NAS)
A home media server (Plex, Jellyfin, a NAS film/photo library) is capacity-led and read-heavy — so the best RAID maximises usable space while surviving a drive failure. Size yours in the RAID calculat…
Migrating from Backup Exec to Veeam: a 90-day UK playbook
Veritas Backup Exec served UK SMB + mid-market well for two decades but most organisations now migrate to Veeam Data Platform as Backup Exec reaches a natural refresh point or as ransomware-recovery d…
Server RAM speeds explained: why your DIMMs run slower than 6400 MT/s (UK 2026)
You bought DDR5 rated at 6400 MT/s, the configurator confirmed it, and yet the server boots and reports the memory running at 5200 or even 4400. Nothing is broken. Server memory almost never runs at t…
Financial services IT stack 2026: UK FCA-regulated firm reference architecture
UK FCA-regulated firms (asset managers, brokers, fund administrators, family offices, wealth managers, private banks, fintechs) face shared IT architecture decisions: DORA + Operational Resilience com…
Dell PowerEdge R860 buyer's guide: four-socket scale-up for in-memory databases (UK 2026)
Most workloads scale out, but a stubborn few scale up: SAP HANA, large in-memory analytics, and consolidation targets that want every VM on one fault domain with an enormous shared memory pool. The De…
Best RAID for a NAS: how to choose (2026)
The best RAID for a NAS depends on how many bays it has and how big the drives are. As a rule: mirror for two bays, RAID 6 or RAIDZ2 for four or more large drives. Size your exact NAS in the RAID calc…
Best HCI platform UK 2026: Nutanix vs VMware vSAN vs Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
The UK hyperconverged shortlist has narrowed to three: Nutanix, VMware vSAN, and Microsoft Azure Stack HCI (now Azure Local). The Broadcom acquisition of VMware in 2024 reshuffled the market — many UK…
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