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 is almost never built…
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. Active Directory is …
How much storage (and what tiers) does your server need? (UK 2026)
Internal server storage is usually sized by guesswork: a capacity number plucked from the last server, a single drive type for everything, and no thought to how the boot, cache and data layers should differ. That leaves …
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 AMD EPYC processors no…
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 right and a modest t…
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 explained plainly. In one s…
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, bolting on a JBOD expans…
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 each session needs, ho…
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 them? Instead of scatt…
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 part; the decisions t…
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