IT Infrastructure & Servers

A teraflop corresponds to a computer’s speed in performing one trillion floating-point operations per second. It is used to measure computing performance, and is particularly crucial in supercomputers, video games and complex data processing.

A Storage Area Network (SAN) forms a distinct, high-speed fabric of servers, switches, and storage arrays for block-level data access. SANs optimize IT infrastructure, underpin business continuity and disaster recovery, and are vital for virtualized environments demanding high availability.

IPMI is a standardised hardware-based platform management tool used to monitor and control computer systems remotely, regardless of the operating system's state. It allows administrators to perform system health monitoring, power control, event logging, and alerting.

IOPS, or Input/Output Operations Per Second, measures storage device performance, particularly for applications with many small, random data requests. SSDs offer higher IOPS than HDDs, making them ideal for demanding tasks. Understanding your IOPS requirements is key to choosing the right storage solution.

High Performance Computing (HPC) harnesses supercomputers and clusters for complex, high-speed computations. Essential in scientific, engineering, and business domains, HPC performs quadrillions of calculations per second, vastly outpacing standard computers. HPC enables rapid processing of vast data sets and simulations, supporting advancements in fields including healthcare, aviation, and manufacturing.

Grid computing is a powerful distributed computing model, connecting multiple computers to process large-scale tasks. It's integral to fields like science and finance, solving grand challenges through parallel processing. This technology is characterized by its use of diverse computers that are geographically dispersed, and co-ordinated through sophisticated middleware.

Validator nodes are crucial for blockchain security, verifying transactions and proposing blocks. They differ from full nodes by actively participating in consensus. Running one involves hardware costs, staking crypto, and technical setup, offering financial rewards and contributing to network decentralisation and security.

Server redundancy ensures continuous service availability by using duplicate servers and components, eliminating single points of failure. If a primary server fails, a backup seamlessly takes over its workload. This involves failover processes, replication, and potentially geographically separate disaster recovery sites.

Observability provides deep insights into complex IT systems by analysing telemetry (logs, metrics, traces). It focuses on helping teams understand why failures occur, enabling them to debug "unknown unknowns" and ensure reliability in modern cloud environments.

A machine learning (ML) server is a specialised computing system designed to handle the intensive demands of training and deploying ML models. Unlike traditional machines, ML servers feature high-performance GPUs, ample RAM, fast storage, and optimised networking for parallel computations, enabling rapid development and deployment of AI solutions.

High Availability ensures IT systems run continuously, minimising downtime. It eliminates single points of failure using redundancy, automatic failover, and reliable failure detection. This maintains accessibility, prevents revenue loss, and protects business reputation through consistent operational performance.

A dedicated gaming server is a standalone machine exclusively hosting multiplayer video games. It offers superior performance, low latency, and enhanced stability by dedicating all resources to the game. This provides players with a smoother, more reliable experience, unlike shared or peer-to-peer hosting.

Bare Metal Restore (BMR) restores an entire system image directly to a new or empty machine using backups, disks, and drivers. This guide explains how the process works, its benefits, and how it supports disaster recovery and business continuity.

Bare Metal Cloud provides exclusive access to physical servers without virtualisation. This delivers high power and enhanced security for demanding workloads like HPC, gaming, and databases. While offering dedicated resources, it may be less flexible and more costly than virtualised IaaS, but provides full hardware control.

AI servers are specialised computing systems designed for demanding AI workloads like machine learning. Unlike traditional servers, they utilise specialised hardware, such as GPUs and AI accelerators, for the parallel processing of massive datasets. They offer increased efficiency, real-time insights, enhanced security, and scalability for various AI applications.

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a hosting solution that provides dedicated computing resources for applications and websites. A Virtual Private Network (VPN), on the other hand, is a tool that enhances online privacy and security by encrypting your internet traffic.

Server uptime is the amount of time a server is operational. Downtime is when a server is unavailable. Both are measured in percentages. High uptime is crucial for online businesses to ensure continuous service and maintain a positive brand image.

Compare dedicated and non-dedicated servers by performance, cost, security, and scalability. Figure out what you need based on use cases, features, and workload support, then choose the right one for your website, app, or business.

IT infrastructure refers to the combined group of technology elements including hardware, software, networks, facilities, and all the necessary components that support the management, processing, and storage of information.

This article compares bare metal cloud and dedicated servers, outlining their definitions, pros, cons, and key differences. It guides you in choosing the right infrastructure based on performance, scalability, budget, and security needs, highlighting OVHcloud's solutions.

Bare metal servers are physical services based on a server and allocated to an individual customer. Each server is a physical device without a hypervisor preinstalled, and all of its resources are dedicated to the single client.

A virtual private server resides on hardware that is shared with other virtual servers, each running its own operating system and applications. Generally offered by a hosting provider or cloud provider, it is inherently flexible and quick to set up.

Server provisioning is configuring a server to host applications or services. It streamlines deployments, improves security, and optimises resource usage for enhanced efficiency and scalability.

Server monitoring is the process of systematically tracking, measuring and observing the operations and processes on a server. The primary goal of server monitoring is to collect data that can be used to assess the health and condition of the server, ensuring that it operates at optimal performance levels and ensuring applications such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) run flawlessly.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a modern approach to managing computing infrastructure using code. It automates setup, configuration, and management, enabling faster, more reliable deployments. IaC increases speed and efficiency, enhances consistency and reliability, and promotes scalability and flexibility.

Dedicated servers are physical computers located in a datacentre, with all servers’ resources allocated exclusively to a single client. Dedicated servers are powerful, highly flexible and used as the foundation for many complex IT projects.

Dedicated server hosting offers a physical server that is configured and used exclusively by a business, instead of being shared with other enterprise. This leads to performance, reliability and privacy gains across the board as well as giving the organisation complete control of its server solution.

A co-location datacentre is an infrastructure where a company hosts its equipment. Unlike dedicated datacentres, colocation centers allow customers to share space with optimized resources.