Microserver: The Little Server That Could

Microserver: The Little Server That Could

Some companies process and handle so much data that they require entire rooms of servers to handle the demand. A snapshot of their server rooms will shows racks upon racks of hardware connected by a sea of cables. While many businesses need to utilize server hardware to some degree, set-ups such as these might be overkill for a small business. Not only would technology on this scale be more than necessary to serve their needs, but possibly too costly to purchase, design and maintain for a business with lower revenue and budget. For these businesses, microservers are an emerging and growing segment of the market that perfectly suits their needs.

Like their more powerful siblings, microservers can manage shared data, web hosting, running software applications, and provide centralized secure storage. Microservers, however, perform these tasks on a smaller and more power efficient scale. For instance, imagine a fifteen person office might want to centralize the data currently stored on each individual's computer. Or perhaps a business hosts a low traffic web site. For these organizations, the higher end blade or rack server would not only go largely under-utilized but might require more energy to perform a relatively low-power task.

What about microservers makes them so much more ideal for handling smaller-scale server tasks? Traditional servers rely upon high-power and high-performance multi-core server processors, like Intel's traditional Xeon or AMD's Opteron chips, to manage their data and processes. Microservers, however, bundle together a number of lower power, lower performance chips in each system. While those lower performance chips on their own might be less powerful, when combined for on demand service, they provide excellent performance while requiring less energy for tasks than a traditional server. These smaller servers also tend to draw less energy when not in use.

Some microservers, like the HP Proliant, currently successfully utilize a desktop variety chip to power these lighter-task servers. But more and more are focusing on the multiple processor method, such as one microserver that uses over 500 processors on its credit-card sized motherboard. Most recently, Intel announced that it is about to send to market new low-power processors intended for use in microservers. These chips, additions to the Xeon family, are just the first round of new hardware designs dedicated to microservers. With projections that microservers are to become at least ten percent of the overall server market in the next five years, clearly more consumers and manufacturers are taking note of this little server that packs a punch.

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