A mainframe is a large-capacity computer system with processing power that is significantly superior to PCs or midrange computers. It is traditionally associated with centralized computing environments and is used by large organizations for data processing tasks like payroll or accounts payable. Mainframes are known for their large size, amount of storage, processing power, and high level of reliability. They can connect to multiple end clients simultaneously and are critical to commercial databases, transaction servers, and applications that require high resiliency, security, and agility.

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Tower servers function as computers that run 24/7 in order to provide dedicated support for your business’s workloads. Acting as a secure hub for all communication to pass through, a tower server is run collaboratively with your network of devices, supporting your apps and providing storage for all data and analytics.

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Rack Mounted Servers

A rack server, also known as a rack mount server, rack-mounted server or rack mount computer, is a computer designed to be situated in a rectangular structure called a server rack. The advantages of a server rack include better space conservation for rack servers, increased scalability, maximized air flow when coupled with a cooling system and ease of regular computer maintenance and diagnostics, given that their design allows technicians and operators to easily slide rack servers in and out of them. Like all servers, rack servers provide data and specific services to clients. They’re commonly found in data centers full of dozens, or even hundreds, of server racks and server rack cabinets. Rack mounted servers are computers that contain all the components necessary for operations. Plug the rack mounted server into a standard electrical outlet and connect the network cables and the device is operational. The rack mounted configuration allows the device to be mounted in a computer hardware rack, usually 19 inches in width, although the devices could sit on a table or desk with similar results.

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Blade Servers

A blade server is a modular server that allows multiple servers to be housed in a smaller area. These servers are physically thin and typically only have CPUs, memory, integrated network controllers, and sometimes storage drives built in. Any video cards or other components that are needed will be facilitated by the server chassis. Which is where the blades slide into. Blade servers are often seen in large data centers. Due to their ability to fit so many servers into one single rack and their ability to provide a high processing power.
In most cases, one large chassis such as HPE’s BladeSystem will be mounted into a server rack and then multiple blade servers slide into the chassis. The chassis can then provide the power, manage networking, and more. This allows each blade server to operate more efficiently and requires fewer internal components.
Blade servers are generally used when there is a high computing requirement with some type of Enterprise Storage System: Network Attached Storage (NAS) or a Storage Area Network (SAN). They maximize available space by providing the highest processor per RU(Rack Unit) availability. Blade Servers also provide rapid serviceability by allowing components to be swapped out without taking the machine offline. You will be able to scale to a much higher processor density using the Blade architecture. The facility will need to support a much higher thermal and electrical load per square foot.

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Hyper Converted Servers

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is a combination of servers and storage into a distributed infrastructure platform with intelligent software to create flexible building blocks that replace legacy infrastructure consisting of separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays. More specifically, it combines commodity datacenter server hardware with locally attached storage devices (spinning disk or flash) and is powered by a distributed software layer to eliminate common pain points associated with legacy infrastructure.
In effect a hyperconverged server infrastructure is a private cloud offering very similar benefits to a public cloud. Increased efficiency Like any virtualized server infrastructure, hyperconverged servers increase IT efficiency by increasing server utilization rates. But hyperconverged servers go beyond this by allowing many tedious manual processes to be eliminated, and by allowing a smaller IT team to monitor and manage resources from a single management pane.

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