Data as we know it spans the digital world quite literally in the quintillions. It is produced in over a thousand petabytes a day, and it’s a big wonder how the world has been able to handle such vast information. To put that in perspective, 146GB of data is produced by the average internet user in today’s context. That 146GB is merely 146 out of 1,000,000,000 gigabytes being produced daily. Photos, videos, behavior, marketing, business – data usage, and processes span the internet to an almost unimaginable amount. Moving over, let’s talk about what makes everything work behind this massive conglomerate of information.
The server business industry is one of the backbones of society today. Albeit not explored as much, this multi-billion dollar industry is what keeps everything on the internet functioning and as lively as it has gotten. The functions of servers are virtually endless, and they are vital for the process of running different actions on the internet. Software decisions such as VM vs. Docker containers are continually explored, maximizing everything for the server industries. Their variety and features could be explored in a very deep fashion, and we’ll try to tackle a little bit of them today.
What is a server?
Data is sent, received, and stored by a server. It basically “serves” another purpose and is there to offer services. One or more services may be offered via a server, which can be a computer, software application, or even a storage device. That may not sound like a lot, but let’s try exploring further the server types and just see how big the industry really is.
Web server – The moment you open up a web browser and search for something, you are already on a webpage. Every single photo, video, text, link, and intractable material you see on a webpage is stored in a web server. Every action you make, such as downloading programs, sending messages to your friends on the internet, uploading your vacation photos on social media, and searching for the spelling of a word, are all happening through the interaction of different web servers.
Email server – Of course, emails are now an integral part of our life, whether we may be professionals, students, teachers, or plain old internet users. Emails are our way of receiving notifications or announcements from a variety of things we’re subscribed to on the internet. Web servers do exactly that.
How do you maintain a server?
For server business companies, there are a handful of strategies they use in order to maximize profits for the least amount of money. For example, employing virtual machines within a single server usually gives them an efficiency boost. Instead of buying multiple servers to do the same purpose, virtualization allows one server to split its resources into independent ‘computers’ that could run different operating systems at the same time. This allows them to reach a bigger audience and user base for less money. For this, hiring third-party experts and professionals that specialize in maintenance work wouldn’t be such a bad thing to do. Paying upfront for good service to your hardware will pay dividends in the future, and it could also help avoid damages that you wouldn’t be able to foresee.
Regular monitoring is also a vital step for having a cost-effective server business. Taking care of small bugs and glitches before they become major issues is the way to not spend big bucks on something that could have been avoided. Just like with humans, prevention is always better than cure when it comes to servers. With that, regular monitoring also comes with keeping the system up-to-date. Outdated servers run the risk of malicious attackers because of their weaker security patches. Malicious software such as ransomware could easily infect and enter outdated servers, so always keep your security levels to the maximum.
