Choosing a server: where to go, to whom to go?

Sooner or later, but the system administrator, technical director or some other responsible person will need to buy a server. And today we will try to facilitate this task by presenting our view of this difficult market on behalf of the manufacturer of ETegro servers and describing the possible advantages and disadvantages of various equipment choices.



Immediately make a reservation: we will not advise you on specific server options for specific tasks - we believe that you are reasonable people and know how to choose hardware for your goals. Moreover, we will try to do without even mentioning the names. We want to talk a little bit about another aspect of choice, which, judging by our customers, still carries things difficult to understand.
')
So, you are ripe for the selection and purchase of one or more servers. Suppose even that you are not initially limited to any initially given framework, and you can choose from the whole variety presented. So, what options stretch before you? By and large, the entire market can be divided into 3 large sectors:

1. The so-called "A-brands", that is, the products of the largest corporations with a worldwide reputation, for which the server market is only one of the fields of activity. But at the same time, they are already engaged in servers for a long time, they have formed a series of ready-made server platforms with different content and produce proprietary components for their equipment.
2. The strictly opposite side to them is the so-called “designers” —that is, server platforms that do not exist in the form of a series of extensible but finished products, but in the form of a component catalog, of which the third company or the buyer himself assembles a server.
3. And finally, the intermediate option, which includes ETegro and other Russian manufacturers of servers. Companies of this level deliver exactly finished devices from warehouses for which they are fully responsible.

Let's start with the "A-brands." The advantages are, in general, in plain sight: a well-known name designed to guarantee certain quality standards, a wide choice of models for every taste, diverse technical support, and developed unique software. And what are the disadvantages? Well, let's start with the software. Yes, our own server deployment and data management systems are great and very convenient, especially when it all works at the level of a single corporate standard. But as soon as life circumstances compel the use of equipment from other companies, all this beauty and lightness disappear, and the need to change the long-established patterns of action and think about compatibility issues comes to the surface. And all this requires strength, and most importantly, time, which is always not enough.

The next unpleasant moment is the cost. The cost of the basic platform can be extremely low, and yes even give a decent discount. But the trouble is that the cost of the components will be much higher than in other variants. And it’s impossible to use third-party ones - all major manufacturers somehow try to make them take only from them: servers only understand the memory with a specific SPD, drives only with the necessary firmware (and it doesn't matter that this is actually one of the three remaining drives in the world of manufacturers, only with a different label), VRM-modules - only on a special board, controllers with their own identifiers. Even the processors found control - they began to make them with their own unique strapping so that, God forbid, they would not save and buy in the store at the usual, and not the price of, the manufacturer of the platform.

Finally, the question of technical support is not so simple. Yes, it is, multi-level and round-the-clock with the acquisition of an appropriate warranty plan. But in any case, you will be just one of many clients of a large corporation. And this automatically means when solving serious issues extremely low efficiency and a high degree of bureaucracy. Do not expect that you will be messing around - everything will be polite, with a smile, as part of a warranty service agreement, but without any particular enthusiasm in solving complex problems that require the participation of not only support specialists, but also developers of the platform or its software.

By the way, Russian realities dictate another unpleasant moment - it’s not at all the fact that the model you need will be in stock in Russia, which means that the delivery time can be unpleasantly long. This, albeit to a lesser extent, also applies to the supply of components for replacement of failed ones.



And what about the "designers"? Huge selection of components, the ability to collect exactly what I want, more than gentle prices, often also supplemented by large affiliate programs (probably everyone already understands who we are talking about). Alas, and not everything is smooth here. The main problem is the compatibility of components. If in the simplest versions everything looks smooth and simple, then in the case of any complex systems no one will give you a guarantee that all components will work perfectly and without failures. Moreover, all the issues of problematic drivers, physical incompatibility, high-quality cooling, compatibility of firmware and power supply will have to be considered personally. How many, for example, do you know the types of SAS connectors available? We know 23.

And of course, we must not forget that the question of having all the necessary assortment in the warehouses of suppliers will always hang above you with a Damocles sword. Popular server platforms and main components will always be purchased, but something relatively rare may simply not be. And here you will have to either carry the order, with the corresponding waiting time for delivery, or look for other suppliers. This is especially unpleasant in the case when you need to expand an existing server system or urgently bring back something that has failed.



And so we got to our beloved and dear sector of the market, in which besides us there are several other companies. Its inhabitants are balancing between the two extremes voiced above “on the wave” of balance, trying to simultaneously offer quite functional complete models, with at least worse, compared to A-brands, options, and at the same time not to tear themselves away from the “designers” for the price . Probably, according to the advantages and disadvantages voiced above, it is already becoming clear what is between those extremes that customers like so much to hit. “Winning” our customers in our sector is obtained only by the quality of both the product itself and the service and maintenance services provided. Figuratively speaking, our customers are those who react to Megabytes, Megahertz and other mega with a smile, who are not susceptible to the disease of “brandism”, but at the same time appreciate their time and energy enough not to build themselves, providing it to professionals. We will not say that the best servers belong exclusively to our sector - someone will still be more comfortable with the products of large corporations (especially in those cases if there is already an infrastructure built on products exclusively from the same manufacturer), others will choose "designers" because that they are quite enough for their tasks. We call for one thing: approach the choice as a serious task, evaluating all the pros and cons, including not very obvious ones, since subsequently the price paid for mistakes may turn out to be too high.

In conclusion, I would like to tell one story, just connected with the choice and, as it seems to us, somewhat amusing and instructive. About 6 years ago in our warehouses, a rather large number of 1U servers was formed, which we were ready to sell at the lowest price, just to free up the warehouses. Negotiations began with one large client, but he did not like our price, because he managed to find an option as much as $ 16 cheaper. We sighed sadly, but still wondered where such a budget option came from. It turns out that the direct competition to our rack servers was made by self-made cases, with the most common desktop components installed in them (and very, very cheap motherboards). Well, the client created his own data center, we found another client for our servers ... It was spring, and May was very hot. And one day we learned that the client had problems with the data center. The solution is simple and trivial - low-quality capacitors on motherboards and power supplies from the heat swelled and the data center burned out. We smiled and almost forgot about the story, as the phone rang with a familiar number. “Guys, I understood my mistake!”, - the beginning of the conversation was almost a balm for our souls, but further on ... “There was nothing to put the corps at all, it was necessary to do it without them!” The following year, the story repeated.
PS Believe, we know how google data centers are organized - there is self-assembly and then it did not smell, forgive the expression.