Cloud server: Universal? or customization?

Bit NET 2011 year End "Ten Cloud Trends" inventory, "cloud computing Server" is also classified as one of them, in fact, the "Cloud computing Server" This product, IT industry has a lot of differences: some people think that cloud computing server is just a "gimmick", This is because the industry does not have a unified cloud computing standards, then the cloud computing server can not be a standard server type, but other people maintain a different opinion, they think cloud computing server is specifically for cloud computing and customized a server, its characteristics more in line with the needs of cloud computing, Even though the standard of cloud computing is not unified, it represents the new trend of application of the cloud computing era and has a very wide space for development.

The author more support the latter point of view, from the IT product development, whether it is consumer products, or enterprise application of the server, are gradually from the beginning of the generalization of the subdivision, and thus more fit application needs, which represents a product maturity of an evolution. For example, the first server is a large area, energy-efficient big guy, with the development of integrated circuits gradually miniaturization, now from the shape of the main tower, rack-type, blade server, and then both are in order to further reduce the footprint of the traditional server profile improvement. So, the application of demand to produce products, in today's Hot cloud computing, customized servers for the cloud to become a new application trend, and there is no unified standard is not contradictory, as the blade server, the standard dispute has not stopped, but this manufacturer of incompatible products now has become the fastest growing type of server.

Cloud server: Universal? or customization?

It is not yet possible to define a "cloud server", literally, as a "cloud-fit" server, rather than a specific server type, and servers such as racks and blades for cloud computing applications can be called Cloud servers. Cloud computing requires a large scale deployment, and the computing power of each node is not demanding, but requires a server with a higher deployment density, more energy-efficient, and easier to manage. The common server has to adapt to a variety of applications, such as performance, scalability, it is difficult to balance energy consumption and cost. As a result, a custom cloud server application for cloud computing, which is designed to optimize the application characteristics of cloud computing, is generally characterized by high-density deployment, energy saving and easy management, and the price per node is lower relative to the rack server.

Today, more and more server providers are launching cloud servers, such as the Dell PowerEdge C Series, the HP ProLiant SL series, the Fujitsu CX1000 series, and the "cloud-born" sky and cloud servers. (Click: Cloud computing Server is not fully collected) cloud computing has driven the rapid development of cloud computing servers, not only these vendors, such as micro-, Lenovo and other server manufacturers also launched a similar product, from these products can see the commonality of cloud computing server: High-density, low power consumption, low-cost, easy to expand, This satisfies the cloud computing data center requirements: space saving, green energy saving, low-cost, high elasticity.

Essentially, cloud computing server and the common server is not much different, processor, memory, hard disk, I/O based on the same standard design, if you want to distinguish between, you can say Cloud server is a new "collocation way", will be more fully use of hardware resources, tailored to avoid the waste of hardware resources; Even multi-node high-density servers are simply a combination of rack and blade features, taking a compromise approach that balances costs and deployment densities.

Cloud computing servers convey a custom trend that is impacting the common server. For example, choosing a server is like choosing a shoe, although choosing a large shoe is a lot of time and there is no problem, but the fit is more comfortable. There is no problem choosing a common server as a cloud infrastructure the same can meet the needs of the data center, but the choice of customized products to be more appropriate-even if each customized server only save 1 degrees of electricity, cheap 10 yuan, then for large-scale deployment of cloud computing Center, long-term view, The cost savings are obvious.

Not long ago, the author and an international brand server Product Manager to discuss the customization of the server, although responsible for the general product line, but the server industry veteran or optimistic about customized cloud server product line, that customization is the inevitable trend, which is to maximize the value of a way. Another server professional is more aggressive, thinking that the future of generic servers is not bright and will gradually be replaced by deeply customized servers.

This view has actually been confirmed by some vendors, such as Google, the server owned by their own design, the use of customized pallets, built-in batteries for standby power, compared to traditional server costs and electricity consumption is much lower, to save Google a large amount of power expenditure. Clearly, with the increasing energy costs today, the use of customized servers can achieve tangible benefits. In the next few years, the trend toward customization may be getting worse--not only in cloud computing, but also in the future of servers.