What is the cloud server?

In this era of cloud computing, we know that the type of server, will not be limited to the rack-type server, tower Server, Blade server, there is already a "cloud server" character was born. Perhaps we have not figured out what is cloud computing, there is no unified definition of cloud computing, the emergence of cloud server can be accepted?

For cloud servers, there is no exact definition, and this cloud-born server is generally high-density, energy-efficient, manageable, and the price per node is lower relative to the rack server. In essence, cloud computing server and the common server is not much different, the processor, memory, hard disk, I/O based on the same standardized design, the only difference, it can be said that cloud server is a new "collocation method", the hardware resources more fully utilized, tailored to avoid the waste of hardware resources.

For what is the concept of cloud server, the major manufacturers also disagree. Oracle believes that cloud servers are a combination of hardware and software that provides services to the cloud. Dell says their newest micro-server PowerEdge C Series is one of the cloud servers.

HP is straightforward, "What server can meet the needs of cloud computing, can be called Cloud server." HP's full range of server products can support cloud services, so HP's full range of products can be called cloud servers. ”

Fujitsu said that "cloud servers must be geared towards large-scale deployments, not small-scale applications." At present, the cloud server is mainly suitable for some lightweight applications, such as Web 2.0 applications. ”

The fundamental difference between a cloud-oriented server and a traditional server, NEC explains, is that the cloud server is the first to consider the application of the product, while the traditional server is the product of the production of the additional application. ”

Wave that the cloud computing era servers pay attention to customization and differentiation, emphasizing the server to a single (or a class) application of the suitability. This application-led design model can effectively reduce the total cost of ownership of customers from procurement to operational dimensions.

Sky Super Cloud indicates that the customization of cloud server is to simplify some server functions which are not related to cloud application, so as to save cost, reduce energy consumption, and use it with ease.

Zhou Songnin, chairman and president of platform company, said there was a problem with the cloud server. Because the nature of cloud computing is open, standardized, and universal. In order to meet the needs of cloud applications, users can simply combine the common servers in the marketplace without the need to adopt customized products.

From the above point of view, the cloud server should be a customized server. For customized servers, Intel believes that the customization base should be specific to the application. In addition, customization is also a basic guarantee that server manufacturers avoid product homogeneity and promote benign competition in the market.

Compared with the traditional server, cloud server has its significant characteristics, namely: high-density, highly scalable and powerful virtualization capabilities.

Density

At present, high-density servers are mainly divided into multi-channel racks and blades. 2U space Integration of 2, 4, or even 8 of independent computing nodes of the high-density Multi-node server, a time set of thousands of love in one, do not become the current IT infrastructure dazzling focus.

Cloud computing has different requirements for data center performance and efficiency, and some operations have higher computational requirements, and high-density servers can reduce latency and increase response speed.

High scalability

One of the most essential features of cloud computing is helping enterprise users achieve the need to use IT resources flexibly and efficiently. Therefore, for the deployment of cloud computing platform, it is necessary to consider the real need for flexible space and scalability. The scalability of a server is that the hardware configuration of the server can be configured flexibly as needed, such as memory, adapters, hard disks, processors, and so on, because the hardware configuration of the server may change depending on the network configuration of the different periods.

Powerful Virtualization Capabilities

It is unavoidable to use the server virtualization technology in cloud computing, therefore, the server's virtualization ability becomes the important reference index when choosing. This requires that the server must have good performance, adequate memory, platform support, and the efficiency of the launch.

Enumerate current cloud server offerings

AMD, which has been facing fierce competition with Intel, Seamicro is its ticket to the Cloud data center market. AMD has spent 334 million dollars to buy seamicro this year, stepping into the hot cloud architecture market. AMD released the Seamicro SM15000 server, the Seamicro energy-optimized high-density server design not only solves the growing demand of cloud architecture, but also satisfies the demand of green energy-saving.

Oracle Oracle EXALOGIC Middleware Cloud Server x3-2. Oracle exalogic X3-2 fully supports server, network, and storage virtualization and provides IAAS management to quickly deploy applications with Ready-to-use templates, which can save up to 95% of deployment time.

Dell's PowerEdge C-series is designed to be "high-density, low-power, and cost-efficient", a large-scale deployment environment for cloud computing. C1100, with high memory and low power consumption, and is designed for cluster optimization of compute node servers; C2100, cloud computing platform and cloud storage server supporting high-performance data analysis; C6100, a 4-node shared infrastructure server designed for cloud and cluster optimization.

HP ProLiant SL Series servers are designed for large scale data centers and are the industry's first standard multi-node system specifically designed for scale-out environments. Using the "Seamless modular" system architecture, compared to traditional server products, the most obvious feature of the product is "Multi-skill". The SL6000 series of three sub models (sl160z G6, sl170z G6, sl2x170z G6) can be matched in different proportions to meet different applications such as IO-intensive, memory-intensive, and computational-intensive.

Super Cloud Server for the construction of large-scale, high speed, cost-effective "China cloud" and the design, with high-performance, high-density, high scalability, high management, green and environmental characteristics, Super Cloud Server can be pre-installed with virtual software and resource scheduling software, to "open the box is used." The Super Cloud 6000 series can provide hardware platforms for cloud storage or for node clusters, web hosting, and mirrored caching. The Super Cloud 7000 series is the best choice for HPC and data centers.

Fujitsu's CX1000 series is a high-density server designed for cloud computing, which encapsulates 38 server nodes in a rack with centralized power and cooling infrastructure, with lower costs than rack servers. An internal channel is used to assemble the hot air flowing through the top of the standard size rack to ensure the cooling effect of the multi node design.