Category Archives: Hardware

Some Basic Facts About Web Server

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If you are one of them who do not really understand where or how their Website is sitting on a web server, therefore here in this article we are now going to see an overview of how it works. A web server is the combination of hardware, software and protocol. Therefore now here we are going to discuss about these three simple terms.

First we take the term of server hardware, it is alike to a normal PC hardware and the cost of web server hardware has come down well because of the competition in this market. You can define like this, a web server have a very fast processor with a large amount of RAM, huge amount of disk space and the as usual the connection to the Internet. Usually the server hardware placed inside the strong data center premises where many rack of servers are protected from any kind of a natural disaster with the climate controlled rooms. Most of the leading web hosting companies have their own data center infrastructure and generally they provides around the clock technical support with the best server monitoring system. Even they provides 99.95% server up time guarantee so customers can easily concentrate on their core business.

Second thing comes is a software, there are various types of operating system available in the market. The operating system play the vital role in your server, like if choose Linux open source product, your servers need to secured and an open source web applications. Even you will get the good range of the operating systems in Linux. Apart from this, Windows also come up with a good range of operating system, but it only requires a Microsoft genuine license. Web servers are also use the web based interface control panels, like c Panel/WHM and Plesk, normally c Panel/WHM comes with Linux and Plesk control panel comes with Windows platform.

The third one is protocol, to get your Website on the server you requires the file transfer protocol. This a client server application which helps you to upload Website web pages from your desk top. Apparently to share such kind of things you would requires to get it on your web server. It is also used to transfer files between your computer to other computer. This is a article which shows you the basic concept of the web server might helps you when you are going picking web hosting services for your Website.

Are VoIP Phone Systems Reliable? (Part 2)

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Installing a dependable VoIP phone system consists of two parts, the network into which the system is deployed and the type architecture upon which the system is designed. We will talk about the network interface in Part 3. Let’s look at the different architectures available.

1. Hardware or Software based solutions – do they improve or lessen reliability?
Hardware based systems consist of multiple servers/gateways to achieve call control long with voice applications. You need servers for voicemail, servers for conferencing, servers for call center applications etc. When deploying hardware based systems you immediately incur multiple points of failure with each piece of hardware that is installed. The likely hood of a specific application server crashing is more prevalent than with a software based solution. Hardware based systems by their very nature of having more parts tend to be more costly as well. If we go back to availability it would seem the safer course of action to take is to consider a software based solution as reliability becomes more certain with a software application that has no moving parts. Plus with mean time between failure rates (MTBF) for hardware there is a timetable for End of Life with a hardware based system.

On the contrary with software based solutions upgrades take care of the End of Life issue as there is none. Not only is the software based solution more dependable/reliable, over the long term, the cost for maintaining and adding new features and applications is less expensive. You do not have to deploy more hardware to get more stuff. Once a system depends on hardware to deliver different call functions the end user loses cost control over what has to be installed based on required needs.

2. Centralized or Distributed Architecture – which is more reliable?
Many VoIP systems use a central server for their main call functions. Availability is usually on a 1:1 redundancy basis to provide the 5 – nines for availability. Call functions as mentioned are loaded on a single server for control usually on a standard hard drive. Because of possible hard drive failure in the server world multiple back up hard drives for these centralized servers would be recommended. The alternative to this hard drive application is solid state embedded systems. Embedded systems are specially designed for their task. Consequently, embedded systems tend to be more reliable and provide more reliable call control. The advantage gained with embedded systems is the loss of call control functions having to be distributed over additional hardware as each unit takes on only a portion of the multiple call functions. This leads to additional possible points of failure and specific functions being lost. Regardless of centralized servers or embedded applications it would be wise to consider software based platforms, if software applications are available for the call functions. The servers and/or embedded system then provide the housing for the software controlled voice functions. In this more reliable world the user can be confident that availability is closer to the 5 nines for performance. Again, with more parts, cost becomes a factor along with points of failure.

Servers generally contain a backplane, numerous connectors, large power supplies and fans in addition to the large number of components on each circuit board. Daughter boards can eliminate the backplane, but sometimes requires adding multiple components which carry a high probability of failure. With multiple servers/gateways you can see the distributed architecture versus a centralizes solutions increases the possibility of lower availability.

by Ron Focazio, Senior Partner NovaCom

In part 3 we need to look at network reliability, redundancy and maintenance.

Ron Focazio – 678-776-1076