Contributed article by Robert Miggins, SVP Business Development, PEER 1 Hosting

2014 Will Be the Year of the Smart Dedicated Server

I think we can all agree that 2013 was the year of cloud computing. We've seen a significant spike in the number of public and private cloud deployments, and revenues for everything from hardware to cloud-based CRM platforms are on the rise. With that escalation in cloud implementations, we've learned that this technology will always have some inherent issues - for instance, no cloud platform can ensure 100 percent uptime, at least for now - but the cloud hosting industry as a whole has made great strides to improve its security and compliance, disaster recovery and overall enterprise application.

Today, organizations must leverage a hybrid environment to get the most from cloud computing, combining single-tenant private architectures to ensure strong performance and security with a public cloud environment that can deliver instant availability and flexibility. Looking ahead to 2014, I predict that smart dedicated servers will play a big role in that hybrid environment, helping to speed up and simplify the deployment and management of the private infrastructure that supports these environments.

Let me be clear - I'm not talking about the same, old bare metal servers that hosting providers have been offering for years. These smart dedicated servers are the next generation of bare metal servers, incorporating many of the characteristics of a cloud environment into one box. We've seen a few instances of these offerings on the market already, but I believe it's really going to explode in 2014 to match demand for core hybrid cloud qualities in a single piece of infrastructure.

So, what's the benefit of a smart dedicated server over a hybrid cloud environment? Well, for starters, it is a lot simpler than setting up and managing a hybrid cloud environment. While many service providers and systems integrators have sprouted up to address the intricacy of deploying a hybrid cloud environment, there are still complexities that these providers can't address or eliminate because they are inherent in the technology.

As an example, to increase RAM in a server, an engineer needs to shut down the server, open it up and insert a new chip. That doesn't take a long time, but it does mean the server needs to be rebooted, which could result in downtime or slow performance for users. A smart dedicated server, on the other hand, is managed by a thin hypervisor layer and could, therefore, simply scale up available RAM without a reboot. That means less downtime and a better experience for the end user.

Here's another example of the benefit of dedicated servers: they can be deployed in minutes. Most dedicated servers today require hours or even days to be configured and deployed. With the advent of smart dedicated servers, we could see hosting become much closer to an on demand service.

Cloud computing has come a long way in the last few years, and I believe that this evolution to smarter and simpler usage in the enterprise will only further its momentum. The first cloud platforms were fairly restrictive boxes that users had to fit their data and applications into. More and more, cloud is becoming an enabler that enterprises can tweak and customize to match their requirements and demand, and that is why so many are showing interest in this technology. With a more intelligent system and easier management, we can only imagine how much cloud usage will grow.

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