Servers form vital parts of today’s datacom infrastructure, but their use is constantly expanding beyond what might be considered the ‘traditional’ view of data centres with their racks of computers. Cloud computing is now part of everyday life, from smartphones to powerful business machines. The cloud offers the opportunity to quickly expand storage and computing power without the need for additional hardware. Choosing the right connectors for server applications plays an important role in ensuring the performance demanded by consumers.
While many users are still taking advantage of the flexibility that cloud computing delivers, its employment has grown more sophisticated. Some organisations have embraced a hybrid approach, combining on-premises servers with a remote cloud service. The advantage of this structure is that companies can control their own servers to store sensitive information or host critical operations, but still take advantage of cloud storage for less sensitive needs. This hybrid concept delivers flexibility and scalability and allows organisations to comply with strict data handling regulations for applications where data security is vital.
The cloud and the edge
Edge computing has delivered speed and capacity right to the user. With a huge range of applications dependent on quick response and low latency, edge computing reduces the distance between the source of the data and where it is processed. This high performance is vital for equipment that act in real-time, from the games we play to the cars we drive.
Edge computing employs locally installed servers that bring the power of a data centre close to the user. These micro data centres work in conjunction with more conventional cloud computing to deliver rapid data processing and storage close to the point of data generation, in a strategy known as distributed architectures.
With the growth of edge computing, data is processed close to the point of use rather than in large, centralised data centres. This means that the design of the server itself is changing. The emphasis is shifting towards smaller, modular solutions that can be reconfigured quickly, often with an element of rugged design to reflect the tough conditions in which they work.
More and more applications are taking advantage of the processing power that artificial intelligence (AI) delivers. To cope with this huge increase in demand, servers are being optimized to handle massive computations with specialized AI chips, such as GPUs, TPUs, and other AI-accelerated hardware.
AI is being employed to manage the data centres and servers themselves, using machine learning to predict operational challenges. AI is also helping data centres to become autonomous, which will significantly reducing the need for human supervision.
The need for servers themselves is being challenged by parallel computing. Rather than increasing the number of servers required, parallel computing makes use of existing hardware by sharing tasks amongst several processors. The power of parallel computing lies in its ability to handle large amounts of data. Climate modelling, financial institutions and video processing have all benefitted from the quicker response provided by this technology.
Far from being a one-size-fits-all, servers continue to evolve as they adapt to the needs of our data-hungry world. To deliver this performance, many next-generation server applications will use cables inside the box instead of PCB traces to maintain the signal integrity demanded by high-speed communications.
Samtec has a range of solutions to provide connectivity for the latest server applications. For high data rates, Samtec’s Flyover technology can help resolve issues of loss and noise. For more traditional board-to-board applications, Samtec has a comprehensive range of high-speed connector solutions including the popular AcceleRate series. Samtec also manufactures its own proprietary Eye Speed twinax or Thinax cable, offering small diameters and industry-leading performance.
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