AI servers – is it better to buy GPU hardware on-premise or pay for cloud?

Training large-scale AI models is far beyond the capabilities of ordinary desktops.

A server room is more than just a space for rack cabinets and blinking LEDs

Server virtualization is a method to maximize the efficiency of your existing infrastructure

Without them, nothing works as it should.

SSD or HDD

Tired of overloaded servers that can’t keep up with your company’s growth?

AI is not only models and data - it is also heat.

Hybrid drives in servers

Naming convention of Dell Enterprise products explained

See our guide to server types. Their strengths and weaknesses.

Read whether the NIS 2 directive applies to your bussines.

Learn how an NVMe drive works and what are the advantages of using it in modern servers.

See what server renewal is all about and what benefits it brings to your organization.

Advantages of On-Premise IT hardware over cloud solutions

Attention! We are reporting a critical security issue that may impact your server.

Learn how to effectively prevent DDoS attacks

Are RAID arrays real data protection or an unnecessary expense?

Do you know how complex energy and power management can be in a Data Center ecosystem?

DNS server not responding? See what to do before you lose your patience.

What is SNMP and why is it important to know before implementation?

In this post, you will learn what IOPS really means and how to measure it.

TBW (Total Bytes Written) is an indicator that tells you how much data you can write to an SSD over its lifetime.

HBM, or High Bandwidth Memory, is a technology that has become an indispensable component of equipment used in AI.

ECC or non-ECC RAM – a decision that can affect the stability of the entire infrastructure.

A computer network is more than just cables and routers – it is the foundation of every company's IT infrastructure.

Choosing a processor for a server or workstation is not just about the number of cores.

Remote access to the server, even when the system is down? IPMI makes it possible – without any tricks.

Hardware Direct is proud to announce that we have become an authorized partner of Proxmox Server Solutions.

Monday, 20 October 2025, will go down in history as the day when a significant part of the internet simply stopped working.

Discover why Proxmox VE is a strong alternative to VMware: enterprise features with no license fees, flexible subscriptions and significant savings for your IT infrastructure.

When users talk about controllers in active-active arrays, they assume that both controllers work simultaneously and handle I/O traffic at the same time. In practice, this is not always the case.

Modern IT departments, finding themselves in the operational trap of sudden data growth, can easily solve this problem.

Hardware Direct is a Dell Technologies Gold Partner offering Dell PowerEdge servers, storage, and IT infrastructure solutions for businesses.

Discover why enterprise hardware lead times are stalling and how Hardware Direct helps expedite server configurations to meet your project deadlines.

NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell in Dell PowerEdge R750 – Why Specifications Clash with Practice? (Our Tests)

The new version of Proxmox Virtual Environment 9.2 is not just another point on the platform's development timeline.

Dell PowerEdge R7425 is one of those servers that looks "just solid" on paper, but when you see it with AI, that's where its real advantage becomes clear.

A few years ago, a recertified server was mainly associated with "cheaper used equipment". Today the situation looks completely different.

A year ago, many companies assumed that local LLM was just a game for the biggest players.

C4140 and DSS8440 are no longer the "hottest" GPU platforms on the market – but that doesn't mean they've stopped making sense.

With AI servers it's very easy to fall into thinking: "the more RAM, the better".

When buying an AI server, it's very easy to conclude that the best approach is to go for the "most powerful possible configuration" right away.

Image and video AI models can overwhelm a server much faster than classic text-based LLMs.

3D rendering can very quickly show whether infrastructure was built "to spec" or for real studio work.

More and more companies today reach a point where the classic "throw everything to the cloud" approach stops making sense.

Choosing a server is not just a decision about what to buy today – but about how your company will operate for the next several years.

Rack or Blade – this is not just a question about the chassis, but about how your entire IT infrastructure operates.

The two most popular server systems on the market. Both proven. Both stable. Both have their supporters.

Rack servers are not just metal boxes for a cabinet – they're the backbone of many modern companies.

Tower server is not a relic of the past – it's still a real, sensible option for companies that don't need an entire rack cabinet but want organized IT infrastructure.

A backup server is not a "cheaper version" of a production server.

The first server in a small company doesn't need to be complicated – it just needs to work stably, quietly and safely for a few years.

Virtualization entices with simplicity – "throw VMs on the host and it works".

A database doesn't forgive configuration mistakes – if hardware is poorly selected, the application starts to "choke", users wait for responses, and the IT department explains delays.

ERP system can run smoothly for years – provided it stands on a well-selected server, not a random configuration "because it suffices".

If you're facing server selection and see "CTO ready to ship", the natural question is: is this actually better than ready-made configuration, or just a marketing name.

If you're facing choice: set up your own server or go cloud, it's not a "technical" decision at all – only business one.

If you reach moment when you wonder "should I keep pushing on workstation or move to server" – that means you're exactly at point where real AI infrastructure begins.

If you're facing server selection and see "recertified", "refurbished" or just "used" in offers – it's easy to get lost.

If you're facing server selection for AI, problem usually isn't "which model to choose" but how much power you really need.

If you're thinking about AI on-premise, server choice doesn't start with Dell or HPE model, but with what you really want to do on it.

If you're planning AI project and counting on quick GPU server purchase – in 2026 you might be in for surprise.

AI server prices are rising faster than most companies can realistically grasp – and this applies even to identical configurations.

No GPU access for next 12 months? That's not technical problem – only decision how you want to run project.

Most errors when buying server don't come from model choice, but how that equipment is financed.

Memory cost in servers in 2026 stopped being detail – it's one of main budget components.

With GPU number in server it's easy to go wrong right at start.

Choice between Dell Precision and Lenovo ThinkStation rarely comes down to "what's better".

Choice between Dell Precision and Lenovo ThinkStation rarely comes down to "what's better".

If wondering whether to put SSD or NVMe in AI server – answer is: depends on what you really do on disk.

If facing AI server choice, purchase price alone tells little.

With server processors, it's easy to get things wrong right from the start.

A server processor should be chosen for the application, not for the benchmark score alone - which is why this ranking is built around real business scenarios (virtualization, ERP, SQL, AI) rather than core count alone.

A server processor is a chip built on the same microarchitecture as its consumer counterpart, but equipped with enterprise-class features.

Choosing a server processor is a bit like this: it's easy to head in the wrong direction right from the start.

If you're choosing a processor for a server and you've gotten stuck on the term TDP, there's really only one question: does that number in watts – 50 W, 85 W, 130 W, sometimes 280 W – tell you how much power the hardware will draw?

A question we hear from companies on a regular basis is: "Why do I need a separate storage array if I can just add more drives to the server?"

Imagine two companies. The first bought an array "with plenty of headroom," right up against a premium budget – and three years later, half the shelves sit empty.

When a customer asks us about drives for an array, nine times out of ten we hear the same sentence: "SSD, because it's faster".

Technical analysis of the Januscape vulnerability reveals a use-after-free flaw in the KVM/x86 shadow MMU mechanism.

Three letters, and so much confusion. RAID has been with us since the late 1980s, when a group of researchers realized that instead of one expensive drive, it's better to combine several cheaper ones and cleverly spread data across them.

Three acronyms that keep coming up in every conversation about storage – and three completely different philosophies for connecting drives to business systems.

A business server is a dedicated computer whose sole job is to serve other devices in your company – sharing files, hosting a database, running ERP, handling email, performing backups.

A recertified GPU server can cost tens of percent less than a new enterprise configuration.

"What type of server should I choose?" is actually three different questions asked at once – and most confusion comes from mixing them up.

A surveillance server is sized around three numbers: camera count, stream bitrate, and recording retention period.

A disk array controller is a chip that manages a group of drives as a single, coherent, fault-tolerant unit – it distributes data across drives, calculates parity, rebuilds the array after a drive failure, and speeds up writes using its own cache memory.

You've got fast NVMe drives in your servers, but each one is tied to a single machine – and when one is running out of space while another has plenty to spare, you can't move it across.

Compellent SC is a proven, hybrid block array for classic storage workloads on a reasonable budget, while PowerStore is an enterprise-class native NVMe platform for virtualization, databases, and low-latency-sensitive environments.

"Recertified" sounds like "used," and "used" sounds like "risk." Except that association doesn't match the numbers – even brand-new enterprise drives fail more often than their spec sheets promise, and recertification is a formalized process, not "dusting off old hardware."

A desktop workstation wins everywhere raw power matters – 3D CAD, simulations, rendering, AI – while a mobile laptop makes sense when a designer needs to work in the field, at a client site, or across multiple locations.

Choosing a workstation doesn't start with "which processor," but with "what exactly is it for" – it's the workload type, not the budget, that determines a sensible specification.

The number of servers depends on three things: the acceptable amount of downtime, the nature of the workload and legal requirements.

Three mistakes cost the most: no tested backup, remote access exposed to the internet without MFA, and licensing left out of the budget.

Bad news for anyone looking for a simple answer: under the bonnet these servers are almost twins – the same Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC, the same DDR5 memory, the same NVMe drives.

Salespeople like to call a NAS a “file server”, so it is easy to think it is simply a cheaper server.

Only two years ago the answer was: buy some spare, memory is cheap. In 2026 that advice costs a fortune – a 64 GB DDR5 RDIMM module went up from around 255 to over 870 dollars in six months, and forecasts point to 1,586 dollars by the end of the year.

This comparison has one dominant context today, which has to be stated straight away: Dell support for the SC5020 and SC5020F models ends on 31 August 2026. If you have one of these arrays, the question is no longer “is it worth migrating” but “to what and when”.