Many firms still use traditional approaches in their server systems selection: processor type and micro-architecture design versus application/workload requirements. But the long list of considerations involved doesn’t stop here. There are critical questions an enterprise architect must address to start the proper due diligence in the choice for the most flexible, robust, and cost-efficient enterprise computing platform to enable best-in-class infrastructure optimization and the choice of which operating system for which server is key. Most environments have a healthy mix of operating systems to accommodate whatever applications and/or services running.

The following operating systems are some of those to be considered:

CentOS - is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor.  CentOS conforms fully to the upstream vendor’s redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible. CentOS has numerous advantages over some of the other clone projects including:  an active and growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed errata packages, an extensive mirror network, developers who are contactable and responsive, multiple free support avenues including IRC Chat, Mailing lists, Forums, a dynamic FAQ. Commercial Support is offered via a number of vendors, one being Host Ventura.

CAOS Linux - is maintained and managed by a team of computer science experts with a diverse set of skills. Using combined resources they created and maintain a multifunctional operating system with mission critical dependability. CAOS Linux is designed to run on all x86_64 and i386 based hardware ranging from clusters and servers to production level appliances to personal desktops and laptops. Scientific research labs, public agencies, ISP's, private enterprise, virtualization and cloud computing ventures will find CAOS Linux to be an integral component to their operation. Supporting a wide variety of software, CAOS Linux is based on the best aspects of GNU/Linux and has full binary compatibility with the most popular enterprise distribution of Linux.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux - contains over thousands of components with development spanning over a two-year period, so there are a huge number of new features covering a broad range of functionality. Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides CIO’s and IT managers with the means to reduce costs while improving operational flexibility throughout their computing infrastructure. It offers Virtualization, Storage and extended server virtualization and supports multi-core processors, Intel Network Accelerator Technology (IOAT), Improved Microsoft file/print and Active Directory integration and many other features that make Red Hat Enterprise Linux a viable and affordable solution.

Mac OS X Server - a UNIX server operating system from Apple. The platform is based on the same architecture as Mac OS X, but includes additional services, applications, and administration tools for managing users and services and for deploying servers and clients. The server operating system is included on Xserve, a rack mount server. Mac OS X Server is commonly found in small business, education, and large enterprise organizations. Mac OS X Server is a server operating system, which enables organizations to collaborate, communicate, and share information. It is based on an open source foundation called Darwin and uses open industry standards and protocols.

FreeBSD - is an advanced yet lightweight operating system for modern server, desktop, and embedded computer platforms. FreeBSD provides advanced networking, impressive security features, stability and world-class performance and is used by some of the world's busiest websites and most pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.

Windows Server 2008 - builds on the award-winning foundation of Windows Server 2003, expanding existing technology and adding new features to enable IT professionals to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructures. New virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows 7 integration help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and efficiently managed data center. Powerful tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.5, updated Server Manager and Hyper-V platforms and Windows Power Shell version 2.0 combine to give customers greater control, increased efficiency and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before.

In terms of architectures there are three types of Client/Server Architectures

Single tier architecture - when the user (client) is accessing the server to use one software application to use data, business logic and interface.

Double or two-tier architecture - when the user (client) is accessing the server to use two layers of software applications i.e. front-end and back-end. Front-end applications have business logic and are used to interact with the users, such as Visual Basic and JAVA. Back-end applications are used to store the data, such as Microsoft SQL and Oracle servers.

Multiple or N-tier architecture - when the user is accessing the server to use three layers of software applications i.e. front-end, component and back-end. Front-end application is used only to interact with the users. A component is used to write business logic (i.e. ActiveX components). Back-end applications are used to store the data (Microsoft SQL and Oracle servers).

The most important part is however not to determine just what architecture is needed, more importantly it is to determine the client’s needs. When we plan a logical network design, it being a new network or the upgrade of an existing network, we gather information about several important factors before we begin the logical design. Depending on the services that will be provided, we will analyze the possible traffic patterns that might result from your requirements. We locate potential bottlenecks and, where possible, alleviate them by providing multiple paths to resources or by putting up servers that provide replicas of important data such that load balancing can be provided.

In an information environment, an organization's success is tightly coupled to its ability to store and manage information. Storage systems provide a critical part of an organization's network infrastructure. With the amount of data growing at an incredible rate, your storage strategy must keep pace. In designing a storage strategy for your organization, Host Ventura will assist you in selecting the right technology for your primary storage system, implement solid backup procedures and ensure ongoing management of the system.

The following goals are there for us adhere to.

Scalability - The type of storage technology must be well matched to the overall size of the organization's data needs and must be able to outpace its expected growth. Storage strategies implemented when the organization's network was relatively small often cannot be expanded beyond a certain point. Storage technologies designed for large-scale enterprise networks may be burdensome for a departmental LAN. The storage systems on the network must be designed from the beginning to scale to larger data capacities without major upheavals.

Costs - We strive to select the least-costly approach that effectively meets the objectives. Many cost issues must be considered: the initial purchase cost of the hardware; the productivity costs related to network down time; and ongoing hardware and software maintenance, for example. We do not ignore the personnel costs associated with each storage technology option. More complex solutions will demand the time and attention of network administrators, technicians and operators. Simpler approaches should require less ongoing support. Regardless the outcome of our customers’ needs, outsourcing administration to Host Ventura will always be the more cost effective solution.

Performance - Storage technologies must be able to deliver information to the user rapidly. Fortunately, many current systems have very high performance capabilities. Designing a storage solution to service a relatively small number of users can be fairly straightforward. But a network with an extremely large user population will challenge the network architect to design a system that can handle an extremely high rate of simultaneous activity and still deliver rapid access.

Reliability - All storage systems rely on parts that will eventually break down so it is imperative that your data storage environment is equipped with enough redundancy to ensure that no interruptions can occur, even if individual components fail or malfunction. Such high-availability comes at a price—both in terms of the cost of the equipment and in the complexity of its operation.

Some networks may be satisfied with a data system that can potentially fail, provided that it can be restored with little or no data loss within a reasonable time. It is relatively simple and inexpensive to build a storage system that is available 99 percent of the time. Eliminating that last 1 percent or 2 percent of failure possibilities is complex and expensive.

Manageability - Once a storage system has been designed and implemented, it must be maintained. As systems increase in complexity it becomes increasingly important to be able to monitor their performance, pre-empt failures and manage storage media with as little effort and interaction as possible. Also, this functionality must come without sacrificing the depth of management available to the administrator.

HP Storageworks for the right reasons - Host Ventura utilized Fibre-channel attached Enterprise class solutions from HP as these are designed to simply deliver affordable and reliable storage capacity and help to bridge the gap between data explosion and your IT infrastructure. There are no tradeoffs as scalability and manageability are what makes HP Storageworks products our first choice.

The primary function of a web server is to deliver web pages (HTML documents) and associated content (e.g. images, style sheets, JavaScripts) to clients. A client, commonly a web browser or web crawler, makes a request for a specific resource using HTTP and the web-server responds with the content of that resource.

Many generic web servers also support server-side scripting (e.g. Apache HTTP Server and PHP). This means that the server can execute a script when a client requests it. Usually, this functionality is used to create HTML documents “on the fly” as opposed to return fixed documents. This is referred to as dynamic and static content respectively. Choosing the right web-server depends all on ones needs in terms of platform it will be running on, security requirements and overall manageability and in-house knowledge to administer the web-server. With Host Ventura as your partner the manageability and in-house knowledge are no longer your concern as we have you covered. Below is an overview of some of the most common web-servers one could choose from.

Apache HTTP Server - commonly referred to as Apache, is a web server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of web servers using Apache operate on the Linux operating system. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, including Unix, GNU, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Novell NetWare, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, TPF, and eComStation. Released under the Apache License, Apache is characterized as open source software.

Internet Information Services (IIS) - is a set of Internet-based services for servers created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows platforms. It is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites behind the industry leader Apache HTTP Server. As of April 2009 it served close to 30% of all websites. The services provided currently include FTP, FTPS, SMTP, NNTP, and HTTP/HTTPS. Debuting with Windows Vista, and included in Windows Server 2008 R2, IIS 7.5 features a modular architecture, much like Apache. Instead of a monolithic server that features all services, IIS 7.5 has a core web server engine. Modules offering specific functionality can be added to the engine to enable its features.

LightTPD - Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility are the key features of LightTPD, which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a web-server as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) LightTPD is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it's Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

Nginx - a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy, as well as an IMAP/POP3 proxy server. Nginx hosts nearly 6% of all domains worldwide. Nginx is known for its high performance, stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption. Unlike traditional servers, Nginx doesn't rely on threads to handle requests. Instead it uses a scalable event-driven (asynchronous) architecture. This architecture uses small, but most importantly, predictable amounts of memory under load.

FastCGI - not so much a web-server, but a protocol for interfacing interactive programs with a web-server. FastCGI is a variation on the earlier Common Gateway Interface (CGI); FastCGI's reduces overhead associated with interfacing the web server and CGI programs, allowing a server to handle more web page requests at once. Web-Servers that implement FastCGI are for instance Appache HTTP Server, Microsoft ISS, LightTPD, NGinx, Sun Java System Web Server, Cherokee HTTP Server and many other Web-Servers.

Front-end and back-end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front-end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back-end can use.

Apache Tomcat - a servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Tomcat implements the Java Servlet and the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications from Sun Microsystems, and provides a "pure Java" HTTP web server environment for Java code to run. Tomcat, not be confused with the Apache web server, which is a C implementation of an HTTP web server, these two web servers are not bundled together. Apache Tomcat includes tools for configuration and management, but can also be configured by editing XML configuration files.

Microsoft SQL Server - is a relational model database server produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL. The current version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, aims to make data management self-tuning, self organizing, and self maintaining with the development of SQL Server Always On technologies, to provide near-zero downtime. SQL Server 2008 will also include support for structured and semi-structured data, including digital media formats for pictures, audio, video and other multimedia data.

MySQL Enterprise Server - is the most reliable, secure and up-to-date version of MySQL for cost-effectively delivering E-commerce, Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), and multi-terabyte Data Warehousing applications. It is a fully integrated transaction-safe, ACID compliant database with full commit, rollback, crash recovery and row level locking capabilities. MySQL delivers the ease of use, scalability, and performance that has made MySQL the world's most popular open source database.

Oracle Database 11g - provides the foundation for your IT to successfully deliver more information with higher quality of service, reduce the risk of change, and make more efficient use of IT budgets. By deploying Oracle Database 11g Release 2 your data management foundation, you can utilize the full power of the world's leading database to a reduce of costs and storage requirements, increase performance and DBA productivity.

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition - is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that's free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. It enables you to develop and deploy applications with a powerful, proven, industry-leading infrastructure, and then upgrade when necessary without costly and complex migrations.

PostgreSQL - is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness. It runs on all major operating systems, including Linux, UNIX (AIX, BSD, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, Mac OS X, Solaris, Tru64), and Windows. It is fully ACID compliant, has full support for foreign keys, joins, views, triggers, and stored procedures (in multiple languages). It includes most SQL:2008 data types, including INTEGER, NUMERIC, BOOLEAN, CHAR, VARCHAR, DATE, INTERVAL, and TIMESTAMP. It also supports storage of binary large objects, including pictures, sounds, or video. It has native programming interfaces for C/C++, Java, .Net, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, ODBC, among others, and exceptional documentation.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

Alfresco - the Open Source Alternative for Enterprise Content Management (ECM), providing Document Management, Collaboration, Records Management, Knowledge Management, Web Content Management and Imaging.

Microsoft Exchange Server - a messaging and collaborative software product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is widely used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure solutions. Exchange's major features consist of electronic mail, calendaring, contacts and tasks; support for mobile and web-based access to information; and support for data storage.

Zimbra – an open source server software for email and collaboration - email, group calendar, contacts, instant messaging, file storage and web document management. The Zimbra email and calendar server is available for Linux, Mac OS X and virtualization platforms. Zimbra syncs to smartphones and desktop clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Zimbra also features archiving and discovery for compliance. Zimbra can be deployed on-premise or as a hosted email solution.