This article is also available in: Arabic German French

A server is computer hardware, software, or device that offers assistance to another computing unit, a client, by providing information or computing resources. When hundreds and thousands of such servers are connected via network switches and routers within the same physical location, they compose a cluster also known as a server farm. A server farm is intended to provide excess processing power and storage capacity for machines and applications which need extensive computing resources. 

Web Servers 

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee started a project to develop a technology that will be able to render information-sharing services. Later that year, CERN HTTPd was developed on a NeXT computer, becoming the world’s first-ever web server.

In 1991, the first-ever Web server was launched at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California. The number of web servers reached 10 000 at the end of 1994. The same year, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded to manage and standardize the advancements in web technologies. 

Nowadays, Apache server is the most used web server environment in web development, handling nearly 70% of all the sites accessible. 

Rack and Blade Servers 

In 1993, the initial rack servers were introduced known as Compaq’s ProLiant Series. 

 A rack structure design consists of various mounting slots on which multiple servers can be placed. Rack servers provided increased scalability, better space maintenance and management, and a handy architecture. Later, organizations started transforming their unused spaces into server rooms which were used to monitor temperature and security. Rack servers were also tested on military standards and were proved to be dependable, powerful machines that can withstand severe natural conditions.

In 2001, RLX Technologies launched the first-ever commercial blade server in the market. They were developed by Christopher Hipp and David Kirkeby for an industry project but their efficiency led to commercialization. 

A blade server usually comprises of a chassis, or box-like design, containing numerous thin circuit boards, known as blades. Every blade is associated with software whose data is stored in a memory device.

 Blade servers have more accessibility and usability advantages as they primarily focus on a single application, and consume less power supply as well as storage. Companies can allocate a single blade server altogether to an operation-critical function which is very crucial for the organization.

Blade servers can be easily debugged as compared to rack servers since each of the components can be fixed separately without disintegrating the main system.

 Brick servers, cartridge servers, and modular hybrid servers are replacing conventional rack and blade server technology since they tackle challenges that come with hard-wired networks, provide better cooling solutions and more accessibility within a data center. 

Server Management Techniques 

As advancements in server architectures increased, more attention was paid to the maintenance and management of servers. Server management includes operations and functions carried out to maintain a server’s ideal performance. Strategies were devised for observing the server programs running on it and monitoring their issues; fixing errors and casualties, upgrading the software, setting up the services, and planning the allocation of resources. All of these were considered the main objectives of server management.

 The invention of remote management led to the virtual maintenance of server farms.

Virtualization and Software-defined Servers

The 21st century brought a revolution with virtualization and cloud technology. A virtual server is a server with all the utilities of a physical server, however, it is incorporated with software that separates the hardware-based server into numerous servers. Organizations have constantly changing needs and cloud technology can provide a server of any size on demand which can be quickly reconfigured according to the user requirements.

In 2002, Amazon Web Services was launched by Amazon. It is a platform providing a wide range of cloud services like efficient storage and memory, CPUs, GPUs, machine learning solutions, web servers, and much more. Individuals, as well as companies, were able to rent VMs and run their programs on them. Later Google and several other giants also started providing software applications to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Clients using serverless architectures do not have to pay when their app is idle, they pay only when the software is utilizing resources. Developers can focus more on programming and the business aspects of their software applications rather than worrying about resource management.

Future of Servers 

As the number of server farms increases they are expected to meet high standards of computing power, scalability, and efficiency. Hardware is likely to become obsolete as virtualization takes over. Cloud computing has already led organizations to convert their systems into virtual environments. Mobile computing has also made it easy to access data, software, and other computing resources with a lightweight and easily accessible computing environment. In the next decade, advanced technologies like virtual desktops, digital libraries, global internet provider services, and open-source migration will completely change the game of server farms.