This is a question that many businesses are thinking about a lot lately – at least the ones who want to be successful in the future. While server clusters are the generally accepted way to run large web operations, this is shifting to cloud server technology for quite a few reasons.
To answer the question of whether or not server clusters will survive in the era of cloud computing, we need to take a look at both technologies as well as how business in the Information Age is changing. No matter the size of your business, you need to know which technology has a better chance of becoming the standard.
Pros and Cons of Server Clusters
First, let’s take a look at the major pro and con of using traditional clusters of servers. With this model, a business buys physical hardware that exists in a specific location.
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Pro – The biggest benefit of server clusters for many people is that they have been tried and tested over the years and are usually fairly simple to setup.
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Con – While you can scale with server clusters, this becomes more difficult the bigger you want to scale.
Pros and Cons of Cloud Technology
Next, let’s go over the biggest benefit and negative of cloud server technologies.
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Pro – The biggest pros are that cloud servers are easy to scale up and affordable. For many people, this is a way to make sure a website is ready for any amount of traffic while not paying the high costs of owning a lot of physical servers.
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Con – On the negative side, cloud servers are a relatively new technology and some problems still happen occasionally. This is changing all the time as more people move to cloud technology for their servers, however.
Will Clusters of Physical Servers Survive?
Looking at the pros and cons of both cluster servers and new cloud servers shown above, you can see why it’s so difficult to give a definitive answer about whether clusters of physical servers will continue to be used for many years to come.
Cloud servers have come a long way in a short time, however, and it’s looking better all the time for companies that are utilizing the newer technology. With cloud computing comes the ability to scale quickly and reliably while maintaining low costs.
Not everyone is a fan of a virtual “cloud” of servers, however. For some people, knowing where a physical machine is located is necessary for security or other reasons. This is the main reason server clusters are going to still be around. They may not thrive, but they’re going to survive.
Bio
Jenny Hornsdale has visited RouletteB a few times and liked what she saw. When she’s not visiting there, she likes to read infographics about a lot of different topics in order to stay up to date on everything happening in the world of technology.