The future will be fewer, better servers: Silverfern IT

We speak to Silverfern IT chief executive Liong Eng.

What server brands do you specialise in?

Mainly Lenovo servers. We specialise in consolidating servers in a new virtual environment for efficiency and optimising return on investment. Also, establishing a reliable and secure server infrastructure for clients to run their key business applications.

When did your company first get involved in this area?

Silverfern started in 1991 but only got into the servers business in 1997. We now have just over 20 years of experience in this area. There have been a lot of interesting changes in this space over the years, but it’s all good fun.

What certifications do you have that apply to servers?

We invest in our staff to get the appropriate certifications. We are currently certified on Lenovo, Cisco and Dell servers. Other related certifications are on IBM and Nimble storage, Citrix, Veeam, Watchguard, Trend Micro, Microsoft, VMware and others.

Which distributors do you use?

Avnet or Dicker Data.

Have you heard about any cool developments in the server space recently?

There has been a lot of development in the areas of smart memory, CPU for cloud workloads, efficient power and faster storage for server architecture, but the area that seems to have gained a lot of traction lately is hyperconverged technology. This is an area that can further drive down overall infrastructure investment for clients. With the right focus, I believe there is an opportunity to grow services revenue for us.

Can you tell us about a recent deployment you have done?

Our most recent deployment has been installing new replacement server hosts with better performance and less overall investment.

What is driving customers' server projects?

Customers are looking for better-performing servers to run their critical business applications, opportunity to reduce CPU-based software licensing costs by using less servers in running their applications, and paying less for rack space and power costs in data centres.

Servers are?

Becoming more important as the same technology is now being utilised to produce hyperconverged solutions to run business-critical applications. The hyperconverged server solutions have become a game changer for organisations, as the overall operation costs can be reduced significantly.