Storage, servers & virtualization
Servers and storage hold the data a business cannot lose. Our team specifies, racks, configures and maintains servers, shared storage and the power behind them.
We specify, rack, configure and maintain servers, shared storage and the power behind them. Our team has operated large shared-storage systems for an email platform with a very large mailbox count, where patching windows and failover had to be planned in advance. The same discipline applies to a single server room.
Virtualization is where this work pays back: consolidation, snapshots, tested recovery and the option to move a workload without a new purchase. We pair every storage design with a backup design and a restore test. "Backups That Actually Restore" explains the 3-2-1 rule, immutable copies and hurricane and ransomware planning.
What we do
- Server specification, racking and configuration
- Proxmox and VMware virtualization clusters
- Shared storage over iSCSI
- RAID and capacity planning
- UPS sizing and power monitoring
- Hardware refresh with data migration
- Small-office NAS setup with offsite copies
- Hardware monitoring and firmware patching
Virtualization consolidates the workload and makes recovery practical. We work with enterprise arrays and with small-office NAS devices, whichever fits the budget and the risk, and we plan capacity so growth does not become an emergency.
This group underpins Managed IT and Cloud Management. Hardware choices, RAID layout, iSCSI storage and UPS sizing are tied to the recovery targets we agree with each client.
Leading platforms we work with
- Proxmox VE
- Dell Technologies
- Supermicro
- Lenovo
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- NetApp
- Pure Storage
- Synology
- VMware by Broadcom
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Nutanix
- APC by Schneider Electric
Platforms and practices
- HPE ProLiant
- HPE MSA
- Dell PowerEdge
- Dell EMC
- iSCSI
- Virtualization
- VMware vSphere
- APC Smart-UPS
- RAID & capacity planning
References
- Proxmox VE overview (KVM + LXC)
- IDC: top server vendors by revenue, 1Q26 (Dell Technologies, Super Micro, Lenovo, IEIT Systems, HPE), June 15, 2026
Sources last checked .
Product names are trademarks of their owners and are listed to describe our experience; they do not imply endorsement or partnership.
Backup tiers: data lost versus time to recover
Recovery point objective (RPO) is how much recent data a restore loses; recovery time objective (RTO) is how long the restore takes. Faster tiers sit close to the production system and share its fate; slower tiers survive ransomware and site loss. The scale is logarithmic. Illustrative figures.
How we use Storage, servers & virtualization for clients
Frequently asked questions
Direct answers to the questions we hear most. Something else on your mind?
Send us a messageCan you support our existing Dell, HPE or Lenovo servers?
Yes. Our team has experience with Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Supermicro and Lenovo hardware, and with iSCSI storage. Names are trademarks of their owners and appear as experience, not partnership.
Can you move us from VMware to Proxmox?
Yes, our team works with both VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE and can plan a migration. Whether it makes sense depends on your licensing and workloads.
RAID, ZFS or Ceph: how do you choose?
RAID in a controller or software protects against disk failure on one server. ZFS adds checksums, snapshots and replication on one system. Ceph spreads data across several servers so storage survives a whole node failing and scales out, but needs at least three nodes and fast networking. Match the choice to the failure you must survive and the staff who will run it.
Is RAID a backup?
No. RAID keeps a server running when a disk fails, but it copies deletions, corruption and ransomware encryption instantly. A backup is a separate, versioned copy, ideally with an offline or immutable component. We plan both.
How much capacity and spare should we plan?
We size from current data, growth rate and retention, plus headroom so storage is not above about 80 percent when you buy; full pools slow down and are harder to recover. We also plan spare drives, a failure domain larger than one disk, and a hardware refresh cycle in the budget.
How large should a UPS be?
Sized from the measured load of the equipment, not the nameplate, with runtime long enough for a clean shutdown or for a generator to start. Smart-UPS units report load and battery health to monitoring, and batteries are replaced on schedule. Power plans include network gear, since servers staying up behind a dead switch are no use.