Understanding server infrastructure has become highly important for all the businesses that are connected with high-demand workloads, cloud computing, and more. A proper implementation of the infrastructure as well as further maintenance is so crucial nowadays.
That’s why, we decided to share some major concepts and best practices relating to the server infrastructure. If that is something you are interested in as a developer, we will guide you through it, and in the meantime, you can choose your VPS for the most reasonable price.
Understanding of the server infrastructure
Generally speaking, server infrastructure is a complex of things including storage, networking devices, managing approaches, and framework of servers. The term relates both to the virtual and physical parts and here are the main components of the infrastructure:
- Severs (This can relate to both virtual and physical machines);
- Storage (The solutions can be either NAS or SAN);
- Networking (For the proper server communication the switches, firewalls, and routers are needed);
- Management tools (The software is crucial for maintenance, automation of some processes, and monitoring).
Types of the infrastructure
Depending on the models of deployment infrastructure can be divided into 3 basic types such as:
- On-premises. The peculiarity of type is that all the necessary servers are based in the data center of the specific company. This means this business is dealing with all the maintenance and management processes independently.
The main benefits of this approach are that you are getting exceptional security, better control in terms of the hardware, and of course compliance. The minuses are mainly connected with the price and higher maintenance involvement within all the processes.
- Cloud-based type. There is a diversity of web providers that offer cloud server resources and companies can easily scale them.
The major benefits of this type of infrastructure are in the financial aspect, awesome scalability, and minimized management regarding the hardware. While the minuses of the cloud-based approach are in third-party involvement and you have absolutely minimal influence on the uptime.
- Hybrid. One more great type is a combination of the first type so that companies can maintain sensitive information on their servers with the cloud approach gives instant scalability whenever there is a necessity. Generally, this is a great method, however, it is challenging in terms of management, and integration between 2 types which should be properly made.
Basics of designing infrastructure
The design of server infrastructure should consist of several important steps. Here are some of them to keep in mind:
- Evaluate the necessary requirements. Try to be specific with the needed storage space, geographical location, approximate number of users of your project, and backup options.
- Hardware choice. Choose RAM and processors depending on the workload. As for the storage type, SSDs have high-performance requirements, and HDD for more capacity.
- When talking about the network setup, ensure that the necessary data transfer speed is achieved. Plan the redundant components for the network, this means implementing several switches and interfaces in case of some issues. Moreover, try to use firewalls and other security measures.
- Virtualization. To create several virtual machines on one server, you will need a hypervisor such as KVM or VMware. With the usage of the right virtualization tools, you can significantly improve the scalability and simplify management.
Security aspects of the server infrastructure
To prevent issues with downtime or loss of sensitive information, you should start with securing the access control. Start with ensuring that only authorized users access the server’s resources. Moreover, it is recommended to use multi-factor authentication.
Another important factor for the blocking of strange traffic activity is the implementation of intrusion detection/prevention systems. With their usage, it is possible to prevent lots of security risks and detect some unusual activities.
Data encryption is also essential for the protection of sensitive information. Specifically, we are talking about the usage of the TLS or SSL certificates.
The last, but not the least factors to consider are regular backups and patch management. Automation of the patch deployment as well as backups can prevent lots of risks for your data.
Optimization of the server performance
To get a more responsive environment and work with extensive high loads it is recommended to implement load balancing. With the usage of such balancers as AWS Elastic Load or HAProxy, it is possible to divide traffic activity across several servers. This means, one server won’t be overwhelmed.
Also, regular monitoring with the help of Prometheus or other tools can guarantee that there are no hardware issues within the network.
Conclusion
Designing secure server infrastructure is a challenging process with lots of factors to consider and plan beforehand. This is not a one-time task, but a project that demands lots of time and resources for maintenance, scaling, and updates. Luckily, lots of web providers offer access to reliable server infrastructure for a reasonable price. So, anybody has an option either to build everything on your own or use professional assistance.
About The Author
