Ground-breaking research into server performance has been carried out by Techbuyer, a global specialist in server, storage, networking and IT solutions, and the University of East London.

The Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) demonstrated that remanufactured servers perform as well as new through a series of tests, and that server efficiency can be optimised with better configurations. The findings were first revealed at Data Centre World Frankfurt, however this is the first time they have gone to press.

The KTP analysed CPU, memory and storage performance in several ‘like for like’ scenarios, including a new and refurbished HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server.

The first stage of testing demonstrated that a new and refurbished server, of the same make and model, have identical performance. This was done by measuring the energy draw and performance of the CPU, memory, storage and the overall score.

This was the first time that research of this kind had been carried out.

The second stage of testing demonstrated that previous generations can outperform the latest generation with optimum server configurations, simply by adding more server memory.

“In the past, new servers significantly increased the amount of compute power per watt, and so the advice was to refresh often and with new,” says Rich Kenny, Techbuyer Group IT Director. “However, as time has passed, newer generations are making less improvements on older models, and this trend is no longer supported. Our KTP explores the data around this, and the results show that upgrading with remanufactured technology is a great way to optimise performance.”

Nour Rteil, KTP Associate Developer states that “These results highlight the minimal performance gain when going from previous to latest generations after 2014. This is expected for the next few years until there is another breakthrough in CPU technology.”

“This is all the more significant when you consider that a server is idle 75% of the time in a data centre environment.”

Techbuyer and the University of East London are currently creating a tool to measure the energy efficiency in data centres. This will analyse the current set-up and create the optimum server configuration to reduce emissions, waste, and enhance performance.

Techbuyer specialises in buying, selling and refurbishing IT solutions worldwide. We have been providing our customers with quick and cost-effective IT solutions for decades, specialising in a range of components including Configure to Order servers, hard drives, server memory, PCs, laptops and other office technology. We also offer competitive prices for used and decommissioned equipment, which are refurbished in-house.