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Benefits of a Hardware-based Server Appliance

  • Article

6/22/2010

A hardware-based server appliance is an appliance delivered on physical hardware that has an operating system and applications already installed by the manufacturer. With a hardware-based server appliance, you can define the complete customer experience for the server appliance by designing both the hardware and software. The hardware can be deployed ready for the customer to use. A hardware-based appliance can reach markets where there is limited demand for software-only solutions. For information about what a server appliance is, see Definition of Server Appliance.

Benefits

Consider the following benefits of developing a hardware-based server appliance:

  • Allows you to offer a hardware design that is specific to the task performed by the server appliance.
  • Allows you to deploy a turnkey solution, which enables you to reach market segments where few IT staff are present.
  • Simplifies deployment into complex systems because the configuration of the server appliance is designed for the surrounding system.
  • Can help you meet requirements for regulatory compliance when the use of a hardware-based system is required. For example, some computers in the gaming or medical-equipment industries are required to be hardware-based.

See Also

Concepts

Checklist for Server Appliance Development
Product Description for Windows Embedded Server