What is a Linux server?
A Linux server is a machine running Linux operating system that has some data hosted on it which can be retrieved at any time using that machine’s IP address or a domain name that is configured with that IP address. Most companies today use Linux servers for hosting purposes, for example, you want to host a website but a physical machine with enough storage and processing power is required, and the data hosted on this machine needs to be accessed by a large group of people, either within the company internally or by anyone through the internet.
In this scenario, it makes sense to host the required data or an application on a server that can be accessed by these people. These servers can have IP restrictions so that they might only be allowed to be accessed within the organization. When using servers, the industry standard as of today is Linux servers, as they are very light and extremely scalable, the overall operating system “Linux” takes very little space on the actual server and there are hundreds of commands for Linux which gets even the hardest job done in the shortest timespan.
Demand for Linux servers for web companies
Linux servers have been trusted by large web companies throughout the world. The main reason for trusting Linux over other servers is its flexibility and maintainability. Right now, it is crucial to have not just the server up and running but also maintained and continuously enhanced over time. There are many experienced Linux server experts with Linux certification who have in-depth knowledge of Linux networking and administration, these people help build and strengthen your server architecture and you can find such people are always looking for new job opportunities.
Companies tend to focus more on Linux servers because since it is an already made industry standard there are a lot of resources online for Linux server troubleshooting and whenever a Linux server expert gets stuck in some complex problem, he/she can always rely on the vast open source community of Linux in which people are always sharing solutions.
Benefits of Linux server
There are many benefits of using an industry-standard technology, and whenever it comes to servers and online communication or data sharing it’s best to use the one which is leading the market currently. Apart from this fact, there are three major benefits of using Linux servers over any other.
- Cost-effectiveness
Linux offers long-term solutions for businesses that are scalable. The cost of Linux servers is either free or very minimal for most simpler business needs, any individual or small company can easily get started with Linux hosting with a bare minimum price and slowly move to higher packages based on the company’s needs and growth. - Security
Since Linux is already running servers of many giant companies in the tech industry. Their security is close to perfect, as millions of online malicious attacks keep happening every day on Linux machines, security has evolved massively through learning the causes of real-world security breaches and it is evolving every second. Most of the famous online hackers use Linux tools to break security as well because Linux provides capabilities for very in-depth configurations. - Reliability
The reliability factor comes with time and Linux has been here for a while. Many Linux servers are still up and running which were initially started years ago, this shows how reliable Linux servers are, and why companies trust them. In Linux servers, everything is very transparent, and the open-source community keeps updating it as well. So if your own development team might have missed some issues in server setup, chances are there might be an alternative solution already present in the open source community.
Why businesses need Linux server
Almost all business that has some online needs or even a simple website needs some kind of server for processing and storage of content online. Linux server is not only the most secure and reliable server on the market right now but it also incorporates smaller details or requirements that small companies might have. Linux has actually evolved gradually, in the start it was itself a small open-source operating system that people contributed to. With time Linux grew larger and larger to the extent that today Linux servers have most of your server needs covered if not all.
Although there might be a learning curve for Linux servers, beginners can still get started quite quickly with Linux. And for starting businesses that choose Linux over other servers they have an advantage of scalability like no other. For example, your current company only has 50 employees and there is a small server setup for internal sharing of data or internal company portals. When with time the number of employees increases from 50 to 500 then the same Linux server will be able to handle this many people as well. Even when this number exceeds one thousand, if the server is configured correctly then with minor upgrades it can serve that many people/connections as well. Also, it is encouraged to enroll your employees in Linux online training to work around Linux efficiently.
Linux server competitors
There are many server competitors in the market right now that are continuously trying to keep up with Linux and are actually mimicking Linux server features as well. Windows server is one of the biggest competitors which is also being used by millions worldwide. Since Windows has a Microsoft background and is trusted as the most used operating system worldwide, in the case of server OS that might not be true. More organizations prefer Linux servers over any other server, although Windows Server 2019 also has some nice new features but is still not open source and hence only maintained by specific individuals, and developers throughout the world can not contribute any new feature or upgrade any existing one. This is a major plus point
