Nate Josephs
Sr. Manager, Data Center Operations at Parallel Technologies, Inc.

No longer relegated to B-movies, zombies are everywhere these days. Celebrated as the anti-hero, zombies are no longer viewed as a menace to society. That is except for the data center world, where zombies remain a threat to security and productivity.

Within our industry, the term “zombie servers” has ominous meanings. In one instance it can refer to a server that has been taken over by outside forces with the specific purpose of doing harm to other computers such as denial of service (DoS) attacks. In the other, the server sits idle, serving no purpose yet consumes data center space and power. Although the latter seems a little less threatening, the reality is that it’s the most dangerous zombie of all. Hidden in plain sight, these zombies are draining valuable resources from data centers across the globe. It’s imperative for those responsible for the efficiency of their company’s data center to rise up and slay these idle servers.

There are multiple reasons why servers turn into zombies. But for the most part, they grow out of a simple oversight.

Mission Critical Magazine: Battling the Zombie Server 

 

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