Best business servers

Cloud computing may be all the rage but when faced with ballooning costs, ever more frequent outages and the worrying trend in data breaches, businesses of all sizes are seeing the tangible benefits offered by on-premises servers. With the appropriate supporting infrastructure in place, they can deliver 24/7 data availability and put you in full control of all services and business apps. 

True, your capital expenditure (CapEx) will be higher, but compared to ongoing cloud service subscriptions, your operating expenses (OpEx) over the long term could be significantly lower. You’ll have total equipment ownership and be free to make any customisations you want, whenever you want, store your data in more cost-effective ways, and be in full control of all aspects of security, including data governance.

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses is the sheer range of servers on today’s market, making it important to choose the right one. Over the past twelve months, we’ve lab-tested and reviewed servers ranging from enterprise powerhouses to small business models, and in this guide, we bring you our pick of the best ones.

Dave Mitchell

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specializing in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK's premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.

Best Business Servers 2025

Dell's PowerEdge R770 is one of Dell’s most versatile rack servers yet, as it teams up Xeon 6 power with a high memory capacity and a wide range of storage options. This 2U rack mounter is available in hot and cold aisle configurations, supports air-cooling or direct liquid cooling (DLC) kits, and expansion options include plenty of GPU choices.

Its excellent internal design has room for two Xeon 6 P-Core CPUs up to 86 cores or E-Core models up to 144 cores, and if you choose the former, you can use the 32 DIMM slots to push capacity to an incredible 8TB of fast DDR5 memory. Storage features are outstanding as the R770 can handle up to 24 SAS4/SATA devices, including 8 SFF NVMe SSDs or up to 40 E3.S Gen5 NVMe SSDs.

Dell has wholeheartedly embraced the DC-MHS specification, so you’ll find its fPERC RAID cards and BOSS-N1 controllers are fully compliant. Dell also delivers unbeatable remote management services as its iDRAC10 modular controller presents a wealth of valuable server information, plus essential platform security and links up with Dell’s OpenManage Enterprise and Power Manager, along with its AI-driven AIOps infrastructure management cloud service.

Price: Starts from £6,100 excluding VAT

Read our full Dell PowerEdge R770 review for more information

Enterprises seeking a powerful edge server that can cope with harsh environments will find a lot to like about HPE’s ProLiant DL145 Gen11. Along with support for all twelve of AMD’s EPYC 8004 CPU family, including the six ‘PN’ NEBS-friendly models, this compact 2U system is resistant to extreme shock and vibration and rated for continuous operations in temperatures between -5 and +55 degrees C. 

Its high CPU core potential makes it a good choice for virtualisation at the edge, and it’s ready for AI and ML workloads as it can handle up to three Nvidia L4 Tensor Core GPUs. Maximum memory capacity is 768GB of fast DDR5, and although storage capacity isn’t high, it supports two SATA/NVMe SSDs and has options for up to six EDSFF E3.S SSDs.

Management features are undiminished as it sports an embedded iLO6 chip, which offers strong security, zero-touch provisioning, and full integration with HPE’s GreenLake Compute Ops Management cloud service. The DL145 Gen11 is clearly capable of delivering plenty of processing power to the network edge, and deployment options are extensive as HPE offers desk, rack, and wall-mount kits, so it can happily go where normal servers fear to tread.

Price: Starts from £2,393 excluding VAT

Read our full HPE ProLiant DL145 Gen11 review for more information

Broadberry’s CyberServe EPYC EP1-226T has some big surprises in the storage department as this 2U rack server sports a SupremeRAID SR-1010 RAID solution from GRAID Technology. Hardware RAID cards can present performance bottlenecks when managing high-speed NVMe SSDs, but GRAID Technology neatly overcomes these issues by offloading all RAID operations to a GPU and using out-of-path technology to reduce CPU load.

It certainly delivers on its speed claims as in our lab tests using twelve 3.8TB Micron 7450 PRO U.3 NVMe SSDs, Iometer reported mind-boggling throughputs of 58GB/sec and 21GB/sec for sequential reads and writes, with random operations returning 56.2GB/sec and 20.6GB/sec. Swapping Iometer to a 4K request size delivered equally impressive I/O rates with sequential reads and writes settling at 1.11million IOPS and 591,100 IOPS, while random reads and writes both returned around 1.1million IOPS.

The CyberServe works for us as a powerful general-purpose storage server, as it comes with a 24-core 2.9GHz AMD EPYC 9254 CPU, and the price includes a generous 128GB of DDR5 memory. The server is limited to a maximum of 16 NVMe SSDs, but the SupremeRAID card makes it an ideal choice if you want to get the best from your storage investment.

Price when reviewed: £15,906 excluding VAT

Read our full Broadberry CyberServe EPYC EP1-226T review for more information

First introduced way back in 2010, HPE’s ProLiant MicroServer just keeps marching on with the latest Gen11 model delivering a wealth of new features. Targeting small offices seeking a compact entry-level server, it’s now available with a choice of Intel Pentium Gold, Xeon E-2400 or Xeon 6300 CPUs and supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory.

It’s slightly larger than the Gen10 Plus model, and HPE has put the extra space to good use by radically improving system board access. Its smart clamshell design allows the upper section of the inner chassis to be swung over through 90 degrees to provide unfettered access – you don’t even need to remove any cables. 

Storage looks good as there’s room for four LFF SATA NHP (non-hot-plug) HDDs or SATA SFF drives using optional converter kits. RAID is handled by an embedded Intel VROC (virtual RAID on CPU) controller, and remote management is a standard feature as the server sports HPE’s excellent iLO6 controller.

Price: Starts from £714 excluding VAT

Read our full HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen11 review for more information

Most small business servers tend to be black and boring, but Dell’s PowerEdge T160 breaks the mold as it packs an impressive hardware package into a compact and stylish chassis. Presented in eye-catching silver, the T160 has a zinc coating for protection, while its industrial-strength construction and optional bezel filter kit make it a solid choice for near-edge deployments such as warehouses and retail offices.

Available with a choice of Intel Pentium G7400, Xeon E-2400, or the latest Xeon 6300 CPUs, the server supports a healthy 128GB of DDR5 memory and offers an impressive storage potential. The two internal cages support three LFF plus two SFF SAS/SATA devices, and there’s even room below for Dell’s optional BOSS-N1 card, which presents two M.2 NVMe SSDs in hot-plug carriers accessible at the rear. 

Full remote management is included, and although the embedded iDRAC9 controller isn’t the latest generation, its web console presents a wealth of information about system and component status. Small businesses will also appreciate Dell’s embedded LifeCycle Controller as it makes light work of OS installation. 

Price: Starts from £1,172 excluding VAT

Read our full Dell PowerEdge T160 review for more information