awk demo

bash-4.2$ cat ff_servers.db
192.168.154.2 Alaska   hp
192.168.157.3 Colorado dell
192.168.156.3 hawaii   hp

bash-4.2$ server_name=alaska

bash-4.2$ machine_type=$(awk -vserver_name="$server_name" 'BEGIN{IGNORECASE=1}$0~server_name{print $NF}' ff_servers.db)

bash-4.2$ echo $machine_type
hp