Not sure what to look for when purchasing a server? Having trouble with your current server or in the market for a new one? Purchasing a server can be a daunting task, but if not done with careful consideration, it can significantly impact your business’ ability to operate smoothly. Here are some things you may want to consider while shopping for one.
Purpose
A server can provide lots of ways to increase productivity and profitability. You can use a server to host your website, store your company files so your employees can access them easily, while restricting user permission levels, and even use it as a virtual desktop. You should be thinking about how you intend to use your server, which will help determine its minimal size.
Growth
Growth is a substantial part of running a business. You have to be prepared for it as it can be painful at times. When thinking about a server, you want to make sure that it’s large enough to run your business now and able to handle a 5-to-10% growth spurt for the immediate future. You also want to ensure that it’s expandable, if needed.
Habitat
Due to the amount of heat and the sound that a server generates, it’s important to have a dedicated space for it to be placed in. This allows you to control that rooms environmental conditions to ensure maximum performance out of your server. If the room is cluttered, and your server is laying on top of a couple of boxes of memorabilia, it’s not going to perform real well. It needs to have free air flow around it, be temperature controlled and best placed into a server rack designed to house it.
Reliability
Even with the best environmental conditions and equipment, servers can, and will, eventually fail. Whether it’s temporary or permanent you have to be prepared. Preparation consist of a couple things such as multiple hard drives set to a mirrored RAID so if one drive fails, another has the same data and can be accessed with little or no downtime. You will also need to have an off site backup solution such as a BDR from McLane Intelligent Solutions. If ever your business is affected by some form of disaster, you have the ability to remotely operate and recover your data because it’s been stored in a completely different geographical location.
These are just a couple of things you have to consider when purchasing a server. Failure to choose the best option that’s catered to your current needs and be scalable to be able to grow with your company, can destroy your entire IT infrastructure or end up costing you more in the end. McLane Intelligent Solutions’s IT technicians are highly knowledgeable and can help find a server solution that is right for you.
