I knwo this may sound a little odd: But can anyone buy a server?
A good friend of mine is living in the stone age, he ownes and opperates a small business that has grown quite large in the last several years. He refuses to change with the times, when I say that I mean the man does not even own a cell phone, and still has a secretary take dictation over audio tapes everyday. He won’t buy a computer for himself, and refuses to learn about the benefits of having a secure office.
The work he is involved in is based in computers (he is an engineer), he hires draftsman to do his CAD work, yet refuses to learn the rhyme or reason behind what they are doing. He sells his product and goes on doing well in his industry.
Finally he hired a young draftsman who has convinced him to get plugged in, and to purchase a server so everyone in the office can work with some contiguity…
My question is this: what are good servers for a small business? (6 individual machines) How much do they generally cost? And any other helpful info would be great!
**MODS THIS MAY BELONG IN IMHO : please move if necessary
Anyone can buy a server. You don’t need a license.
But there are a bunch of decisions you need to make before you run out and buy one. It sounds like you may just need to create a LAN and drop a file server on it, which doesn’t really have to be a server-class machine. Are you going to run applications from it, or just need a central file repository? You need to decide whether to go with Windows, Linux, or some other Unix flavor. I am not a network guy so my knowledge of how to set this up is very limited.
Although I am not recommending Dell, here is a link on their site that will probably answer most of your questions. It is a tutorial on the basics of setting up a network for small business.
I think you might be a little confused. A “server” isn’t some mysterious, special machine, it’s just a computer. A server can be a super-expensive top-of-the-line rackmount machine with 48GB of RAM and a gigantic RAID array, or it can be some dingy old spare desktop machine that’s been gathering dust in the closet.
The only thing that makes it a “server” is what you do with it, for example, if it hosts a website or file sharing system or so forth.
If all you intend to do is share files, you don’t need a particularly powerful machine. An old, used computer with some decent hard drive space can be set up on a network and run SAMBA in no time.
If they purchase a computer that will “act” like a server… are there people who will come and set everything up, and show the boss what it does and how it works? Sounds simple…just wondering
I agree with what’s been posted: server’s are definitely a misnomer by the definitions that most give them. My dad’s “server” is far less powerful than his desktops (other than having a very large hard drive). I have many friends who’ve put together scrap file servers from old components that they no longer use. In many cases–unless you’re using it for something processor-intensive–a server does not need to hold any powerful system resources.
Hell, we once had to press an old junk computer as a server for our website when it got hit with a virus. A server is just a computer that is accessible by other computers.
People may set up one for you, but you’re more likely to find someone willing to host the server themselves.
My wife’s company doesn’t have any complicated computer needs but they do need a LAN for about 50 people, e-mail, backups, user accounts etc. They have a consultant that sets up and manages those things whenever they need him to. They just call him when they have any hardware or software need including setting up new computers with all the right stuff. The hourly rate is over $100/hr but that is typical and he does a good enough job that they probably only average 2 - 4 hours of his time a week.
Like others said, back in the day servers used to be these big scary machines that only specially trained staff could understand. What you are probably looking at here is a PC with a few special parts and some special server software. Real live dedicated servers built for the task start about $1500 or so and I can’t imagine your friend would spend more than twice that.
However, there is a bunch of stuff that goes along with it that will add up during the initial setup. The Windows server versions cost more than just the desktop versions. E-mail software can be anywhere from free to $$$. He will likely need Ethernet wiring done by somebody that knows what they are doing so that it doesn’t end up a mess. There are routers and backup storage to buy.
I would recommend that he get a consultant like I am talking about to do it. They can do those things fast so the money isn’t as bad as it would seem at first glance. Getting a current employee to do it would probably take several months and the results probably wouldn’t be as good.
If you want an estimate, total hardware cost should be around 8 - 10K and setup might take 80 hours of consulting at 100/hr or so. That is for a professional setup that is just a smaller version of what the big companies use. You can do it for any price but it isn’t smart to cheap out when doing so is just going to burn your employees time week after week if things don’t work like they should.
BTW, I am an IT consultant but not quite that kind.
Pity they arent in Germany, I have a friend who is a computer network geek and does just that for a living, anything from a single office server up to a major call center and multiple outlets for retail stores.
You have mentioned six computers in a small office.
Tell us what the applications are?
Is it just shared internet access, email and file sharing or do they want to run a specific server based app.
If it is just sharing basic computer needs then one good broadband router, cables and possibly ethernet card can accomplish much of what is needed.
Once you define the requirements we can provide both low end and high end solutions.
There are some good network ready Color lasers that can be picked up for under $500 now. This can handle the bulk of your printing. Printing drawing on large format however is a very expensive investment. A server to handle Auto-Cad application could get very expensive and put you up in the range **Shagnasty ** mentioned.
It is all about defining the needs of the company and where you want to be in three years.
Again, a server is just a computer - it’s what you’re doing with it, and the software that’s loaded on it that categorizes it as a ‘server’.
It sounds like you need a consulting firm to discover what you want to do, then get the hardware/software to do it. Won’t be real cheap, but doing it (especially from what you’ve described of the office) is a PITA. Make sure you spec out training, or you’ll just get a flashy box that no-one ends up knowing how to use.
On preview, what Shagnasty says, though the 8-10k on hardware seems really high to me… I’d guess half that. 80hrs seems ballpark, especially if you want to get full use of things.
I agree with the previous posts particularly friedo.
That really nails it down, server is more a function than a machine. At work we have 20 servers of the really expensive nature, but they do a multitude of functions. At home I have two servers, one is a old 1 gig machine that I set up to store files, two large hard drives in a “mirror”, that is everthing is on each drive so if one fails, the other has the info. The other is also old now, but has dual processors and was a host for a game on-line, (SOF 2), and is not used for much of anything any more, since my sons are moving on and no more LAN parties. The thing to do is determine what your needs are, then make the hardware/software fit the need, not the other way around.
As an aside, while you can press just any server into deployment as a server, I suggest using, at worst, a brand-new business-series desktop from a name-brand manufacturer. A no-name or locally built system will be fine, but stick with first-rate components… top of the line makers, even if not top of the line models.
Do not press older or discount hardware into service for your business’s server. I’ve done it before a half-dozen times, and you get away with it mostly, but you’re setting yourself up for more untimely hard drive and power supply failures than otherwise in a situation where I really doubt you’ll be wanting any unplanned downtime.
Also, if you don’t plan to do backups routinely, you’re making a substantial mistake.
Right, I left out a word there. I meant to say hardware and software together. The software can add up once you figure in the server OS, nice e-mail server software, an enterprise apps etc. It can end up being any number of course but I wouldn’t skimp on some of those. You could probably do it all for less than 8K if you tried but there are many “incidentals” like outfitting a closet as a server room, some small racks, Ethernet wiring boards etc. Home users could skimp on those things but I wouldn’t recommend it for business because that shouldn’t be considered big money and the costs of it being done improperly are too high.
Look at an entire small-office payroll and then figure out how much it costs for every person to spend 1 - 2 hours a week trying to get stupid stuff to work right for example. I have seen small offices that make really bad decisions in that way. I have seen places were everyone has their own inkjet printer because work group printers were considered too expensive. That works craptacular for about a week and then the cartridges start needing to be replaced at $30 a piece because those 50 page documents really burn through them especially when you have to reprint them several times. As a consultant, I am trained to think about those things but most people seem to be pretty bad at it. Always look at the cost/benefit.
good point Mr. Slant. I neglected to mention that my home servers are not mission critical, if they go belly up so what? For a business system you want a quality dependable system. My point was no need to go overkill. For a six computer network I would guess you can find something suitable for 3-4 grand that has plenty of built in redundancy.
Like others said, servers come in all price ranges. Will it serve files or apps or both? How much storage? Will there be redundancy? If so, how much? What means will be used to back up data? How fault tolerant does the server need to be?
Don’t forget the server environment. There is a great temptation to throw the server in the supply closet, but without adequate ventilation this can be a bad recipe. Other odds and ends can up the price rapidly. You’ll want a 1st class UPS, probably a decent professional router, a rack to keep it all organized, etc. All this can easily eat up another couple of thousand dollars.
This is definitely something you need help with, but finding the right person can be hit or miss. Possession of a MCSE or the like isn’t always a good indicator. I have 28 years of experience with microcomputers, but no certs. Yet with all my field experience, I would put myself against some guy out of trade school any day. Some MCSE’s had NO COMPUTING EXPERIENCE before they enroll at some vocational school. That is a very dangerous person in my opinion.
I can’t believe folks are commanding $100 an hour though. I worked with both Novell and NT and never charged anyone that much. My company hired a consultant who was worth the money, but pretty soon he started sending his lackeys who definitely were not worth the money. They were also very inflexible, wanting to only support the packages they were familiar with.
Soon I was doing it all myself, rolling out servers, setting up workstations, troubleshooting, backup. If someone has a lot of PC experience, it might be feasible go that route, a lot of it comes down to getting the right books. The manuals that come with most of this stuff are sketchy at best, and not all 3rd party books are created equal, to say the least. For Novell 3.11, I found exactly two really useful books in the entire time I worked with it. :rolleyes:
Definitely find out his needs before you send him off spending thousands on high-powered servers. If I had a small business and simply needed a file server for a handful of machines to share files on, I would pick up a ReadyNAS loaded with 4x400GB drives for $1300 and call it a day. I have one of these at home and it is no fuss, no muss, no consultant required.
SME Server is free (the software, that is) and pretty easy to set up. I use this at work - it’s great and highly functional.
The per-user licensing costs of Windows Server was a significant deciding factor in choosing Linux here. Dunno if that’s how Microsoft still works the licensing now…
The draftsman use Autocad - a huge program in it’s own right… but there are thousands of drawings that must be stored… and yes, shared internet access et al. is what they are looking for.
Microsoft still charges an arm and a leg for their “server” OS (at least for XP Server) and absurdly so. Linux is not only cheaper but more stable (and FreeBSD more stable yet) but both obviously require more proficiency to configure and maintain effectively.
As others have said “a server” could be used in many different roles. A print server, a license server, or a basic data storage box/hardware RAID array could be a very inexpensive machine, perhaps even one of the existing machines he has that is ready to be retired. A machine for doing backups, or which is going to be running applications should probably be a little beefier. Something that is going to be an e-mail or a low-volume web server (connecting to the outside world as a gateway, running a firewall), or something running a heavy database system like Oracle should be a decently powerful and more important reliable machine. The only need for a high end server would be for a high volume web server that has to be up at all times, or a critical network storage machine that stops work when its dead; this should be a redundant, preferably clustered “machine” of at least three individual computers; generally speaking, though, this is well beyond the needs of a typical small business.
If you just want to do file sharing between machines, Windows does that rather well without a central server (provided that you don’t mind its only modestly secure permissions system.)
