17th Mar 2008
“IT in a box” or sometimes you don’t need that server!
$5,000.00….
The price for an “average” file & print server. Add in such things as exchange, SQL server, etc. and the price soars exponentially. What is the small or medium sized business to do?
Luckily, in the world of IT, most needed services (e-mail, web hosting, applications) for a business have an outsourcing component.
For example, if you need Microsoft Exchange for your business and don’t want to spend the high upfront costs, there are several services that can provide outsourced exchange services (Mail2Web - http://services.mail2web.com/Business/).
Also, thanks to today’s increasing technology your business can even work without the need for an actual file and print server!
For many small (less than ten systems) networks, we recommend a Network Attached Storage solution or NAS. In essence, a NAS is a device that houses a drive (or drives) with a ROM based operating system to manage the drive and access.
With a NAS you don’t need to worry about server maintenance (read our previous article: Are you keeping your server maintained?) or vulnerabilities. Most NAS systems allow you basic file sharing and print functions. The more advanced models allow for file & print, as well as external access and even basic web server functionality!
These “thin client” devices, will still need maintenance such as firmware updates, but less often - like a router.
NAS also tend to last longer (less power consumption, reduced moving parts/electronics) as their drives aren’t being bothered by having to work a full operating system and manage data…there is less disk access.
Many newer routers even have the ability to have attached storage (via USB) making them, in essence, a NAS.
We should point out that there are disadvantages…a NAS will only provide basic permission settings (typically only at the root folder level) and a NAS will not have Anti-Virus capability so you have to be sure that the systems that connect to it have good Anti-Virus programs already installed.
With the advent of emerging services and technologies, many small business can gain the IT capabilities of larger organizations for less $$$ and have the flexibility of expanding without lots of capital.
[...] ways to also cut down is to consolidate systems and servers. Recently we wrote an article about removing your server altogether which can create significant savings…especially if you can consolidate all the data to a [...]