Many small businesses start off with buying a couple of computers, connecting them to the Internet and then they operate completely independent of one another.  That means that the computers are connected to a network but nothing is shared between them.  A common next step is to do some simple file sharing between the computers so user A can access files and data on user B’s computer and vice versa.  Every improvement you make to your network or infrastructure should increase productivity, increase client satisfaction, increase security, or increase your ability to recover from a disaster.  Below I will analyze some common server or advanced network features and see how your business might benefit from them.

Data Redundancy

When sharing files from a single computer what happens when that hard drive dies?  When that happens all of your data is gone or it is going to cost you a fortune to take it to a specialist who can try to retrieve the data from the bad hard drive.  If you buy an actual server-grade computer they often come with multiple hard drives that are automatically duplicated to another internal drive, known as mirroring.  This is one level of redundancy that will allow a hard drive in your server to fail, without you losing all of your data.  This technology is referred to as RAID and there are many different server configurations available depending on your exact needs.

Data Backups

Data redundancy from extra hard drives is great but you also need to have backups of your important information.  At a bare minimum your business should backup files located on individual computers on a regular basis to DVD discs or a USB hard drive.  However, if you have a central fileserver (it could be a computer or network attached hard drive) that everyone uses to store their important files on then your backup strategy will become much easier.   Instead of going to each individual computer and doing backups you will only need to backup that single area where everyone saves their documents.  Also, remember to take your backups home at night (or to some other offsite location).  Backups won’t do you any good if you have a fire in your office or server room and your backup discs are sitting right next to your server!

Security and Permissions

A centralized server will allow you to create a ‘domain’ in which you will make user accounts for each of your employees on the server rather than individual computers.  This will allow you to easily create or disable employees’ accounts as needed.  You will also be able to control what access users have to the computers they are on as well as what files they can access on your main server.

Print Sharing

Installing printers directly to your network or server will allow your employees to use a centralized printer rather than everyone requiring their own.  This would allow you to have one very nice printer rather than many mediocre printers. 

Roaming Profiles

Some server environments make every computer in your organization appear the same to each employee.  That means that if user A logs onto computer Z on Monday, and saves all of their files and work on computer Z, then on Friday they use computer X all of their files from Z will be there.  It seamlessly exchanges information with the server and makes the necessary files available to user A on all computers.  Even your computer desktop and background is the same.

Hosting “Value Added Services”

If you have a server on your internal network this opens up many possibilities for running software that everyone can use to improve your company’s bottom line.  Here are some software solutions that are commonly run on servers to increase productivity:

• Microsoft Exchange – This allows your employees to access email from their computer or over the web.  It also allows inter-office collaboration by offering convenient access to other employees’ calendars as well as customer contacts.
• Customer Relationship Management – Microsoft CRM, SugarCRM and ACT are just a few of the popular CRMs currently available to be hosted on your server.  CRM will allow you to digitally archive detailed information regarding your sales prospects, current customers, appointments, documents and more.
• VPN or Terminal Services – Having a properly designed network and server configuration could allow your employees to login to their exact office computer environment conveniently from home or an offsite location. 

Closing Comments

I have seen extremely creative networks that have survived without servers for a very long time.  At Web Ascender we had a server from day one.  Since our product is digital, we would be distraught if we ever lost even a single file.  My general rule of thumb is if you have over 5 employees using computers you need a server and should consult a professional to design, implement, or review your network.  You do not need to hire a fulltime IT person for this; there are many of companies who will setup your network at an affordable rate and can be on call 24 hours a day should you require any additional assistance.