{"id":122,"date":"2020-10-25T04:42:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T04:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iconit.co.nz\/?p=122"},"modified":"2021-04-03T20:36:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T20:36:15","slug":"do-i-really-need-a-server-at-my-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iconit.co.nz\/index.php\/2020\/10\/25\/do-i-really-need-a-server-at-my-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I really need a server at my office?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Most small business owners that have a server (or more than one) onsite understand the costs of this, and often internally ask themselves: Do I really need a server at my office?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It isn\u2019t just the physical cost of purchasing a new server every 3-5 years, there\u2019s the ongoing maintenance, updates and patching, potential hardware failures, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s 2020 \u2013 do you really still need to have a server onsite?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The easy answer to this question is yes, and no. Or if you like, another answer could be it depends<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because it really does depend on your company\u2019s IT needs. It gets more complicated than this, as if you decide you want to get rid of your server\/s, you need to decide if you can go completely server-less, or instead have your servers hosted offsite somewhere, or a hybrid approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep in mind this could mean one or more servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Servers are used for a variety of \u2018roles\u2019. A very basic role is security of your network. A server with this role would make everyone sign in with a username and password. That\u2019s pretty essential stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another role would be a \u2018file and print\u2019 server. As the name suggests, this server role would manage your file system – or your \u2018network shares\u2019, like your P drive, or H drive, or S drive \u2013 wherever you and your staff save their files. This role often doubles as a printer management server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also database servers, which are commonly used for Customer Relationship Management<\/a> (CRM) programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then we get into other server roles, like ones that supply remote access capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To throw some more confusion at you, virtual servers have become very popular in the last decade and a half. Previously, each server would have one role, so you might have 3, 4, 6 or even 10 (or more) physical servers, all needing patching, replacement cycles and extra disks when they run out of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With server virtualisation, you have one or two (sometimes more) \u2018host\u2019 servers, that have one or more virtual servers running on them. As you can imagine, this reduces hardware costs hugely, over time. The host server will need extra capability (storage and memory, for example) to be able to cope with the extra demands, but it\u2019s still a lot cheaper overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a smaller organisation, it\u2019s much easier to go server-less, as you\u2019d have less servers to have to contend with. But then, that brings up to another crunch point: are you wanting to go server-less, or simply move your servers to the cloud?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not trying to confuse you here, and likely these sorts of decisions are made with your IT service provider, IT manager, or a third party like Icon IT<\/a>. But knowledge is power, so the more you know what you are talking about, the easier it is to make the decision, safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some companies that have very simple needs (security\/files\/CRM) have the opportunity to go to the cloud, but not have any servers at all. There are products out there that you can use like Platform as a Service (PaaS) and\/or Software as a Service (SaaS) and never have to actually have anything to do with servers ever again. This is a best-case scenario, as you and your company can focus on doing what you do \u2013 whether that\u2019s providing a service, or selling widgets \u2013 instead of worrying about servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s start at the beginning: what do you need a server for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Server Virtualisation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
PaaS\/SaaS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n