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Can You Have a Server-less Office?
It comes to a point, after a company has grown to around 10 people,
when they ask themselves if they need to purchase a
server for their office.
If they decide "Yes" then they often choose a mid-range Dell server
running Small Business Server 2003 (SBS2003).
With such a server they can:-
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Store everyone's files in a central location to allow them to be
shared on an
always-on, robust device which has an automated backup system |
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Use Microsoft Exchange as their mail-server so everyone can use
Outlook and, where appropriate, share mailboxes and calendars |
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Share printers and a Broadband connection |
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The cost of such a Dell server, if you don't skimp on RAID hard
drives, redundant power supplies etc. including 10 licences for SBS2003
is around £4000 and perhaps another £1000 to set it up if you don't feel
confident of doing so yourself.
There will also, obviously, be ongoing operating and maintenance costs and, after 5 years or so, it will need replacing with a new one.
What's the Alternative?
Split the roles of the server over several smaller, cheaper special-purpose devices.
You'll still need a network infrastructure in your office of
cables and/or a wireless access point, a network switch and a
patch-panel, but, once installed, these items rarely need any attention.
File Sharing and Backup
You can now buy a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device for under
£200 which has 500gb of storage.
A NAS is a hard drive in a box with a network socket.
It also contains a
Linux computer that makes the hard drive appear as a Windows file-share
allowing it to be accessed by all the PCs on your network as a mapped
drive and the various folders
inside the file-share can be assigned different access permissions for different users.
Advanced features include a USB socket for connecting a shared printer and
a built-in FTP server to allow files on the NAS to be accessed from the Internet where
appropriate.
These NAS devices are getting better all the time and now have storage
capacities up to 2 Terrabytes.
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Some NAS devices have a function to backup the contents of the NAS
itself to a second hard drive or, as PCs
now regularly come with enormous hard drives, you could backup all the
files on your NAS to a PC in your office.
If you still want the reliability and redundancy features of the Dell server then you could just buy
2 NAS drives and keep their contents synchronised.
Buying 2 Dell
servers would be a ridiculous extravagance.
It's also a good idea,
for increased reliability, to power your NAS drive, and other network
devices, via an uninterruptible power supply which will cost
you around £150.
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Printer Sharing
If a printer is connected and shared through a server, various advanced
features become available such as:-
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The hours when individuals are allowed to use a printer can be controlled |
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2 -
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Certain users can have their print-jobs jump in front of any other
people's jobs waiting to be printed |
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If you have 2 identical printers and one fails, the print jobs queued
up on that printer can automatically be diverted to the second printer |
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I agree - who wants any of this?
When you click
"print" you just want the paper to come out of the printer, reliably and
with the least amount of fuss.
Many modern printers have a print-server
built-in, otherwise you can usually buy the network version of a printer
for a little bit extra (these have an "N" at the end of the model
number). Network-ready printers have a RJ45 socket for directly connecting them
to your network.
You then assign the printer a fixed IP address, and
print directly to it from each PC, using a
"TCP/IP Printer Port".
No need for any server to be involved.
Windows
servers are often referred to as "File and Print servers".
The word "Print" is old-fashioned as the proper place for a print-server
is inside the printer itself and so sharing your printers is the easiest
part of the server-less office to achieve.
In fact you should share your office printers in this way even if you
do have a server.
The cost of a print-server is
around £40 to upgrade the model of printer you're thinking of buying to
the network version or £60 for a separate print-server box to share an
existing printer if it only has a printer port or USB port available.
Perhaps you bought a NAS with a built-in print-server - that was handy.
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Shared Internet Access and Firewall
There are certainly software
products which run on a server to allow a Broadband connection to be
shared while giving protection to the internal network from Internet threats, where the
Internet connection is supplied through a modem, directly connected to
the server's 2nd network card.
Microsoft ISA Server 2006 and Kerio WinRoute Firewall are
examples of such software and even Windows Server itself has a built-in,
simple system for doing this.
However, most people have already seen the
sense in using a £100 standalone router/firewall/ADSL Modem/WiFi Access
Point device such as those made by Netgear and Linksys.
The best argument for using a separate router is that if the server fails the
office will still have Internet access.
Routers usually also come with
a built-in 4-port network switch so, for a really small office, this may be all
you need. |
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Email
So you've got your NAS, network printers, and Broadband router, all for under £400.
What's missing?
A first class email, contacts, and workgroup scheduling
system, such as Microsoft Exchange Server in conjunction with Outlook.
Exchange and Outlook come free with SBS2003. (Oh, so that's why we need a server!)
If you're happy using a simpler POP3 mailbox for email then you can
find a hosting company that will provide a POP3 mailbox at your domain name for perhaps £30/year.
If you want the "no compromise" email system
that allows mailbox and calendar sharing and will push emails to your
mobile device then a hosted Exchange service, such as offered by
Arrowmail, is the alternative to running your own mail-server.
(Wow, got
a plug in for us at last!)
The pros and cons of using a hosted Exchange service
rather than operating your own
in-house mail-server are discussed
here.
The cost of paying a monthly fee for hosted Exchange mailboxes compared with purchasing your own server, assuming a
5 year lifespan, is not too different for 10 users although the hosted
option does spread the cost out over 5 years.
If your staff work in
different locations or access their email from outside the office a lot
of the time, or the prospect of having to fix a broken Exchange server
scares you to death, then the hosted Exchange option might suit you better. |
We charge £7.99/month per Exchange Mailbox.
Less for
multiple mailboxes. |
Situations where you should definitely have your own in-house server
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When you need a server to run a client-server program for use by
multiple users in your office, such as an order tracking or customer management system.
ACT! is an example.
These days, more and more traditional client-server systems are being offered as web applications
so they can be hosted on an Internet-based server without the need for a
local server and can be used from any type of computer using just a browser.
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Where all company work is done in the office itself, in one location,
and there's no requirement to have remote access to email or files.
This
may be due to security requirements or just the nature of the business.
It such cases it makes sense to keep everything internal.
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When the number of PCs in your office exceeds a certain threshold.
More PCs means you're a larger company and so the cost of buying and
maintaining a server is less of an issue.
With more people simultaneously accessing shared files, over fast
network connections, you'll need
the extra speed of a 15,000rpm SCSI RAID array to keep up.
More people accessing email over the office's Broadband connection
will slow it up for other activities.
This threshold will vary from 10 to 20 PCs depending on whether
you have one or multiple office locations and how much time people spend working away from
the office.
If a company consisted of half a dozen small offices, each office could have its own NAS but everyone would be on the same hosted Exchange
system and access an
on-line file store for files they need to share
between offices.
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No Server - Less Hassles
If you do have your own server and, because your company is too small to
have it's own IT department, you've somehow become responsible
for keeping the server in good health, it can be a source of stress.
Even when your server's working perfectly you might worry about what you'll do
if it breaks down, what it will cost to fix it and what impact any
server downtime plus possible loss of important data will have on your
business's profitability.
I'm not saying that anything to do with computers will be stress free, but if you can find a way to dispense with that big, expensive,
menacing, noisy box in the corner of the office and replace it with a series of
smaller, easier to understand, single-purpose devices, you may feel as if
you're in greater control of how your business is operating.
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