Five Server Buying Tips
With the high cost of servers, you probably ended up choosing a cheap hosting company instead of purchasing one for your business. They can cost thousands of dollars. However, the idea of having your own file server in-house may be something you think about often.
Before you buy your own server, you should stop and consider alternatives first. It could save you money in the long run! For instance, did you know that you could configure a computer to act as a server? What about the wide range of cloud hosting options out there, negating the need for physical servers. Or, maybe you should rely on Dropbox or another such service for employees to share files on (for free!)
Five Server Buying Tips: Why A Server
The main reason to purchase a server for your business: it is more secure in terms of data. However, this means you need to secure the actual server as well, not only from theft but also from overheating. Your own server also means you have the control of your data at all times, and you are not subject to the downtime that can sometimes come with a cheap hosting provider.
What about the fact you will need to choose an employee (or sometimes, an entire department) to manage permissions, and maintain the servers? You might have someone on-site already that possesses the technical skill to get this job done, but if you don't, that's another person or persons you need to hire.
Here are things to consider when deciding if purchasing your own server is the right move:
1. How will your company grow?
The goal of every business is to grow, but when you are considering purchasing a server, you need to think about where your company will be in terms of size down the road. After all, you don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a server just to turn around and do it again a few years later because you ran out of storage space! Look at the number of people that will be accessing the servers. If it's a few, a small server will be just fine.
However, if you own a large corporation with hundreds of employees relying on the server, you'll want to look into one that offers excellent processing power, large network capacity, and lots of memory. Don't forget to factor in hard drive size! Don't look at your immediate needs, think ahead and plan for years and years down the road.
2. Find the right server.
Many types of servers exist for a variety of needs. What does your business need? Just sharing files amongst employees in a small office? Choose an option that doesn't have useless features.
3. Guard against overheating.
An air conditioned environment is a great start, but does your server have an internal fan? Other models have heat-sensing technology that detects high temperatures and shuts itself down.
4. Renting is an option.
So the cloud is out due to security risks, but have you considered shared or dedicated hosting? Companies like Rackspace will look at your needs and provide you with server space for a monthly fee.
5. Choose a reputable brand.
Don't want to hire an IT department? There are companies like HP and Dell that offer great customer support for those purchasing servers. If you do opt to purchase a server, be sure that the customer support is going to, you know, actually support you.
Are you considering purchasing your own server?
