Business Servers Don’t Know That You Don’t Have Any Cash
If you take a planned approach Small Business Servers can be upgraded effortlessly without having to touch every computer on the network which will save your business money. A network does not need to be completely redone to replace a Microsoft Server. There are options for small businesses that run on Small Business Server products to run their network.
Even in a slow economy servers and PCs still need to be replaced. RAM and Hard Drives still fail and monitors still fade. The equipment you use to run your business does not seem to care that the money to replace it may be in short supply.
Servers are at the center of all computer networks and when one dies everyone on the network suffers. When one computer on a network fails that user down, when a server fails everyone is down. That is why you need to pay attention to that box that sits in the corner.
Upgrading your businesses server after a failure is always more costly than a planned replacement and it’s not just the information that is important. A dead Server will need to be recovered to get back all the connections it has with the other computers on the network or you will be recuired to redo the network and all its connections from scratch. Recovering the data is actually a simpler procedure.
You need to be aware of what your domain does for you to get an idea of what is required. Either you have to spend time recovering Active Directory or you have to restart from the beginning and spend time connecting each computer on the network to the new Active Directory structure. All recent versions of Microsoft Server products utilize Active Directory to maintain the security between users, workstations and servers and their interaction with each other. Active Directory is a complex structure and is not easily recovered after a hardware malfunction. This difficulty with recovering Active Directory is what increases the cost.
Servers generate a lot of heat and since they are often forgotten in the utility room this increased heat and friction adds to lessen their functional life.All Servers run on hardware that degrades and will fail over time. The most common point of failure is with the Hard Drives. Hard Drives are constantly spinning and with a server running operating 24/7 their clocks are always ticking.
Server Hard Drives should always be configured in some sort implementation of RAID to help safeguard you from data loss in case of a failure. Server Hard Drives should also be designed for use in a server and have a higher MTBF to protect your data. If your server is built with workstation drives or does not have some sort of RAID array you are already in danger.
I advise replacing servers sometime soon after the third year. Servers typically have 3 year warranties and after 3 years, any replacement hardware needed for repairs becomes more difficult to get. After the third year the odds of hardware failing increases substantially.
The time and effort in upgrading your network server can be greatly reduced if it is done before it fails. A properly planned upgrade can be done over a weekend with no downtime to the users.
C-Net Systems has upgrade options that allow a swap of the server without having to ever touch a workstation. Our process allows you to replace a server with a new one and maintain all the previous server settings including Microsoft Exchange settings and mailboxes.
The process we use allows you to upgrade a server without ever having to logon to a client workstation. The typical process is to start the process on a Friday night and finish up sometime on Sunday and when users come in and login Monday morning nothing has changed from their perspective other than noticing a speed increase. All the network shares are the same, the server name is the same and even Microsoft Exchange functions exactly the same as it did before the upgrade.
The process saves time and money by removing the need to change anything on the PCs. The PCs se no change in the server or its settings.
Depending on the licensing of the OS you could also use the same software on the new server and save that expense too. Because of the benefit of not having to train users and not spending the time going to all the PCs you save a huge expense. It is not a requirement to get the latest version to run on the new server and if money is tight it is a viable option to reuse the software to save money.
Saving money by proactively replacing the server and reusing the server software is a great choice if you are cash strapped. Being better informed and having all the options and planning for the upgrade is the best choice and will save lots of money in the long run.
Tags: Networks, sbs upgrade, server install, server migration, server upgrade, Small Business Server