I work with businesses that are just getting started or just hitting a period of growth every day and one common frustration among passionate owners is servers: what they are, when they are needed, and how to go about getting one.
It doesn’t need to be overwhelming to know when your small business is ready for a server. If you use two or more computers to share scanners, information or internet access, a small business server will benefit you. Servers not only make things simpler, they boost your business security and productivity.
Before servers became widely available, only large organizations were able to afford servers. Today, servers are easy to implement and affordable. Servers store, process, manage and send data 24/7.
Here are signs that your business is ready for a server:
- You store important data and files that should be protected from unauthorized access, loss or corruption in two or more computers.
- Accounting programs and customer relationship management software are needed to communicate with vendors and customers.
- Managing several versions of a single file is necessary for business operation.
- More than one computer need to share internet access, fax machines and other office equipment and resources.
- A central communication system is needed to share information with clients, staff and vendors and organize group meetings.
- You want to access your computer files from anywhere without any problem, backup important files on several computers or restore previous versions of files or files that were accidentally deleted.
- Employees need to share software tools.
- Control access of employees to files and data
If there are times when you cannot access your files or shared resources, you have trouble finding information quickly, you want to protect your files from malware and viruses or there’s not enough storage space, you should consider installing a server.