Server for small office?

mauphie15 May 2008 · 08:10

[Technical Post (not type related)]

Our office is small usually 3, sometimes 4 people. And I’m the designated IT person, even though I know zilch about it. Anyway, the office continues to plug along, connected locally via routers and ethernet cables and we had to recently buy another external harddrive.

My questions to the Typophiles are:

Do any of you have a server for your small office?
What made you decide to get one?
Any suggestions/warnings about taking this road?

I’m not sure if our office even needs a server. But, the network I’ve managed to just patch together, combined with the ever-increasing need for storing/backing up files, makes me think that something needs to be done.

I’d love to hear your experiences!

Thanks

Gus Winterbottom15 May 2008 · 08:22

If all you need is more storage space, perhaps a NAS or a SAN would be easier to deal with than a server.

blank15 May 2008 · 08:40

The nice thing about a files server is that you can have everyone keep their job files on it—well, you can try to make them do it, anyway—and then have one centralized location for file storage and backup. Hard disks are so cheap that its often less expensive to buy more space than it is to pay an intern to clean up job directories and archive old files. Need more storage? Slap another firewire drive on the chain. Designer calls

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