While many small offices can function quite well with a peer-to-peer network, many find their office productivity and efficiency waning due to marginal network resources. Businesses grow, technology changes, databases get larger, more employees are hired and applications are upgraded. Consequently, a business can all too quickly outgrow their current networking requirements. A real server can provide you with the power and performance that the business environment demands.

A real server isn't just a "souped up" desktop...far from it. Our Intel-based servers employ state-of-the-art memory technology which allows for true server tasking and greater reliability; separate PCI buses which reduce data bottlenecks; scalability with upgrade paths for memory of up to 1 GB and dual processor readiness; redundant hard drives for one more layer of protection against downtime - hard drive mirroring allows Drive B to synchronously replace Drive A upon failure; redundant refrigerated cooling fans; high speed DAT backup for your critical data; and, Remote Server monitoring - Reports regarding the status of your server performance can be automatically emailed to our office for monitoring and can even be configured to send a page or email upon component failure!

How do you know when it's time to invest in a Real Server? As a preliminary guideline, depending on the usage patterns of users and the served applications, once 5 users are connected fulltime to a network you most likely would realize a greater return on your technology investment with a Real Server.

Take the Real Server Assessment

• Do you have 5 or more users working continuously on your peer-to-peer network?

• Do you have sluggish network performance and/or frequent lockups?

• Are your employees wasting productivity by waiting for software applications to load and data packets to transfer?

• Are your printing functions slower than molasses in winter?

• Are your company files scattered across the network on each individual workstation?

• Do you suspect that some of your company files are not being backed up?

• Do you need heightened network security?

• Will you be (or are you) using a software application that is client/server based?

• Are you expecting to expand your business in the near future?

• Would you like to be able to access your data remotely?

• Would you like to be able to take full advantage of the Internet for your business?

• Would more than a day of downtime cause significant revenue loss or customer dissatisfaction?

• Would it take you more than a week to reconstruct your data files in the event of critical loss?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions you may need to consider investing in a "real" server. Entrusting your critical data to anything less just isn't worth it. Click here for our Sierra Server Series Product Spec Sheet and the Intel Server Management Demo

If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t forget, we’re here to help. Call today for pricing and availability and start getting true ROI on your technology investment.