subject: Is a Server a Valuable Asset for a Small Business? [print this page] Is a Server a Valuable Asset for a Small Business?
The term server' has been around for decades, but the purpose and value of a server may not be immediately obvious to those outside the IT industry. I hope that this article will help to define this piece of equipment in terms of the value that this technology may/may not bring to small business.
So what is a server? It is a computer that stores information and/or delivers services to clients. The information stored on servers are usually documents, databases, spreadsheets, presentations, videos or pictures. The services that are delivered to clients by servers are usually associated with the delivery of the aforementioned stored information over a network.
What business advantages does a server provide?
A server acts as a central repository facilitating access to information.
A server streamlines some business processes such as disaster recovery because information is easier to control and back up when it is not scattered across different computers.
Given the server's increased importance as a central repository of information, additional hardware can be purchased to further protect data and mitigate the risk of catastrophic hardware failure.
Does a server require special hardware? This one will be tough to answer in one paragraph. The answer is no..and..yes. No' because any computer can store information and service client requests. And yes' because server hardware is generally built with availability and redundancy in mind. Most dedicated servers, for example, have two power supplies and run multiple hard disks that duplicate data in case one hard drive fails.
Is a Server faster than a PC? Not really, except in the case where many clients are attempting to access information at once. Dedicated server hard disks use technologies such as SCSI and RAID that are better suited to multiple user access. For a small business, however, this would not normally be a problem and there should be no significant performance gain by purchasing dedicated server hardware.
