Does your business have more than 5 employees?  If your answer is “Yes,” then your business should be using a   server network. While implementing a network is not a trivial or inexpensive undertaking, the benefits you gain by adding a server to your computing environment far outweigh any shortcomings. Continue reading to better understand the benefits of server technology.

The Mistake Small Businesses Make
It is surprising that the majority of companies never bother implementing a client/server based network. Instead they just continued adding on workstations to their old  peer-to-peer network.
Peer-to-peer networks don't provide you with much in the way of security and resource sharing. So, not surprisingly, they often have problems accessing workstations, lose data due to viruses or spyware, or experience intermittent Internet problems. PCs networked in a peer-to-peer fashion are adequate when you only have a few users on the network, but once you have more than 5 or 6 users on your network, then you really need to consider investing in a network server.

Nevertheless, convincing a small business owner to make this type of investment can be a hard sell. Unlike large corporations, small businesses don't have the benefit of an IT department and/or the deep pockets necessary to maintain a complex IT infrastructure. However, network servers don't have to be overly expensive or complex for you to benefit from them.

What Exactly is a Server?

Many people are under the misconception that a server is no different from a typical desktop PC. This couldn't be further from the truth. While almost any PC that meets the minimum hardware requirements can run the server operating system, that doesn't make it a true server. A desktop system is optimized to run a user-friendly operating system, desktop applications, and facilitate other desktop oriented tasks. Even if the desktop had similar processor speeds, memory and storage capacity, it still isn't a replacement for a real server. The technologies behind them are engineered for different purposes.

A Server is engineered to manage, store, send and process data, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 356 days a year. For these reasons, servers need to be far more reliable than their desktop counterparts. In order to accomplish this, servers offer a variety of features not typically found in a desktop PC. Some servers will include:

• Dual processors; either equipped or capable
• Redundant hard drives or power supplies
• Hot swappable components
• Are scalable; to meet current, as well as future needs
• Can process data faster and more efficiently

So now that you know what makes up a server, what can a server do for you? Some of the more important ones are the following:

• File and Network security
• Increased reliability
• Centralized data storage and shared resources
• Virus Management
• Centralized Backup

The most important role of a file server is the network security it provides. By creating individual user and group accounts, rights can be assigned to the data stored on the network preventing unauthorized users from accessing materials they shouldn't be viewing. For example, the sales team doesn’t need access to employee personal records which should only be accessible by HR.

Many servers are equipped with redundant power supplies. With a secondary power supply running in tandem, the loss of one of the power supplies doesn't affect normal system operations. The same goes for a server's storage system. Unlike an average desktop PC that uses a single hard drive, a server will typically use multiple hard drives working in a RAID  configuration to prevent data loss or an interruption in workflow. In addition, many servers are also equipped with hot swappable hard drives and power supplies. These hot swappable components allow you to replace faulty hardware without interrupting the entire office.  In addition, since all employee data is being stored on the network, if a user's workstation fails mid-workday, employees can access the same files from another workstation.

With a network server, all of the users on the network can make use of various network resources right from their desks, increasing efficiently. Some of these resources include the following:

• Centralized data storage (RAID Array) 
• Network Attached Storage (NAS) Devices
• CD/DVD Towers
• Printers and Fax servers

One of the greatest threats to your network is the possibility of infection from viruses, spyware and spam. So having good, updated, anti-virus software installed on your systems is a necessity. In an office of 10 people or less, systems can be maintained individually. Anything more than that, though, can become a real burden. In those circumstances, an anti-virus package that combines workstation and server virus protection into a single solution makes more sense.

All businesses should backup their data on a regular basis. By having all of your company and employee data stored in one location, backups can be performed reliably and quickly. So you'll never need to worry about what data is stored on what workstation as you do in a peer-to-peer network. Today, almost any media type can be used for backup purposes. In addition to the traditional tape drive, CDs, DVDs, removal storage and even  Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are acceptable. Your choice of media will depend on your specific backup requirements. Depending on your budget and your data retention needs, any of these would be an acceptable solution. Make sure you have at least a scheduled weekly backup, although a daily would be better.

A true server operating system makes all of this possible, and you're going to need to invest in a good one to get the most out of your new hardware. When it comes to choosing an operating system for your server, there really aren't a lot of options — Windows or Linux. A Linux-based OS does a fine job. It's reliable and has modest hardware requirements. No matter which you choose, you'll need a qualified technician to install and configure them properly.

Choosing the Right Server
Servers are the unsung heroes of the corporate computing environment, working behind the scenes to help get the maximum benefit from the personal computers that people use every day. Before investing in server hardware, you need to consider applications, storage, processor, form factor, and more to help you choose wisely.
Congratulations! You now understand the benefits that a server can bring to your business!

It seems that it’s virtually impossible for IT to meet all business demands with current budgets, resources, and approaches. But the business keeps changing and IT needs to respond rapidly and innovate in order to stay relevant to the organization.
Why does IT struggle to innovate?
According to Gartner and other analyst reports:

• 80%-85% of IT budgets are spent just "Keeping the Lights On" (KTLO)
• Backlogs are compounding annually at a rate of 10%-20%
• 42% of the initial cost of an application is spent year after year to maintain it

Since there are many different ways to frame business cases, IT managers must choose the one that is most suitable for their specific organizational culture. This is as true among government organizations as it is for businesses. Aligning IT with other business priorities is essential. In the government sector, IT organizations have found success in articulating business cases using the concept of public value in the approach to building portfolios of projects and initiatives.
Constructing a business case that demonstrates how infrastructure improvement leads to better productivity or improved service is a difficult process. Let's take a look at some solutions for defining and measuring the value behind IT infrastructure investments that are being adopted by real government IT organizations.

Justifying Investments

A common complaint within IT organizations is that they receive too many requests from too many different business areas—and each request, of course, has a high degree of urgency. New initiatives tend to map to individual departmental regulatory requirements or mission priorities. These initiatives may appear to be a random assortment, but they are often closely aligned to the public value sought by a given department.

On the other hand, operating costs that are apportioned by how much is used to support individual department operations can hide the cost (and value) of enterprise-wide functions or shared services. In this environment, the value of investments in new infrastructure or improvements to existing infrastructure that have an enterprise-wide impact or that indirectly map to the objectives of individual departments can be extremely difficult to evaluate properly.

Consequently, the overall IT organization often finds it difficult to support an enterprise view of IT as described by the GSA Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework. In this environment, most efforts to employ a shared view of enterprise architecture, a common business case development model, and a portfolio management process to place IT investment requests and spending on a level playing field are difficult to realize. A more effective model is to support a portfolio of IT activities that effectively maximize public value benefits. This requires that common public value criteria be selected and enforced throughout the processes of business case development, portfolio management, benefits realization, and assessment.

Measuring Value

There are several real issues with enterprise-wide IT investments. First, they have a more indirect and longer-lasting impact in terms of the public value benefits. These benefits are accrued, often unevenly, by different parts of the organization in ways that are not always easy to identify up front. In addition, the associated risks and costs are more readily perceived than the less readily visible and quantifiable public value.
A business case should be based on how an infrastructure investment enables future investments as well as current activities. There are different ways in which to calculate this value, each with its own advantages and drawbacks, and each with a different degree of fitness for a particular organization's culture and maturity.

Mathematical  
These methods are based on a mathematical modeling of potential benefits. One effective method, called real options, is based on financial theory. It embeds the consideration of future change and flexibility by explicitly considering the right to take an action (that is, the real option) at a given cost for a given period of time. Options include deferring, expanding, staging or abandoning investments; changing inputs or outputs; and developing pilots.

Real options are particularly appropriate when an investment decision is influenced by future events. In the case of IT infrastructure, such events may include the following: regulatory requirements, business demand, or even a critical event such as a major operational failure.

Simulation  Uncertainty analysis is based on Monte Carlo simulation, which uses automated tools to calculate the results of alternative scenarios based on the selection of variable values and repetition of the process. The simulation requires the identification of a range of values (such as the number of affected workstations or electronic channel uptake) and the probability distribution for each variable. The outcome of a simulation is a range of possible results and permits the identification of the mean value of benefits as well as of costs and risks. Carefully choosing value and risk variables to reflect the possible impact of infrastructure investments enables placing the return of such an investment in perspective.

Scenarios  When mathematical or simulation models are impractical or do not fit the organization culture and skills, scenario-based techniques can be used instead. Taking into consideration the agency business or mission, political priorities, and environmental trends (including technology), the organization can develop a limited number of plausible scenarios for the next three to five years. Each scenario should focus exclusively on demonstrating the benefits of the infrastructure investment.

Unlike longer-term planning exercises, scenarios do not need to be mutually exclusive and can be assigned probabilities. Scenarios can take into account future elections, outcomes of political debates, and possible IT market events such as acquisitions or major shifts in vendor strategies.

Worst-Case Scenario  This variation of the scenario-based approach is applied when the IT organization believes an investment is urgently needed to meet forthcoming business or mission challenges, or to simply maintain current service levels. When infrastructure problems are unattended, they worsen and the effort needed to fix them increases. Whoever pushes for changes will likely face resistance and is unlikely to receive credit for their efforts. Such a situation can be partially remedied with a strong emphasis on metrics and measurement relevant to some of the affected performance—such as response time to requests and time to repair. This information must be made widely available so people are aware of possible changes in performance.

Worst-case scenarios intentionally stress the consequences of not making the investment by focusing on negative benefits and increased risks. This approach should be used with great care and only in truly exceptional circumstances. Using this approach routinely could create the impression that the IT organization is trying to overthrow established investment management processes, which would lead to conflicts and misalignment that those very processes have helped resolve.