In the days when businesses relied on big-iron mainframes, this strategy was called “time sharing.” And the cloud is burdened with many of the same limitations as that model was. You won’t need to worry about the equipment or software becoming outdated or obsolete, either. For starters, they don’t involve a significant capital outlay, and you won’t need an IT staff to manage the server. Why not put everything in the cloud? Services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Windows Azure, and Rackspace Cloud Hosting offer a number of benefits. If you operate a small to medium-size business, the question isn’t “Do I need a server?” but “Which type of server do I need?” Before we get into that, however, let’s address the number-one alternative to operating and maintaining an on-site server: relying on the cloud. If you expect your business to expand, choose a server that’s scalable and can grow with you. Servers are designed to be reliable, secure, and fault-tolerant, with redundant storage options.
On top of that, a server can automatically back up your desktop and laptop systems, so you’ll never lose critical data if one machine fails or is lost or stolen.
Set up a virtual private network, and you and your employees can access the data on the server remotely from anywhere you have Internet access. It can host a company intranet, for sharing information with your employees quickly and economically. It’s engineered to run multiuser applications such as email, messaging, and print servers shared calendar programs databases and enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software.Ī server also makes it easy for your employees to share data and collaborate, since it operates as a central repository for all of your documents, images, contacts, and other important files. A server runs a specialized operating system designed to support many users.
A desktop computer is designed for one person who needs a user-friendly operating system to run desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet, an email client, and a Web browser. Although a small server might look no different from a high-end desktop PC, the machines are designed for very different tasks.
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