Small businesses still storing and sharing data across separate office PCs need to invest in a server if they want to become more efficient and productive. Servers are powerful, purpose-built systems designed to provide a wide range of services including network storage, file sharing, application hosting, messaging, remote access, and data security.
Despite the allure of cloud-hosted services, on-premises servers offer significant benefits to small businesses. Cloud outages are becoming ever more frequent but with the appropriate core infrastructure systems in place, in-house servers can deliver 24/7 availability and put small businesses totally in charge of security, services, and business applications.
There are many other compelling arguments as you own the servers so you can customize and upgrade them whenever you need to and securely store data and share it across your workforce. Budgeting and cost management are other key considerations as although your initial investment will be higher, you won't be faced with monthly cloud subscription fees so ongoing operational expenses will be significantly lower.
Entry-level servers are affordable for small businesses and a solid long-term investment that can grow with you for many years. Here, we show how to set up a server for small businesses and the features you should be looking for.
Budget responsibility
Budgets are tight in these trying times but a common mistake small businesses make when acquiring servers is spending too little. Cutting costs at this stage is a false economy as a poorly specified and underpowered server will struggle to cope with demand as a business grows and will most likely need replacing in the near future.
A key feature of a server is hardware redundancy so it will keep running in the event of a component failure. Purpose-built servers come with business-grade storage devices, support multiple RAID arrays as standard, have sophisticated cooling systems comprising multiple redundant fans, and often include (or support) dual redundant power supplies – features you won't find in a basic PC.
Choose well and your servers can last you a surprisingly long time. One of our lab test servers is a trusty Dell PowerEdge T640 tower server which we specced up with the future in mind, and even after six years it's still functioning perfectly and providing a sterling service as a Windows Hyper-V virtualization platform.
Small businesses should also curb their enthusiasm and avoid spending too much. It's easy to get carried away with the latest and greatest in server technology but it all comes at a price and if the server spends most of the time twiddling its thumbs then it is a wasted investment.
Know your workloads
There is a wide range of small business servers on today's market but before jumping in, it's important to understand what you want the server to do - not just now, but well into the future. Ask yourself what workloads you plan to centralize, the type of resources they will require, your long-term business goals, and what headroom you want for future expansion.
If the server will function as a central storage vault, provide file-sharing services, and maybe host databases, then you'll need plenty of internal capacity. Server storage can get swallowed up very quickly so choose servers that have plenty of drive bays and factor in spare capacity as it's easier and a lot cheaper to expand an existing RAID array with extra disks than it is to replace the entire server.
Location is also very important as this will determine the server form factor. Small businesses that only need a single server will find tower models a good choice as they don't need any additional infrastructure such as rack cabinets and can be placed wherever you want.
Low-profile 1U (44.5mm high) rack servers offer more flexible options as multiple systems can be placed in rack cabinets that require less floor space. You can scale up on-demand by adding more servers to the cabinet and if you need more expansion potential and higher storage densities consider 2U high rack servers.
Processor decisions
For most small business workloads, a tower or rack server with a single processor socket (1P) represents the best value and there's plenty of CPU models to choose from. Intel has traditionally had the strongest presence in the entry-level server market with its Xeon E CPUs.
The current Xeon E-2400 family consists of eight CPUs with base speeds ranging from 2.6GHz up to 3.5GHz and core counts going from four to eight with all bar the entry Xeon E-2414 supporting Intel's HT (hyperthreading) technology. Maximum memory for all Xeon E-2400 CPUs is 128GB of fast DDR5 which will be perfectly adequate for most small businesses
For more demanding workloads, you may want to consider AMD's new EPYC 4004 CPUs. Only recently launched, this group of eight CPUs are pitched directly at the cost-conscious small business server market.
The family also comprises eight models but offers much higher clock speeds ranging from 3.7GHz up to 4.5GHz and all support a more generous 192GB of DDR5 memory. The two higher-end models also fill a gap left by the Xeon E-2400 CPUs as they offer 12/24 and 16/32 cores/threads.
Protect and serve
A server is a critical part of business operations so it needs to be protected. RAID will cover you against disk failures but also consider dual power supply units (PSUs) as if one fails, the second will keep the server running.
Invest in a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) as this will keep your server safe from harm during a power spike or short-term power outage. There are plenty of affordable models suitable for small businesses with the distributor Broadbandbuyer offering a wide range of products from APC, Eaton, and CyberPower.
Remember too that RAID and power redundancy will protect your hardware but aren't data backup solutions. We strongly recommend getting a proper server backup strategy running right from the outset - there is a wealth of small business backup products available with many combining on-premises with cloud backup to ensure you have essential off-site copies available.
When sourcing a small business server don't skimp on the warranty and maintenance contracts either. Blue chip server vendors such as Dell and HPE usually offer three-year warranties as standard and this includes a next business day (NBD) on-site support service which can be upgraded to a four-hour response for critical systems.
And when your server is up and running, you'll want to keep a close eye on its health so monitoring and management features are equally important. Even small business servers have specialized controllers on their motherboards that provide a remote web console so you can see the status of critical components in real-time with the best ones providing timely email alerts if anything untoward is detected.
Selecting your first server needn't be challenging and here at ITPro, we've reviewed most of the current entry-level tower and rack models from big-name vendors including Dell and HPE. These are ideal for small businesses as they can help centralize multiple IT functions on a single platform, reduce acquisition costs, boost productivity, and deliver data availability and security.
