Why Does Your Small Business Need a Dedicated Server? In a small business, the standard peer-to-peer networking model used in homes very small offices eventually becomes insufficient once user demands-such as access to shared storage drives and printers-increase beyond its capabilities. Your business may need a dedicated server for a variety of reasons. Mainly, businesses use dedicated servers because it's the best option for large scale operations. However, small businesses can also take advantage of a dedicated server if their profits are high enough to warrant their usage. See, in the hosting genre of business, companies usually choose the hosting option that is closest to their financial bracket. A small business could opt for shared resources but there is always the fear and doubt to deal with in the back of their mind. You know you need a dedicated server when... Managing e-mail for an increasing number of people. Many small businesses start out using free cloudhosted e-mail services such as Gmail™ or Yahoo!® Mail. While they get the job done for offices with few points of contact (1-5 seats), manageability decreases as the number of seats increase. Implement a dedicated server running Microsoft Exchange to meet those e-mail needs and more. An Exchange server eliminates your reliance on Web-based e-mail clients and allows you to easily add in-boxes for an ever-growing office. Multiple users need to access the same data. Even small businesses need a centralized data storage location. A dedicated storage server is a type of server equipped with a large storage capacity and the software to manage data. You Start to Use Applications that Require a Secure Database. A database stores information that can be accessed and updated by programs. Storing important data on an unsecured storage solution such as a USB drive introduces risk into your systems. Managing shared resources across the workspace. Printers, optical disc drives, and programs are a few examples of shared resources. Servers can take over the print sharing duties of a router and also allow for the use of older unsupported printers. While a drive connected to one computer can be shared with the network, it may have a different drive letter for the other computers. A server can assign a drive letter shared by every client computer. One computer to do the job of multiple systems. A server can assume the functions of some devices, such as the router, the NAS device, backup storage drive, and firewall. With a server, you can virtualize the functions of multiple devices to run simultaneously on the same machine.
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