Should I recommend a Server over a desktop PC for File Sharing - Small Business

[adrian]

Hi All,

A friend of mine works in an accountancy practice and has asked me to take a look at their IT systems with a view to supporting them. Place is in a bit of a shambles, old computers, no real structure and everything very haphazard.

Anyway, they have around 150GB of data stored on a Lenovo ThinkCentre Desktop PC running XP and has 1GB Memory. All office files are stored on this PC and shared out to 5 other PCs in the local network. The files are backed up using the Windows Backup Utility to an external USB drive. This was setup over a year ago by former IT guy (has moved away), but no one ever checks to see if it completes or works. No applications are run on this PC, only used for storing files.

Haven't had much time to look at the logs or anything, but they have been happy with this system for the last few years, so I don't know how I would advise them to move over to a dedicated file server - or if I should ?? Have never done much with servers, but believe that they are designed to run 24/7 and are less prone to failure, RAID options, Power redundancy etc....

They are looking at buying a few desktop PCs, and I think they were planning to use one of these as the new file storage.

Anyone here ever been in the same boat, and successfully advised a client to change. Just want to pre-empt all questions.

Would appreciate the help

Adrian

 

[ljtechservices]

what is their budget like?
Have they set their sites on anything in particular?

Are they using quickbooks or peachtree? If so they really need to have a file server. It just works better especially if they are Pro Advisors or Certified consultants. They get the product every year and multi year installs play havoc on workstations when the server portion is installed.

If they came to YOU for a quote, what would YOU quote them.
In your cover letter you explain each of the options so they have a clear Idea what you are trying to do for them.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Wow.....holy linksys ranger job!

An accounting office should regard their "server" as important. There's a lot of data there..and if they lose it all, wow...just wow...would suck to be them!

A lot of accounting software is particularly demanding as far as "horsepower" of the computers that it runs on, including the server. Really needs fast disk throughput. All my accounting clients have a real server, workstations that are relatively new...multi core, 2 gigs of RAM minimum..many at 4 gigs.

The problem I see happening, this place is probably on a budget...and it will take tremendous work just to get them to purchase an entry level server (which I prefer to stay away from )...and it would be difficult to get them to purchase a REAL server...by REAL, I mean Dell PowerEdge t310/t410 to start with, or HP Proliant ML350 to start with...hardware RAID controller, SAS drives.

They'll end up groaning and moaning just to purchase some Dell or HP "100" series server..which is really just a glorified desktop w/1 year warrranty, onboard SATA software fake-raid controllers...poor performance...it'll actually end up running things slower than that Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop does. The IT guy will end up looking like a chump..and the staff will groan and complain even more.

Regardless..I'd quote them a starter "300" class server...4x drives..RAID 1 for the OS, RAID 1 for the data. SBS Essentials. 16 gigs of RAM. Offsite backup. Large battery UPS. Biz grade antivirus (including server). Gigabit switch. Without seeing more info...a quick questimate would be a $7,000 job including server and your time. Dunno if they're just a little Quickbooks house, or if they have other software..payroll, tax, etc.

 

[adrian]

Thanks guys for the replies, much appreciated Have been in bed smoothered with a cold and was banned from the PC by the wife - hence my late reply !!

Not too sure of their budget, but don't really think it will be much. Now that I see an entry level server mightn't be much better than a standard desktop PC, I will qoute them for a high spec Dell server, but reckon they will go with the cheaper desktop option.

Thanks again

Adrian

 

[rsarceno]

Most of my client are using a server but they can run on a peer to peer network. Sometimes is easy to justify the server if there applications demands it.

But with the current economy, some business just simply can't afford the luxury of owning a server. They are other cheaper alternative like cloud, server sharing and NAS.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

There's also the support of the software the business runs on, to consider.
If the client paid good money for an application (like some Thomson Reuters accounting sofware) that they want to have installed on a server...and you build some junior high school grade peer to peer network..call their support due to some issue, they look at the network setup and start laughing you off of the phone.....do you want to stamp your company label on that ghetto setup?

Desktop operating systems have an intentionally built in limit of 10x concurrent connections...Microsoft put that in there. Get an office of 4-5 client workstations connected to a single PC trying to be a server..each workstation opening a couple of apps....bingo!

An accounting office makes their money on....accounting applications...of all the types of clients an SMB guy has, accounting offices are near the top of the list for "Their business is built around my network..it should be done right.!"

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Just for file sharing to 5 PCs? I dont see a problem with it. Some better form of backup is probably a good idea though.

Then again I don't have much experience with account software but shouldn't decent accounting software use an SQL database running on an sql server rather than some sort of compact sql file being shared?

 

[red12049]

Most of my client are using a server but they can run on a peer to peer network. Sometimes is easy to justify the server if there applications demands it.

But with the current economy, some business just simply can't afford the luxury of owning a server. They are other cheaper alternative like cloud, server sharing and NAS.

It's been my experience that Quickbooks doesn't play well with a NAS since you have to have their file server running to share files over a network.

Rick

 

[gikstar]

Adrian, may I make a suggestion that you include your "Location" as some other do... (see the right top corner of my post), the reason I suggest that is because I was about to provide you with information on where we have our servers built - to our specs, but since you are in Ireland (I had to go to your first post and view it - states that you live in Ireland there), and I'm in the United States, it wouldn't be of much help.

 

[nesrinamb]

Well in my opinion if they do need software run off a server then get them a server, that way they save all their data to the server and they don't have to worry about the other computers in the office if something happens. Just make sure the server is backed up and its all good.

I had a client whose budget was small and needed about 10 computers hooked up. I thought okay server, but it turned out as I looked that about half of the computers where not in use and the only real thing they had been using their old "server" (desktop on work group) was for file sharing so I just did the same thing and stuck a form of Linux on their that would easily handle being a file server.

Really look at the clients needs and see if they need the server although like others have said it is an accounting office.

 

[Appleby]

Been down this road with several local doctor's offices, furniture store, a very large upscale tanning salon and several more. All were either on tight budgets or didn't really want to spend the money it would take to put in a real server.

With a couple of these jobs over the years, I got the job and made a great customer because their "old IT guy" demanded they spend $$ to get a server and it was just out of their price range. He basically left them no choice and was very demanding. I told them he was probably right in the fact that a server would work better but I disagreed that they couldn't operate without one. In every case, we used a nice new Dell desktop pc as the file server and in every case, they've never had a single problem. The one time the customer really should have had a server was a doctors office upgrading to a very large and expensive billing and scheduling software system. We had just spent alot of money putting in about 5 new computers and he said he didn't want to put in a server unless the software company demanded it. I talked to them and their head software deployment tech told me point blank that while they recommend it, for less than 8-10 pc's accessing the system a pc acting as a server would work perfectly. He was right. It was so simple and they've never had a hiccup.

I'm not against servers, but I'm not going to push them on people who don't need them or people who can't afford them.

 

[glricht]

Absolutely agree with Appleby. I see this over and over again in my small business customers.

 

[pc-quebec]

I'm not against servers, but I'm not going to push them on people who don't need them or people who can't afford them.

A Windows Small Business Server Essential is only $ 525, it give you up to 25 users. It backup all the workstation in the night ( or when you want ) that's means that if a HD crash in any workstations, you put a new one and the WS is back in line in less than an hour without lost anything and nothing to reconfigure. Even with only 5 pcs, it's far more easy for the admin to manage.

 

[goldmercury]

RAID'd NAS

simple and cost effective

add online backup like cloudberry+amazon s3 and this will cover their need.

Also make sure thier email is in the cloud with Office365/GApps.

 

[adrian]

Hi all,

Many thanks for your advice. This really is a fantastic forum. I hope as my knowledge increases over the next few months, I will be able to contribute and give a little back.

The office is using an accounts package called Sage Accounts production. Have just been on to their support, and they advise clients to run the software locally with the files stored on a server/central PC.

Will have a hard time asking them to spend any more money, so will go with what Appleby suggests above and stick with a desktop PC, either upgrading their current one or going with a new one.

Again, many thanks - much appreciated

Adrian

 

[ProTech-MN]

Hi all,

Many thanks for your advice. This really is a fantastic forum. I hope as my knowledge increases over the next few months, I will be able to contribute and give a little back.

The office is using an accounts package called Sage Accounts production. Have just been on to their support, and they advise clients to run the software locally with the files stored on a server/central PC.

Will have a hard time asking them to spend any more money, so will go with what Appleby suggests above and stick with a desktop PC, either upgrading their current one or going with a new one.

Again, many thanks - much appreciated

Adrian

If a PC is the route you/they decide on, you might want to consider at least setting up that desktop with mirrored HD's and a little extra RAM. Also, if it's not already, I'd recommend upgrading the network to gigabit while you're at it - won't add much to the cost but will provide better performance.

If it were me, I would also give them a recommendation of an entry level server such as Foundation Server or SBS Essentials - even running on something such as a Dell T110 server would be better than a desktop. But making the recommendation now also plants the seed for the future, even if they decide on to go the desktop route now....

-Randy

 

[pc-quebec]

If a PC is the route you/they decide on, you might want to consider at least setting up that desktop with mirrored HD's and a little extra RAM. Also, if it's not already, I'd recommend upgrading the network to gigabit while you're at it - won't add much to the cost but will provide better performance.

If it were me, I would also give them a recommendation of an entry level server such as Foundation Server or SBS Essentials - even running on something such as a Dell T110 server would be better than a desktop. But making the recommendation now also plants the seed for the future, even if they decide on to go the desktop route now....

-Randy

The good thing with SBS essential, with the launchpad icon, it will inform the users on the WS if a Hard drive fail, as I said in another post, I have the 2 HDs of a mirrored set that crash one after the other, in less than 10 days, if the customer have not see the first one fail, he may have lost all is data.

Would you like your customers call you to say he lost everything with the setup you install ? ( I know you gone say backup, but some time customer mess with them or forget to make them )