There are only two Microsoft Operating
Systems you should be using, Windows 7 and Windows XP. Soon
there will be Windows 8 that supports touchscreens.
Your typical hardware
options for desktops are:
- Budget
System - Basic email, surfing and word processing, not good
for QuickBooks. Your better off buying a quality used Dell
Optiplex than whats sold at your local big box store.
- Office
Workhorse - You WILL notice a difference on this
higher end multi core system. Dell Optiplex's with quality
motherboard that has extra business features onboard.
- Premium
Performer - Quad or Six Core with Graphics Power. Runs
everything lightening fast.
- Top
Shelf Gamer Machine - Latest technology now that gives you
the edge. Expect to pay $3000 to $5000+
For servers, we recommend
you buy a DELL Poweredge with SAS drives in RAID 5 minimum
running Server 2008 R2 or SBS 2011. Server 8 will be
released soon. Do not buy a cheap server with SATA drives
unless its for low speed storage. For applications your
going to need fast drives, powerful processors and a high
end RAID card else your network will run very slow.
We no longer recommend buying an onsite Exchange server
if your a small business unless you need the email control.
Hosted exchange such as Office 365 with Sharepoint is the
best.
For Networking you should buy
Cisco Routers and Dell switches. Your ISP should be the
fastest possible and we recommend COMCAST small business and
the METRO-E point to point fiber.
Servers can be hosted in racks in a Data Center for maximum
availability, bandwidth, security and to reduce risk of
damage from power spikes and fluctuations seen in business
offices.
Virtualization is the newest
Tool for supporting networks and ensuring fast disaster
recovery. VMware is a third party solution that has been
popular for a long time as it was first, it works fast and
the basic version was free. Microsoft Hyper-V is out now, it
comes included in Server 2008 R2 and we recommend it to
easily maintain an all Microsoft environment.
Backups are no longer done on tape if you value your data
and business continuity. If your server is hit by a
lightening strike and you have to rebuild the server and
reload the data by tape then you could be down for weeks
waiting for the hardware to arrive, get setup, reload all
operating systems and software, run updates, and then
you get to a point you can slowly reload the data from the
Tape. The you may find the tape has not been replaced in
months, someone forgot to include critical data in the
backup schedule, the data is corrupted or the tape is
defective. Or, most commonly, no one actually knows how to
successfully retrieve data from a tape and blames it
on something else. Disk based backups with high capacity are
the new thing such as Dell's RD 1000 removable disk
cartridge system. Routine images of the entire server or
desktop is the best backup you can have. Better yet, how
about a backup snapshot image you can boot quickly in a
virtual environment? Its your choice if you want a backup
system that will keep you down for weeks or one that will
allow you to get back to printing invoices and billing in
less than a day.
Your Anti-Virus software should not be purchased
individually for each desktop. You should use a centrally
managed server based anti-virus product with client
agents, that downloads updates once to the server then
pushes updates to all the desktop agents. Imagine all your
desktops constantly checking the internet for Anti-Virus
updates and downloading the same file over and over again
for each desktop. Your bandwidth on your internet will
suffer and slow your productivity. Centralize your
Anti-virus and have a better running network!
Add Microsoft System
Center to manage and monitor all your servers, desktops,
updates and backups to include your virtual environment and
you have all you need for a fast and problem free network!
If your constantly having problems, your network is slow,
you feel your productivity is hampered by errors and viruses
then something is not right and your Network needs help as
it should run fast and trouble free.
Call Today And We Can Talk
About Your Needs. (904) 638-4611
