A small office with as few as two computers can have enough shared data that a file server computer might make sense.
Often computer techs will recommend an expensive, fast computer with a pair high capacity hard drives which are 'mirrored' for protection. Without trying, you are well over $1000 and quite possibly in to several thousand dollars plus the regular service of the computer.
Small business owners think and inexpensive external hard drive will work. Couple hundred bucks and you are off. What they often miss is that the USB connections can be painfully slow compared to a hard drive mounted in a computer.
For many small organizations, a network attached storage (NAS) device would do the job great. I recently installed a NAS at a company which was running out of space on its server. We moved the data to a NAS with two 1 TB (1000 GB) drives that were mirrored. The cost? About $500 for the device and about an hour to set-up. It has the access speed near a computer with only a bit more cost than an external drive.
Not to mention, the NAS is only slightly larger than an external hard drive savings considerable space and energy compared to full-blown server.
If your files are cramped for space or scattered all around your small network, give us a call to discuss whether a network attached storage device is right for your business.
No comments:
Post a Comment