Business Servers Overview

Servers are specialized computer systems designed and built to store data and handle multiple request from many different sources. Because these computers are so specialized, the hardware and software that goes into these computers is carefully selected, so that the computer many handle the task at hand quickly, and reliably. At Allstate Computers our servers are build from the highest quality parts on the market.

More often than not we go to a business to repair a network issue and find that they've purchased a server that is made of basically "desktop" parts and are designed in a very haphazard fashion. Someone basically took an off the shelf performance based desktop and decided to use it as a server. This is equivalient to installing a trailer hitch on a Corvette and towing a 30 foot boat. It may have 400hp but that doesn't mean it should be towing a 5000lb boat. The differences between a server computer and a desktop computer can be seen in both its hardware and software. Click the tabs above for better explanation of what you should consider when purchasing a server.

Reliability

In business your data and processing of that data is critical to your bottom line. Any business has money coming in and money going out. In the process of those transactions, you have data changing hands, whether it be in the form of invoices, purchase orders, or workorders; at some point data must be processed and stored so that business can take place and your company can run smoothly and profitably. What happens when that flow of data stops, or worse yet the data is lost? Business stops and all of the sudden profits start to become losses. If a company has a "thrown together" or worse yet no server at all to store and process their data, the scenario you just read becomes real and expensive. Our servers contain Intel server grade motherboards, error correcting memory, redundant hard drives, data backup systems, high quailty and in some cases redundant power supplies, and either Windows Server or Linux operating systems. You won't find Windows XP Home on an Allstate Computers designed server. We use the highest quality parts available in our servers. In the unlikey event of a part failure, the server is designed to report the failure and keep working until one of our techincians can come out and repair the problem. Click on the "Fault Tolerance Tab" for more information on how we design our systems to be able to handle a part failure and keep going.

Fault Tolerance

Fault tolerance is extermely important when considering your network/server setup. The simple fact is that over time equipment will fail. Just like everything else, it has a life expectancy. How your equipment handles that failure is called fault tolerance. All of our servers are designed with this in mind. Hard drives are responsible for storing all of the data in your server. In our servers, if there is a hard drive failure, it's no big deal. Each of our servers has at least a RAID 1 arry. RAID stands for Redundat Array of Inexpensive Disks. The purpose is to have your data replicated on multiple disks, so if one fails, the data is still accessable on another drive. In many cases we will install a redundant power supply in the system, so should one power supply fail the remaining one will take over. The same is true for your power source. We install battery backup units with all of our servers, if your main power goes out the battery will take over until either power is restored in a timely fashion or you've had time to properly shut down your network. Another critical point of fault tolerance is data backup. See our Data Backup section for information on how we help protect you from data loss.

Security

One of the worst things a business owner/manager can do is become complacent about their company's security. Just as you wouldn't want someone stealing cash from your bank accounts you wouldn't want them stealing data from your computers. Most businesses store some form of confidentail data on their computers whether it be employee social security information of customers' credit card numbers. Either way, it's not good for this information to get into the wrong hands. Where you store this information needs to be secure. Our servers employ the latest in encryption and security technology available. Intel's Trusted Platform Module encrypts the hard drives so should your servers hard drives ever be separated from it the data on those drives is completely useless. Many breaches in network security take place from the inside. Whether from a discruntled employee, or someone off the street that manages to get in front of a computer unnoticed, you should be protected. For small businesses we primarily use Windows Server 2003. This employs Microsoft's Active Directory and NTFS filesystem based security, which is extremely difficult and time consuming to hack. This keeps your front desk clerk and Joe Hacker out of human resources' files so everyones identity remains THEIR identity.

Performance

The phrase "time is money" rings true in the business world. If your not making money your losing it... you get the point. Your computers should be waiting on you not the other way around. Our servers are build with Intel's Xeon based multicore processors. This allows the server to work on many tasks at once. All of our 32bit servers come with 4 GB RAM, and our 64bit servers come with up to 8GB and sometimes more memory. When designing these servers we make sure that the memory speed is matched to the processor's and motherboard's clock speed for optimum performance AND reliability. We use SATA II hard drives standard and when necessary up to 15,000 RPM SCA drives. As for network transfer, all of our servers come with minimum 1 gigabit network controllers.

Scalability

As your company grows, so too should your network. You may start off with 1 server and 5 workstations, but if your company is growing you'll need more computers soon, and your server should be able to handle them. We know this and have it in mind when desgning your server. While there are situations where companies grow so fast that they will need a different level server all together, in most cases we simply have to add some user licenses to the server and the server doesn't miss a beat.