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How To Choose The Best Server for your Business

12/27/2021

by Patrick Kuria

I think you’ll agree with me that choosing the best server for the business can be a difficult process. With so many server types, processors, hard drive, and other options to choose from, it’s almost impossible to know where to begin. If you want to know how to setup a server for the business, you're in the right place.

It doesn’t have to be this complicated. It turns out, there are just four things to really consider when choosing a business server. Today, I’m going to run down our top 3 business server choices, and show you how you can choose the best business server for your needs.

How can you use a business server?

A server is a remote computer that is generally stored in a server data center. It is always on and connected to the internet via gigabit ethernet. It can be used to host a diverse variety of services and applications for accomplishing business goals.

Business servers can be used for:

Secure email hosting
File Sharing
Cloud Storage
Hosting a website or eCommerce store
Hosting SaaS apps such as customer relationship management, invoice management, employee management, or planning and collaboration software.
Supporting multiple virtual servers
acking-up business data
Storing and collaborating on documents
Providing virtual desktops to employees

A business server can power all of these services and more. A powerful server is capable of supporting all of them simultaneously, although there are benefits to splitting functionality between several smaller servers, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket.

How to Choose A Business Server

Step 1: Research server specs based on the applications you plan to run.

There are two different ways to determine which processor, RAM, and hard drive requirements you should select when setting up a business server:

Conducting research yourself:
1. Make a list of all of the applications you plan to run on the server.
2. Consider how many users each application needs to serve, now and in the near future.
3. Take this list and head on over to Google to look for advice and tests conducted by others that
4. show how much server resources this application may use.
5. Wash, rinse, and repeat this step for each application and add at least 20% buffer to account for spikes in resource usage.
Book an expert server consultation:
1. Compile a list of applications you plan to run on the server.
2. Visit our website and book a free consultation
3. We’ll take our decades of experience and match you with the perfect server for your needs.

Just as you probably wouldn't perform your own root canal or sell a house without a realtor, some things are just better left to the pros.

After all, when you help thousands of people find the right server, you develop a keen sense on which hardware performs best in nearly any situation.

Step 2: Determine the Best Business Server Location

When setting up a server for business, you have two main options on location:

setting up a server that will sit in your office; or
hosting a server in the cloud.

While it may seem like a no-brainer to just pay a one time fee and buy a server, there are pros and cons to each approach.

Running business servers in your own office:

Hosting a server in the cloud:

Pros:	Cons:
Single up-front hardware cost May end up being cheaper in the long-term	Electricity to power and cool the server can be expensive Hardware replacement costs No 24x7 support No immediate hardware replacement in the event of component failure Normally no on-site security or support team Inadequate fire-suppression and cooling infrastructure Hardware becomes outdated quickly No redundant power or network Normally no 1GBps or redundant network connections

Pros:

Cons:

Single up-front hardware cost

May end up being cheaper in the long-term

Electricity to power and cool the server can be expensive

Hardware replacement costs
No 24x7 support
No immediate hardware replacement in the event of component failure
Normally no on-site security or support team
Inadequate fire-suppression and cooling infrastructure
Hardware becomes outdated quickly
No redundant power or network
Normally no 1GBps or redundant network connections

Step 3: Calculate Your Business Servers Budget

An important consideration when setting up a server is the cost. While every business is unique, here are some factors that may steer you towards a cheaper or more expensive server. This advice applies equally to renting or owning a server.

A cheaper server may be under $100/month when renting, or under $500 when buying.

A more expensive server is typically over $100/month and over $1500-$2000 to buy.

Which comments sound more like your situation?

Pros:	Cons:
Latest hardware, upgrade anytime. 24x7 expert support with on-site staff for hardware replacement No additional costs for cooling or powering the server Secure facility with 24x7 security Redundant network and power connections Fire suppression and early fire detection	Monthly recurring fees No physical access to the server

Pros:

Cons:

Latest hardware, upgrade anytime.

24x7 expert support with on-site staff for hardware replacement
No additional costs for cooling or powering the server
Secure facility with 24x7 security
Redundant network and power connections
Fire suppression and early fire detection

Monthly recurring fees

No physical access to the server

Buying A Cheaper Server	Buyer A More Expensive Server
My server can be offline for periods of time without any impact on my business I don’t mind using older generation hardware that may be less efficient in processing tasks or with power consumption I don’t mind migrating to or purchasing a new server if I outgrow my current server I don’t need redundant features like dual-ethernet or RAID My server workloads are relatively low power operations My server won’t be used as a front-end for critical customer traffic such as e-commerce	My server needs to be stable and online, 24x7 I need redundancy features like RAID and dual-ethernet My server will host e-commerce or other customer facing resources I have complex workloads such as production databases or big data analytics I don’t want to have to migrate to a new server for several years I want the latest generation hardware that can perform tasks efficiently

Buying A Cheaper Server

Buyer A More Expensive Server

My server can be offline for periods of time without any impact on my business

I don’t mind using older generation hardware that may be less efficient in processing tasks or with power consumption
I don’t mind migrating to or purchasing a new server if I outgrow my current server
I don’t need redundant features like dual-ethernet or RAID
My server workloads are relatively low power operations
My server won’t be used as a front-end for critical customer traffic such as e-commerce

My server needs to be stable and online, 24x7

I need redundancy features like RAID and dual-ethernet
My server will host e-commerce or other customer facing resources
I have complex workloads such as production databases or big data analytics
I don’t want to have to migrate to a new server for several years
I want the latest generation hardware that can perform tasks efficiently

Step 4: Select Your Server Type

If you’ve decided that you want to host your server in a data center, then you need to decide which kind of server to use. There are two main types: Hybrid and Dedicated Servers. We’ve broken them down below:

Types of Business Servers

	Hybrid Servers	Dedicated Servers
What is it?	A dedicated server shared by a few users, each with their own isolated OS environment.	A single physical server dedicated to one client.
Best for?	Low volume, less powerful applications.	High performance, mission critical applications.
Pros	Affordable Perfect for development and less powerful applications	Entire resources of a server at your disposal Environment not shared with any other users
Cons	Share a server with other users Unable to scale resources	May be more expensive than other hosting options

Step 5: Order Your Server and Get Started

Now that you’ve determined your resource needs, budget, server type, and more, you’re ready to order your brand new business server.

If you’ve decided to purchase a physical server, now is the time to order the server and all of the components such as hard drives and RAM.

If you’re going to choose a server hosted in a data center, you’ll simply look for a Hosting website and select a server that meets your needs. No need to wait for your server to arrive or mess around with installing the Operating System. Your server will be installed and mostly ready within 24 hours.

You just need a Computer Laptops & Desktops to have access of your server any where in the world.

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