The following example describes a real-world scenario that illustrates how an organization might evaluate its particular solution needs and find the right server to support those needs.
A file and print server for 20 |
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Trey's writing and training consulting business has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last year. His company of one has grown to a virtual company of 20 and he's decided to lease office space and bring together his employees, who had previously worked from their homes, so they can be more effective and productive. Currently, each employee keeps the files they create on their desktop systems, and most back those files up to a Zip drive once a week. To share files, employees use e-mail or some space on an FTP server that is associated with the company Web site hosted at a local ISP. The FTP server only has 250 MB of space, however, so the server is only good for file transfer, not file storage.
Trey knows that once the employees are together in an office, they'll need to share printing resources and should have access to a common file server he can easily back up each night. The content and training materials the company creates are its bread and butter, so they need to be both accessible and easy to protect.
The company currently has 75GB of data and each employee will create about 2GB of additional data per year on average. Therefore, Trey decides to purchase 146GB of total disk space to handle the data generated in the next year or two as well as the potential for new employees.
Finally, Trey plans to support five shared office printers and an MFP from his file and print servers.
Trey puts all of this information together and consults with his local reseller to When to consider a server. He eventually settles on a HP ProLiant ML150 G3 with a 1.86 GHz dual core Intel® Xeon® processor, 1 GB of memory, and two 146GB SAS hard drives. Although a single drive will hold all the data, Trey opts for the second drive, which will be configured as a redundant mirror (RAID1) for maximum protection of his company's data. He knows the ML150 G3 is specifically designed with small businesses in mind, and while it may look like a tower desktop, Trey is confident it will give him the processing power and performance his growing company needs. While Trey is confident he can get his file and print server set up with some help from a consultant he often recruits for technical writing, he does choose to purchase a Care Pack hardware support package that gives him access to technical support during business hours for three years.
Because only 20 people will access the server and will use it mainly to work with files and print documents, one dual core processor and the 1 GB of memory are enough for now. However, the ML150 G3 is expandable to 8 GB of memory. Given his data projections, the 146 GB hard drives will more than meet Trey's needs for the next year or two, but he can expand his server to accommodate nearly 1.0 terabytes if business soars and he has more data than he ever expected.
Trey chose the ProLiant ML150 G3 because it meets his needs now and fits his budget, but can also grow with his needs. The server is easy to install and maintain, and Trey has it up and running when his employees walk into work for their first day in the new office.
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