Which Server

[The Soup Dragon]

Hi all, small business 2 people soon to be 3. At present I have everything on my laptop that backs up to just cloud daily.

I am looking at getting a server for the company but am wondering whether to go for an actual server or whether to use a cloud provider instead. Our accounts is all done by Sage online so that's covered separately.

All advice greatly appreciated

SD

 

[Xtm_Mike]

Why not get a QNAP or Synology SMB NAS?

It is essentially a tiny server, they are much easier to manage than a beefy server and use far less power. They can hold two or more disks for greater redundancy and they also have the functionality to automatically back up to the cloud.

They can also act as a 'cloud' service allowing you to access your data over the internet.

 

[andygambles]

What are you putting on the server?

 

[visuallyconnected]

Most micro/small businesses these days probably don't need a server if you are utilising cloud services. It all depends on what you are trying to do/achieve

 

[Wanda123]

Use cloud services this will be the best for all small business.

 

[webhostuk]

Main question is whats the purpose of your server ,For what application or process you are looking a server for? this will define weather to go for cloud or inhouse server hosting.

 

[Darren Fletcher]

we supply server both large scale and small scale and even online servers.. give us a call or pm me for details.

 

[Alan]

@The Soup Dragon no one can give you a proper answer without understanding your business needs further.

However in 2017 it is very unusual for a new small businesses ( especially just 3 people ) to need a physical server of any sort, its all in the cloud.

 

[CambridgeLocalMarketing]

If you want to launch only your company's website and mail, you only need the cheapest server from any provider. If you want to launch, for example, an online store, then you have to carefully track the offer in terms of soft and restrictions because not every server will work with the online store.

 

[Mark_Taylor_]

I'd go cloud personally, i've not had on-site servers in about 10 years, we used to have a fileserver that seconded as a domain controller, then we had our development apache web server.

These days its all cloud based servers, Git, Mercurial and vagrant virtual servers for local development.. makes life much easier knowing the security / patching is all taken care of for you.

 

[Ian Sutherland]

Hi The Soup Dragon,
We're a cloud provider that specialise in providing bespoke cloud based server solutions for small businesses. www.yourofficeanywhere.co.uk There is no expectation of any IT knowledge or skills on behalf of the customer. As many of the responders have mentioned its important to understand your requirements but have a look at the site and if interested give us a call or drop an email, we'd be pleased to hear from you.
Ian

 

[sglobal]

Cloud without a doubt! Here are my reasons.
1. You'll have to configure the new server and would need to make sure its maintained regularly.
2. Backups would be done daily and you'll need to store them on a remote site for various reasons.

If you're just saving documents etc.. then you could use dropbox or another similar service and then have it setup on all 3 laptops/desktops you guys would be using!

 

[TLT Property Management]

NAS Drive with Raid 1 will do, if budget allows go for a raid 5 setup and proper hard drives

 

[EmC007]

Small Business benefit greatly from Office 365 with One Drive for Business, emails, apps and data in the cloud and can be synchronised with laptops or computers. If you want your own cloud of data that can be achieved with Resilio.

 

[Rob Ellis]

Another vote for Office 365 from me - Business Essentials if you already have Microsoft Office, or Business Premium if you don't. Happy to discuss your options if you would like - just get in touch.

 

[sharonjones]

If you are looking for a service which is cheap, then you should go for hosting service providers like Hostgator.
But, I think you should go for cloud services. They have better security and are really fast.Many Service providers are even proving a free trial period for some time (like Google Cloud Platform).

 

[bgnovuc]

godaddy

 

[HostOX]

Cloud will be fine or a server with a hosting provider, I would not recommend your own local server unless you have experience.