Your office’s server is made up of a variety of different, yet equally important, components that allow it to keep running and operating in the way that you need it to, for without just one component, your server’s performance would struggle immensely. One such component is the processor.  The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is often referred to as the brain of a server system. It carries out the instructions of a computer program or application by performing the basic mathematical, logical, and input/output operations of the server system. Another important component that resides inside of your server is the motherboard. If the CPU is the brain of the server system, the motherboard can be referred to as the heart of the system. This piece of hardware is what the rest of your server’s components connect to.

Another incredibly important component fitted inside your office’s server system is the hard disk drive (HDD). The hard drive is a storage device that your server uses for both storing and retrieving digital information. It is incredibly important in how you system runs and it plays a crucial role in your server’s overall ability to store all of your company’s important information and applications. A decent hard drive will allow for long-term storage of data, including your computer’s operating system and all of its various applications. It is important that the hard drive housed inside your server is reliable. An unreliable HDD could easily result in the loss of your company’s sensitive information. While it’s always possible to buy a new hard disk drive, it’s pretty much impossible to get any of that lost information back (unless you have it backed up somewhere, of course).

My Hard Drive

My company’s server is currently utilizing a 300GB IBM SAS hard drive. This HDD boasts a spindle speed of 15000rpm, 16MB buffer size, a seek time of 4ms, and an average latency of 2ms. It can very quickly read my company’s important information, and allows me the ability to search my files and folders quickly and efficiently. This hard drive delivers equally high throughput with fewer drives than conventional 10K rpm storage solutions, making it the more cost-effective method to maximum performance and availability. One great feature of this hard drive is that it is hot-swappable. This means that if it ever fails, it can be switched out easily and without having to power the server down.

Shopping for a Hard Drive

When shopping for a hard drive for you server, it is important to make sure that it is compatible with your system and its other components. The parts of your server need to work well with one another, otherwise your server’s performance will falter.

You should also keep in mind what specific features you need the hard drive to possess. One important one that most people focus on is its storage capacity. If you need large scale, long-term storage, then you should look for a hard drive with a storage capacity in the upper gigabit or terabit range. The hard drive inside my server offers 300GB of storage space, for example, which is the perfect amount for what my company needs to store.

Keep all of this information in mind when shopping for a hard drive for your office’s server, and you cannot go wrong.

Most small businesses are strapped for cash. If you run a small business, this isn’t news to you.   In growing the business, anything but an absolute necessity often gets pushed to the bottom of the list. It isn’t a pretty way to live, but it is the best way to ensure a successful business. Unfortunately this approach can also get in your way sometimes.

But some purchases can actually help save time and money. Such is the case of a specialized computer and software solution called a server. A server makes file sharing easier, security tighter and backups easier. It’s an investment that pays off well over time.

If you have aspirations of growing your business, you will want to invest in one. But before you do so, consider these five points.

Keep Cost in Mind

 Purchasing a server (the word refers to both hardware and software) is an investment, but not an inexpensive one. An entry-level server computer costs $300 to $1,000. That gets you one processor and minimum memory. Entry-level servers should be fine for most organizations with 10 or fewer employees. Businesses with more employees should consider a general purpose server. Those start at $1,000 and can go as high as $10,000. Unlike desktop PCs, most servers do not come with an operating system.

Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition costs $599. The premium edition costs $1,499. This allows up to five users to log in and access the server. If you have more employees, you’ll need more licenses. You’ll probably need a consultant, too, if you don’t have a network administrator. Installation and troubleshooting can be complex. It’s possible to buy refurbished if you want to save money, but you have to make sure to do extra research if you are going down that road.

Once you’re up and running, though, you may be able to manage the server in-house. Windows Small Business Server 2003 is relatively easy. Someone within your company with computer knowledge and interest should be able to handle day-to-day operations. In addition, classes are offered around the country.

 Do Your Research

Ask a tech consultant when to buy a server and you might hear, “As soon as you have two computers.” If only it were that simple. At the time I needed a server, I was using a peer-to-peer network. Each computer communicated with the others through a hub.  Doing enough research will also help you keep your costs down.

That was fine for sharing an Internet connection and transferring files. But productivity came to a squelching halt when more than one person needed access to the same file. It got very old very quickly asking someone down the hall to close our radio-station database so that I could update it.
A server is designed to allow many users access at one time without any decrease in performance. It made a big difference for me.

Make use of the internet’s tools for finding a business server. There are a lot of really handy things to use to your advantage out there. All you have to do is go look for them.

 

1. Merge with or acquire another business. 

If you are doing pretty well right now and looking to expand, one thing to consider is a merger. Most people see merger as a scary word, and it can be. But a merger can also be a really great thing, if you are the one on top. Is there another business like yours that is maybe struggling? Someone you have blown out of the water, or has just fallen on hard times. A merger can be in both of your interests. It gives the failed party a dignified out and raises your profits. From a merger you can gain new clientele, new staff member that are trained and skilled, all of the technology and strategies of the other company, and finally a new and exciting focus for your current employees.

2. Expand globally. 

Doing business overseas has never been easier. You no longer need expensive plane tickets, long distance phone calls, or middle men. Everything in international business can now be done online,. You can even hold full-fledged business meetings through video conferencing.

But you don't need to acquire another business to expand globally. You just need to prime your offering for an international market. And to do that you just need an internet connection and a friendly persona.

You'll also need a foreign distributor who'll carry an inventory of your product and resell it in their domestic markets. You can locate foreign distributors by scouring your city or state for a foreign company with a U.S. representative. Trade groups, foreign chambers of commerce in the United States, and branches of American chambers of commerce in foreign countries are also good places to find distributors you can work with.

3. Expand to the Internet. Bill Gates once said that by the end of 2002, there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with an internet presence, and those with no business at all. It is well past 2002 and this has never been truer. In fact, the internet has become even more essential.  No longer is just being online good enough. Now businesses are expected to have their own website as well as online communication. A effective web site is becoming an integral part of business today.

Landing your web site in search engine results is key-more than 80 percent of traffic comes via search engines. As there are now more than 4 billion Web pages and traffic on the Internet doubles every 100 days, making your Web site visible is vital. You need every weapon you can get. This weapon is called SEO.

Design and programming are also important, but it's your content that will draw a visitor into your site and get them to stay. Putting together a content strategy based on user behavior, measuring and tracking visitor click streams, and writing the content based on researched keywords will get you excellent search results and meet the needs of your visitors. And all of this is just to make people look up from their lives, then you also have to get people to notice you out of thousands.

4. Get a Server

As has been said, an online presence through a professional web site is crucial to businesses these days. In order to set yourself apart from the crowd, you need a top-notch site. To do this, you have to host the site from your own hosting server. This is the only ways to get the control you need and the power to accomplish it. Buying something like a Sun Sparc Enterprise M5000 server is a big deal, they can be expensive. But they are worth their price ten times over for the boost they can gives you online.

Printers can be complicated. They don’t look like they should be, but when something goes wrong, trying to fix a printer can be one of the most frustrating things a person can deal with. And plotters are even more complicated. So what do you do when it breaks? As with any problem in life, education is always the best answer. When you know more about what a plotter is, you can deal with the frustration of it not working with much more aplomb.

What is a Plotter?

A plotter is essentially just a gigantic printer for making things like banners, blueprints, and posters. It uses rolls of paper rather than sheets so that project size and purpose can be flexible. Plotters are also high quality because they are often used for blown-up photos and panoramas.

Who Makes Plotters?

There are a couple companies that attempt to put plotters out there, but the market is dominated by HP. In fact, if you are here because of a problem with your plotter, I’d bet my next paycheck that it’s an HP. And to take it one step more, it’s probably an HP DesignJet. I wish there were more options on the market, then prices would be more competitive and you wouldn’t end up paying thousands of dollars for a printer, no matter how awesome it may be.

 

What are the Components?

1)      Ink: Just like a printer, plotters require specialized ink. You can’t just buy any old blue color and expect an oceanscape to pop out. If you are having problems, first check to make sure the ink cartridges are compatible and installed correctly.

2)      Support Roller: This is the most likely thing to break. It keeps the rolled paper flat for printing. But if it get worn or even the smallest crack, the whole thing can fall apart. The good news is that they are super cheap and easy to replace.

3)      Paper: I know this seems obvious, but make sure you have paper and that it isn’t jammed.

4)      Driver: Make sure that you have installed the correct driver software. It’s super specific to what machine you have, so if not sure, consult your manual. Then uninstall and re-install the software to make sure there wasn’t a hiccup during the first install.

5)      Power: Make sure it’s plugged in dummy.

HP plotters can be very frustrating when they break. But luckily that doesn’t happen too often. And when it does break it’s usually an easy fix like the HP support roller or the HP plotter driver, assuming it’s not a stupid user error of course.