Do we need a server?

We get asked this question a lot. A long time ago, we’d respond with “Do you need to share files?”, and if the answer was yes, then a server would probably be recommended.

However, things change, things move on and today, you’d have to have a really specific set of requirements to actually require some onsite server hardware. This isn’t a 2021 thing, it has been the case for a number of years already.

With the emergence of many secure, reliable and low-cost Cloud-based solutions (a Cloud solution is where you just need an Internet connection to a service delivered to you over the Internet), there aren’t many situations where you would need a full-blown Windows server sitting in your office (remember offices, they were a thing before 2020).

Now, let me clear, I’m not saying there aren’t situations where local file storage is needed – the point I’m making, if you’re a video editor and you want 30TB of local storage (very large files can be slow to access in the Cloud) – that’s fine, but it still shouldn’t be a full-blown server, it should be a nice, neat NAS storage system instead. This is something we’ve rolled out a number of times over the last eighteen months or so.

If you’re placing the needs of your business onto one piece of server hardware, and that hardware goes on strike, it can be problematic and time consuming to resolve. Services in the Cloud aren’t immune to problems either, but they happen far less, and for shorter periods of time than resolving physical onsite hardware-related problems.

So, I’m sure you’ve gathered, our recommendation in general terms is to avoid having a full-blown Windows server sat in your offices.

As mentioned already though, there might be certain situations where you do need one, such as examples are:

• You have an application that needs to be hosted on an onsite server – such examples here are certain database programs or software produced inhouse by developers
• You have a legacy application, which can only run on a certain version of Windows server
• You have a really, really poor Internet connection which means access to anything in Cloud is problematic/unreliable

Now, these reasons should all still be questions for solutions, rather than just assuming “there’s nothing we can do”. Look for newer Cloud-based software, or see what Internet connectivity you can get from 4G/5G mobile servers is just a couple of challenges/things to look into.

I hope this gives you food for thought.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions, a Redditch-based IT Support and Cloud Services business. They have been operating without servers for a number of years.