Many small business owners don’t consider themselves candidates to have a computer server – a single unit that stores the company’s files and data. Most consider it something for bigger companies. But that’s changing. New devices such as the super-small and super-cheap HP ProLiant MicroServer are bringing servers to the mass small biz market.
Small enough to sit on or under a desk and priced at just $329, the HP ProLiant – just announced by HP – is a perfect general purpose starter server aimed at businesses with up to 10 employees. It’s far cheaper and much less daunting than the ‘blade’ or ‘rack’ servers that bigger companies use. The ProLiant can be the main platform to organize and safeguard your business information, allow better communication with customers and make the most of your existing PCs. It will quickly help you deal with the problem of multiple file versions floating around your company. With a ProLiant MicroServer, users can access shared files easily from a secure location.
And the new server has more than enough capacity for almost any small company. It has four storage bays that can accommodate up to 8 terabytes with 8GB of RAM. While some businesses simply use a PC as a server, HP says that’s not such a good idea. That’s because dedicated servers such as the ProLiant support something called ECC memory, which is critical to server performance and dependability.
