J.P. Schwartz Server Services
Servers and Workstations, Where IT Happens
Servers and workstations are the workhorses of your IT infrastructure.
Your network provides the foundation and support required, but servers and workstations are where IT happens. Servers store and analyze your data or display and sell products to your customers. Workstations allow your employees to enter and get the information they need to perform efficiently every day. J.P. Schwartz has experience with a wide variety of server solutions. While our focus is on Microsoft products, such as Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, or Small Business Servers, we have worked with a wide variety of platforms, including Solaris, AS400, Macintosh, and a wide variety of Linux distributions as well, so it is possible to integrate these technologies into your server design as needed.
Properly Configured and Backed-Up Servers are Critical to Business Operations
While a workstation may affect one employee, a server may affect every employee and your customers. Because servers are so integral to business operations, J.P. Schwartz focuses on reliability and redundancy in the server environment. At the most basic level, your system should be checked and actively monitored for memory errors which can affect other critical systems. The server itself needs redundant hard drives set up in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) so that in the event of a failed hard drive, the entire system does not shut down and destroy your data. A comprehensive system would also include redundant power supplies and cooling fans.
J.P. Schwartz also can protect your data using any of a number of software-driven backup solutions. On servers and workstations this often starts with prevention, such as hardening the system to prevent improper use or intrusion, proper patch and security management, and setting permissions correctly. Then we will help you choose the right backup equipment such as tape drives, DVD, distributed backups, near-line solutions, snapshots, and internet-based backup services. We can help you protect your business by employing the most-effective data loss prevention and backup solutions possible.
Servers Require Environmental Protection to Prevent Data Loss
To ensure vital server functions, the environment in which servers are kept must be monitored closely. Servers should be placed in a secure physical location, a locked room with limited access. Power to the server(s) should be clean and protected with a universal power source (UPS) or battery backup. In less critical environments, the battery backup should shut the server down systematically without loss of files or data when the battery power runs low. In more critical environments, a generator is needed to supply power in the case of a utility failure. In addition to protected power supplies, the servers need to be cooled properly, often requiring air conditioners separate from the main building systems.
Server Performance Affects On-Going Business Operations
The experienced engineers at J.P. Schwartz understand how server performance affects business operations. Computer performance is affected by five essential components including the network, processors, memory, storage, and software. Our experience with each critical element allows us to help you establish a system that is right for your business today, and can be scaled upward as your business grows. Servers should be properly sized to last about 3 to 5 years which is about the same amount of time you can carry a warranty and guarantee replacement parts should you need them. It is also about the same length of time that provides the best value for your investment. Having to replace underpowered systems prematurely is expensive, as is buying too much capacity which uses your investment dollars unwisely. At the current rate of server development, systems double in speed approximately every 18 to 24 months and it is more cost effective to replace hardware completely after 3 to 5 years than to try to buy equipment that will become obsolete before its useful life is over.
Enterprise-Class Businesses Should Take Advantage of Enterprise-Class Computers
In larger business environments, a few single servers may be inadequate to meet business demands. A better alternative may be a datacenter. J.P. Schwartz has experience setting up in-house datacenters or selecting space at managed datacenter facilities. The technology needed to run a datacenter is a little different from a single-server or linked-server systems, too. Your organization may want to consider Network Attached Storage (NAS) or Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions. While the basic idea behind these two systems is similar at first glance, NAS will look like a server with shared files on the network and typically costs less but has lower performance than a SAN solution. A SAN is seen as a local drive by the operating system and will support databases and other software that require direct access to the storage. Rack-mounted servers and blade servers are commonly used in combination with centralized storage in either a NAS or SAN solution. It is possible for workstations to make use of NAS storage, but usually only servers will attach to the SAN allowing you to pool your storage so that it can be accessed by multiple systems, a more efficient use of your storage equipment.
Virtualization Reduces Hardware Needs While Increasing Reliability and Performance
J.P. Schwartz, Inc. is working with new virtualization technology from VMWare that allows businesses to consolidate servers onto a smaller amount of hardware and increase reliability and performance at the same time. This technology is exciting because it is a big step forward in how computer systems are built and supported. While there is a strong following in the datacenter market for large business operations, there are many cutting-edge technologies that also make sense for smaller environments, including a large number of free offerings that can instantly solve the problem of constantly updating hardware and software for the small business owner. Today, virtualization can be used to give small business owners access to updated software applications and operating systems, provide cost-effective development environments, secure information and network access, and provide a level of disaster recovery support that was previously only available to organizations with large budgets.
Computer Systems Require Maintenance to Remain Running at Peak Efficiencies
Once your server environment is properly designed and installed, it will need to be maintained. J.P. Schwartz has the ability to provide patch management, backup, replication, monitoring for internal and external threats, and disaster recovery options to ensure that your information is safe, backed up and available when you need it.
Desktops or computer workstations make up the largest percentage of computer systems your organization will own and must also be maintained. It is common for a company to have 10 to 30 times more workstations than servers. While servers are often only worked on directly by your most IT-qualified employees, the desktops are used by everyone within your organization. Maintenance services provided by J.P. Schwartz puts an emphasis on making sure that you have as few problems as possible with your desktops and that you get the most useful life out of them as possible. Minimizing the expense of providing computers, internet access, and phone systems to your staff does not mean getting cheap hardware. It is a process of clearly determining what the requirements are, meeting those requirements in a cost-effective manner, and preventing unauthorized programs or activity from causing damage to other internal systems.
Standardizing Delivery and Maintenance Reduces Costs
Centralizing deployment of systems and software with imaging, virtualization, or automatic delivery methods allows fast deployment of standardized software solutions across your organization. Setup and maintenance costs can be drastically reduced without changing what software your employees have available to them. Additionally, standardization allows for automated maintenance, reduced downtime, and automated recovery options that are not available when each workstation is maintained one at a time. In a disaster recovery scenario, a lot of pre-planning focuses on recovering the servers, and rightly so, but if the desktops cannot be recovered or easily replaced, information on the servers will remain out of reach for you and your employees until replacements arrive.
Non-Functioning Peripherals Waste Work Time
Peripherals go hand in hand with workstations. Non-functioning PDAs, personal printers, digital cameras, and USB thumb drives can make or break employee productivity and your company’s IT budget. This area of IT is often neglected but should be included in the design and budget processes. Too often, choices for these items are seen as personal decisions by individual employees, without regard to how many hours it will take the IT department to get a PDA working, or how company information and contacts on that PDA will be secured and recovered if it is lost or damaged. Peripheral items often boost productivity, but if not properly planned for, are expensive gadgets that could put your company at risk.
Mobile or Off-Site Employees Require Additional IT Support
Employees with laptops and other mobile devices have additional, specific, IT requirements to remain connected to your organization while on the road. J.P. Schwartz can help you choose between web portals, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Citrix, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), virtualization, and replication or synchronization solutions.
Security is also a concern if you have mobile employees. Strong authentication is needed to ensure that your data or equipment is being accessed only by approved employees and not by your competitors who may have discovered your password, or an identity thief who has stolen a company laptop. Additional security is required to make sure that a laptop is unaffected by viruses or other malicious software when it re-joins your network to avoid the risk of infecting company-wide systems. The security specialists at J.P. Schwartz can help your employees maintain productivity while on the road and keep your systems safe when they return.
Large Systems Require Large Power and Cooling Requirements
If your company is utilizing a datacenter, a dedicated server room, or hosts a classroom environment with a large number of desktops, J.P. Schwartz can help you calculate power and cooling requirements. Additionally, we can help you establish backup generators and UPS equipment that is properly sized and monitored, alerting you of system overloads or environmental changes.
Future IT Planning and Budgeting Requires an Accurate Equipment Inventory
In order to adequately plan for future and on-going computing needs, you may need to conduct a thorough equipment inventory that includes the number of computers you have, their age, their stage of depreciation, and their state of maintenance and licensing.
This is the basis for determining what equipment needs to be upgraded or replaced and when. J.P. Schwartz has experience conducting equipment inventories and setting up inventory management systems to centralize equipment control and tracking for your business.
Technical and Cost Analyses Reveal Areas Where Cost-Savings Are Possible
J.P. Schwartz can conduct both technical and cost analysis on various IT solutions from decisions regarding whether you should host your own web and email services to upgrading server equipment to a datacenter solution. We can help you evaluate fax machines and printers based upon the features you need and the volume of printing that you do. We can also help you determine whether replacing equipment is the best use of your IT budget or whether an off-site service can provide you with the features and level of service you need.
Choose J.P. Schwartz for All of Your Server Needs
Our engineers and designers have experience with all aspects of server design and configuration so that we can properly evaluate your current and future needs to establish cost-effective solutions for your IT infrastructure. Contact J.P. Schwartz today at (303) 482-1242. We will evaluate your current servers, suggest changes to improve reliability and performance, look for cost-saving alternatives to current equipment, and help you to plan for future business growth.
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