Startupware: Managing Startups

A starting business will not typically focus on developing their technological infrastructure. There are so many other pressing issues in those formative stages, such as advertising, finding clients, networking, and other activities aimed at survival and modest growth. After these initial steps have been taken, it’s time to expand and consider the technology a business needs for efficiency and growth. This is the time where savvy business owners need to face up to their outdated desktop solutions and look into servers.

Growing businesses will find uses for servers to fill needs they didn’t even know they had. Servers can be used to host a company’s web site, Active Directory infrastructure for user organization and security, SQL and Oracle database applications for efficient data organization, file servers to track and maintain important spreadsheets, letters and other business documents, and more. Worried about price, growing businesses might be hesitant to take the leap from standalone desktops to servers. Contrary to what some business owners may think, servers can be actually be quite affordable.

The best manufacturers stay in business through their flexibility and ability to offer custom solutions, so it’s no wonder the major server hardware companies offer products for smaller scale setups and the largest corporations. Dell servers are available for businesses of any size and budget, making them a good place to start your shopping research.  If a growing business actually needs multiple servers to truly expand, another affordable option is virtualization.

Virtualization applications run on a physical server and allow this one computer to “host” several virtual servers. These virtual servers are actually just user environments, but they appear as separate harware components. With their own computer names, full-fledged operating systems, and file systems, these virtual machines are functionally impossible to differentiate from independent servers. Users can log into them remotely, client applications can interface with them, and their data can be backed up, just like a normal server. A business owner can buy one affordable piece of hardware with some extra disc space, processing power, and memory and create several virtual servers. Leveraging the abilities of virtual servers stretches an expanding business’s budget very effectively.

Every company hits that period of growing pains where they have outgrown their old systems, but seem too small for a full fledged upgrade to the next tier. However, this infrastructure expansion is most likely necessary. Adding servers to a business’s technology will assist with growth, creating efficiency and saving time and money. Servers can help automate tasks, organize data, and improve security. Business owners who make the leap to server technology usually find themselves wondering how they got along without it.