If you had hundreds of pairs of shoes, would you store them in more than one closet or you would you try and find a space big enough to hold all of them? Hopefully you would find a location large enough for all of them otherwise this article would be pointless.
Over the course of the last year I’ve been visited a lot of offices with files scattered from workstation to workstation. One of the companies I have done work for had nine workstations with shared folders located on all nine computers. All were shared over the network, and all were utilized by people throughout the office.
Talking with the office manager I discovered as new computers were added, new files were also added to the shared list. A new engineer would come into the mix and that person had new files that needed to be shared and accessed. It took me a fair amount of time to sort the company’s system.
As I worked through their system I spent a fair amount of time talking to the users. They told me that in order for the system to function correctly all the computers had to be running even if the employee assigned to the computer wasn’t working. That brought up the question of equipment failure. Essentially, leaving one of the computers off had the same result as equipment failure.
People hear the word server and they immediately think of two things: money and headache. In the past, servers were expensive computers that required a specialist manage their day-to-day function. If the server failed, a specialist was required to visit the company and fix the issue. This could result in a major bill and a fair amount of downtime.
Modern servers for most small offices can be purchased for a reasonable price. Most small offices, with under ten workstations, do not need the power of a full-blown Windows based server. In fact, most servers are underutilized because suppliers don’t do an adequate job of explaining functionality.
The simple fact is, most offices should have a central storage unit, also called a network attached storage (NAS) device. In their most basic form, a NAS device provides storage over a network. In the past NAS devices were typically custom built from standard PC components. There are manufacturers selling off-the-shelf NAS systems for a fraction of the price of custom units.
Windows Home Server (WHS) based systems – which are the next step up from NAS devices – are custom manufactured file sharing systems with additional features. Perhaps the neatest feature of a WHS system is the ability to automatically backup the computers on the network. Provided the initial settings are correct, a WHS system will copy the contents of each computer to which it is attached. Additional features may be added to the WHS system through a Microsoft feature set called “Add-Ons.”
Both the NAS and WHS systems communicate over a network connection and can be added to pretty much any computer network. A professional can make recommendations as to the best system for your scenario. Centralizing files is always the best way to make use of computer resources because of the possibility of equipment failure. NAS and WHS systems can be configured with a redundant hard drive system; something with which most office computers are not equipped.
Next time you decide to share a folder on your hard drive with a co-worker, think about the possibility of one of the two computers failing. It may be a good short-term solution to easily move a file; however, over the long-term, the best solution is to consolidate files. If you’re one of those people who puts their shoes in every closet, think about how hard it is to find one specific pair five minutes before you need them.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)