What should I look for when purhcasing a sever?

Question

I am looking for a sever for an online retail store. What type of things should I look for and which sever should I start off using.
Is there any security software or other attachments that I need to buy to?

Answer 1

Buying a server for a business is like signing your life away - it will be the biggest investment of your life. Here is what you need to look-out for to get the most out of a server:

~Hot-Swappable Parts - If you are going to do alot of round-the-clock work, and have to rely on 2 + Hard Drives at once to keep them running, then you can buy a hot-swappable capable server, and coresponding Hard Drives.

~Reliability - You will need alot of storage: In some cases over 1 Terabyte of data or 500 Terabytes will be stored (Or less). You will want a server that is fully-accessable at all times

~Expandibility - When using a server, you will want to be able to add-on connections in a "snap of a finger": Connections such as Internet Connections, Databases, Large Software, and etc. . . And, you will want to hook them up to the server and have it plug-and-play it in a snap

~Price - Servers can cost up to $10,000 or much, much more depending on the quality and features. Be sure to choose the one that is best to suit your needs and then some

~Sharing - If you are running a business that uses alot of file-sharing teqniques to get information from and to one-another, then you will want the server to pass that along with as little down-time as possible and with little effort on your part, as well : )

As far as attachments go and software, here are some good reccomendations:

~Linux has good servers and are cheaper to run, but they require more advanced-user interface on the user's part becuase they rely heavily on TUI (Text User Interface)

~Microsoft Windows is the more-reliable choice in the market, today, and does offer a number of options that you can choose from. They have specific server options such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (The most recent one) and others

~As far as Anti-Virus goes, you will want a strong, reliable company to do business with you in the server part. A good company that I use for my personal computer anti-virus is Norton - they have some options that you will want to check out

Here are some URL's for more information:

~Microsoft SQL Server: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/bigdata/default.mspx

~Norton Anti-Virus: http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnahho/en_US/ContentTheme/ThemeID.722200/pbPage.N360PDpopup/pgm.8147400

~Red Hat Linux: http://www.redhat.com/products/

Hope this helped,

Peter C.

Answer 2

Just a thought, but if you are just getting started, FARM OUT the hosting to a reliable data center! You cant possibly setup everything you need at the get go. (You can but ...)

Do you have things like, redundant T1 or better lines? AC Emergency Power? 24/7 monitoring for your server, etc etc.

I have alot of customers running an online store, and only one hosts his own, he has a staff of 8 for just the servers and two bonded T3's. (Wish I had his money) His online store does not even pay for the T3's.

Answer 3

Bleeding.

Answer 4

linux. dont you dare get windows....