Network Design

When designing a new network, there are certain standards that we follow. First, all the equipment used is of high quality and has a proven track record. We don't make our own systems here, nor do we throw things together to come up with a server. It is important to us that when the server is installed, you're not having to call week after week to have us come in and deal with problems. First, that becomes costly to you, and secondly, bad news travels fast, and we don't want to be in the same category as many other computer consultants.

In most cases we use HP Proliant servers, with only HP components. Not only are they dependable, but in most cases they come with three years of HP support. All servers are configured with the following:

High Speed SCSI drives in a RAID configuration. This will allow the server to continue to operate, even with a failed drive. This empowers your business to keep on operating without having to wait for a drive replacement, and then someone to reload the server. Once the new drive arrives, someone will unplug the old bad drive, and then plug in the new one without the need to power it down or "push any buttons". Drives are mechanical devices that will wear out over time. In most cases, they will last until you disconnect the server. However, if one does fail, this becomes very cheap insurance.

APC Power Protection. All servers are protected by American Power Conversions SmartUps series of UPS's. These not only protect the server from power failures, but also the many spikes and surges that come in from the utility. And in the event the power does fail, they shut the server down properly without crashing it, causing possible data loss.

Tape Backups. Stuff happens, and you don't want to loose all your data. Tape Backups are a must for any network. Relying on someone to manually back things up just doesn't work in most cases. Our servers are configured to backup daily. The hardest part now is getting someone to change the tape daily. If that's a real problem, we can configure a robotic library to do that too, but have some $$$$ ready for that.