Servers make for one centralized point of computing such that all the other computes in your network become “clients”. A server is typically a single computer that stores, processes and manages all the information while connecting to each of the other computers in the network.
A Windows Small Business Server 2008 Whitepaper states that these kinds of client/server networks can help your business achieve tremendous levels of productivity while helping you to save on time, cost and changes the way work gets done at your business establishment. As such, here are some specific gains a business derives from a client/server network model:
Accelerated Team Performance: Think about it this way. With majority of computing done by the server, the client (user end computers) has a lot of computing resources left unused. This automatically speeds up system performance, enables better collaboration between team members, and helps co-workers to share documents and huddle together to work on projects quickly and efficiently.
Central Data Storage, Back-up and Management: You did hear about the horror stories about data being lost or stolen, haven’t you? Storing data on a server helps by reducing the need to store data individually on various systems making it hard to access when needed. Also, central data storage also makes crucial data easy to secure and manage. Apart from this, document control and data control can all be easily implemented through a client/server model.
Shared Utilities, Business applications and Intranet: The larger your business grows the more flexibility to be able to share resources such as printers, scanners, etc, is needed. No other networking model gives the kind of sheer scalability and flexibility that a client/server network provides. Servers also bring in the possibility of using server-based applications all of which have to share a central database. Finally, some large organizations also need Intranet or a company-wide portal hosted on servers for quick information dissemination.
Security: Every business knows that network security is of prime importance. Multiple ramifications exist for any lapse in network security; these lapses have the potential to derail a business if not checked and worked on. Thanks to servers, security is enhanced in multiple ways. For instance, servers can have built-in disaster recovery capabilities, tools for managing and monitoring Internet access across the enterprise, etc.
Have we missed any important points? Can you think of any more ways servers benefit businesses?
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