Now, with any small business, you understand that budgets are limited. So we can’t afford to have a full server rack, or hundreds of TB’s of storage space. So that means, we have to grow within our means, and still keep things running smoothly. Hardware may be getting cheaper, but it’s still an expense that a small business has to take seriously.
Here’s some tricks you can use to keep your organization running swiftly, but cheaply.
1. I’ve already mentioned this one, but use virtual servers as your computer systems. They are easy to replicate, using oracle’s tool it is free, and best of all, it is easy to backup.
2. Re-use your old machines. In my line of work, being a consultant means having a decent laptop, and you can’t let it get too old. Typically, I can get 2 – 3 years out of a laptop. That means that the old laptop still works. If you need to, add a simple upgrade of additional memory, and you can use it as another machine to run a virtual machine from.
3. External HDD. These are getting cheap enough to get 3 TB for less than $125. For me, the typical SAP system takes 200 – 300 GB. That means in a 3TB drive, I can at least 10 systems and leave some room for growth.
5. Multiple HDD’s. In my previous post, I’ve talked about the importance of backup up your data. This means multiple HDD’s so you have redundancy.
6. The cloud. I know, it’s this mystical catchall that now runs the world… but using simple free tools like dropbox, give you a place to put your data that is off site. I still encourage you keep local copies, but this gives you one more place to keep your data safe. You can also use paid services to give you far more storage space.
7. Good internet. Make sure you either have the fastest wireless plan, or if you’re loaded, you can get a T1 line installed. The point is, you need a fast connection if you do anything online. For me, I’m building web apps, so if i want to demo them, I need a solid connection.
All this being said… don’t grow beyond your means. There’s time… if your idea is as good as you think it is, you can slowly grow it. Hope this gives you some direction.
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,
Mike
Good article again Mike. Another thought for you.
I invested in a 6-core 3.2 GHz desktop machine with 16GB Ram in January 2011 from General Nanosystems here in Minneapolis. Best investment I made…. I can fire up he main OS (Win 7) and run 3-4 virtual servers at the same time without major slowing of the system. Only have 2TB of disk right now, but I’ve got room for 3 more iunternal drives if I need them.
Was about an $1100 investment at the time….but well worth it IMO. Best part is that I only need one backup service (Carbonite) to copy the entire machine over to a cloud server…..with multiple computers, that would be multiple licences I think.