The McBride Financials computer network has to provide the following services: 1) web services, 2) file and print, 3) secured local and remote access, 4) email, and 5) a robust database system. There are to be eight sites in the network spread over four states. Two sites have been purchased, the central office site in Boise, Idaho and a branch office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. To provide the basic services required by McBride Financials would require five servers. Security concerns may require the purchase of additional servers or hardware devices.
Server hardware and server operating systems have become less expensive and more robust. More robust servers allow for the consolidation of services on a single hardware device (hence server) and the industry as a whole has moved toward server consolidation as a means to reduce network expenses and complexity. Microsoft offers a consolidated server called Small Business Server 2003 that provides all the services required by McBride Financials.
Windows Server 2003 screenshot
Manage Your Server
Microsoft BuildingThere are two versions, Standard and Premium. Premium provides a complete version of SQL Server 2000, the database system offered by Microsoft, and ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration Server) which can provide security for the network without incurring added start-up expenses. The five core services provided by Small Business Server 2003 are provided by: 1) IIS 6.0 (Internet Information Server 6.0, Microsoft's web server), 2) file and print services in Server 2003, 3) Routing and Remote Access Server 2003 (which was jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc and is the solution Cisco uses in their Remote Access VPN device) and ISA Server 2000, 4) Exchange 2003 with Outlook 2003, Web Access and other access mechanisms, and 5) SQL 2000 (which comes with a complete Database Management System, OLAP services, reporting services, and replication) (Microsoft, 2004). The cost of...