Is Your Tech Guy Overselling IT?

#OfficeNetwork

How much technology do you really need in the office?  I am not talking about the stuff you see like your desktop computer, the tablet or your phone.  What I am talking about are web servers, mail servers, routers and hubs, and things you never see unless you are the IT guy.

Recently I spent some time with two different clients this month and was amazed at how much in house technology they had.  Both of these businesses have less than 15 employees full time in the office, and 10 employees out on the road.  Here are their setups starting from the wall to the desk:

Business 1 10 Users, 6 client interactions per day:
ATT UVerse Modem 15 Static IP Addresses
Juniper Router
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Required for software used in house
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Used for basic email functions
-Digital Tape Backup Drive - Used to Back Up Bothe Servers
10 Desktop PC's with 18" LCD Screens
All users have iPhones


Monthly IT average $3000

Business 2, 12 Users, 45 Client Interactions per day:
Time Warner Cable Modem - 50 Static IP addresses
Cisco Router
2 x Apple Airport
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Basic Email Functions
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Financial and Data Storage
-Specialty Server for software package
8 Desktop PC's with 20" screens
2 Desktop Macs
2 MacBooks
12 iPhones

Monthly IT average $2100

In both cases, I couldn't see any reason to have an in house server for email or basic functionality.  A network drive, sometimes called "Network Addressable Storage" or NAS drives, would have worked just fine.  The difference? About $3000 up front plus $500 a month in support.  Additionally neither needs the MS exchange server now that they have gone to the iPhone as the mobile platform.  Yes Exchange does a lot more, but they aren't using it.

The last monthly cost is the static IP addresses.  Business one needs it for a subscription service they have to purchase for each computer.  I am suspicious though that the vendor doesn't have an option for dynamic IP addresses.   The second business was hosting their website data on their server but not the website. It was a crazy system to support.  Additionally of the 50 static IP addresses only 5 were in use.

How would I set up businesses that size?  In fact just about any business can use this model if you have less than 20 desktop systems.  In fact now I see iPads with keyboards and proprietary apps and that whole setup is less than what I listed above.

Here is exactly what my two offices look like:

Verizon FiOS Router - WiFi off, set to Modem only Mode.
Apple Airport Extreme Router(s)
Netgear ReadyNAS Network Drive
Virtual Web Hosting with Email Service, 1and1 and GoDaddy are two good ones we support in our office.
Desktop PC or MAC as required.

This is exactly our setup, I don't use the Verizon FiOS Router for simplicity reasons, and in an all MAC business, you could use the Apple Time Capsule instead of the Netgear Ready NAS.  All of our email is stored on the servers at 1and1, as is our website.  We back them up to a DVD each month.  The NAS Drive is backed up weekly since that is where our customer records and financials are stored.

Western Digital even calls one option "mycloud", meaning you own it.  While I like virtual email and web hosting to save money, you should own your data in a physical sense.  That is why we use the NAS drive.  Our setup has all of the capability needed for both businesses and would have cost over $10,000 less.

Do you want to see your IT guy more often or do you want $10,000 or more in your bank account?