Re: Building new server with a few questions...


"Leythos" <void@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.2189104e4f9703a89896da@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <ern7N5jFIHA.4752@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, kdv@xxxxxxxxx
says...
Hello,

The fun-part of SBS that thanks to the wizards and after reading a good
book
like the Administrator's Companion you don't need overpaid professionals.
Stumbling on a problem you can always try this excellent newsgroup (in
general I like Leythos' answers, they are to say the least: educational.)

That's what I did for my SBS 2003 sytem with 15 workstations.

It works now for 3 years - with 1Mb Ram - without serious problems (
knock
on wood)

Yes, you can run on 1GB or 2Gb for a long time, but you're not getting
level of performance that the server could provide you with.

"Overpaid" is only true if you don't realize any gain from their work.
In many cases, if a Pro could save you 5 minutes per day, with 15
workstations, over the year, it could have more than paid for itself.


Obviously this is off the topic of the original post. Still its worth
mentioning as a counterpoint.

Having been both a paid professional consultant and in the position of
managing paid professional consultants, it isn't always as easy as that.
Thus, I suppose my point is that the statement "only if you don't realize
gain from their work" is pretty glib and worth exploring. The five minutes a
day they might save you would be worth it, unless the following events
occur, which are quite common in my experience and tend to negate any
savings that should be realized.

--They don't document their work
--They don't show up when they agree to
--They don't follow best practices
--They overstate their hours or charge for HW not delivered
--They overstate their qualifications
--They sell extraneous product that doesn't fit the business need

Sure, all of these factors can be mitigated by careful and time consuming
research of your consultant. Consultants that pass such rigorous
examination and in fact turn out to be diligent, ethical, perspicacious,
technically and socially competent are in high demand and charge deservedly
high rates.

For a small business owner who has previous technical experience and a
familiarity with TCP/IP and Windows, it is perfectly reasonable to install
and administer SBS their self.

And if a small business owner doesn't have such knowledge, their ability to
avoid the 6 points of disappointment above are more difficult, so its worth
gaining a fairly indepth knowledge of the product anyway.

Best regards!


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