Choosing the Right Server for Your Business: What You Really Need (and What You Don’t)

Let’s face it. Buying a server for your business isn’t exactly exciting. It’s not flashy, it’s not obvious to your customers, and you may feel overwhelmed trying to make sense of the tech jargon. Choosing a server is like choosing a car. Some are high-performance. Others are built for ruggedness. But most people want a mid-range vehicle that’s comfortable and safe.

Likewise, when you choose a server, you want to choose the right engine for your business right now. Done well, it hums quietly in the background, keeping everything running smooth, stable, and scalable. Done wrong, and you’ll feel it… in downtime, slow performance, and unexpected bills. Whether you’re upgrading your infrastructure or buying your first server, here’s what you need to know:

1. Start with the “why”

Before specs, before pricing, before shopping around, understand why you need a server and what you need that server to do.

• File and data storage: Centralizing access to documents and backups. How much data do you have? How much growth do you anticipate?
• Hosting applications: CRMs, ERPs, project management tools, or proprietary software. How many applications? What are their system requirements?
• Virtual machines / remote workstations: Letting your team run isolated environments or access desktops remotely. How many employees?
• Web hosting / e-commerce: Keeping your site fast and reliable under load. Are you running an eCommerce site? What are the web software requirements?
• Database management: Running SQL servers, business analytics, or financial systems. What are the system requirements for the performance level you expect?

2. Performance priorities

When it comes to configuring a server, everyone wants to know where they should spend a little extra. Here’s where performance matters most:

• Processor (CPU): Go for a multi-core Xeon or Ryzen Pro if you’re running databases, virtual machines, or heavy apps.
• RAM: Always better to overdo RAM than underdo it.
• Hard drive speed: Makes a big impact on performance.

3. Storage: fast, redundant, and right-sized

• SSD vs. HDD: Use SSDs for speed, HDDs for capacity.
• RAID: Redundancy helps avoid data loss.
• Backups matter: Use offsite or cloud backups even with RAID. RAID alone is not a sufficient backup strategy.

4. On-prem vs. cloud vs. hybrid

• On-Premise: One-time cost. Better for control and compliance.
• Cloud-Based: Scalable and remote-friendly but watch for cost creep.
• Hybrid: Mix of local file server + cloud apps is common.

5. Form factor: tower, rack, or blade?

• Tower servers: Affordable and easy to maintain.
• Rack servers: Space-saving and scalable.
• Blade servers: Overkill unless running large datacenters.
• Ask whether you’ll be able to upgrade RAM, drives, and CPUs.

6. Budget considerations

The cost of your server isn’t just about hardware costs. Licensing costs for Windows Server, SQL Server, and virtualization products can have a significant impact on how you choose and configure your server hardware. Software is often licensed based on one of the following:

• Per-core licensing (e.g., SQL Server Standard/Enterprise, Windows Server Datacenter)
• Per-processor or socket licensing (older or niche cases)
• Per-user or CALs (Client Access Licenses) (for Windows Server Standard or other add-ons)

Per-core licensing has become the standard for many Microsoft and virtualization products. Servers with more cores will incur higher software licensing costs. This means you don’t want to over-buy cores unless you truly need them, because each core directly increases your licensing cost.

Say you’re running a SQL Server workload. Here’s a simplified look:

If you don’t need the extra cores, don’t buy them. In the example above, you save $30K in licensing costs.

Important to note: If you’re running SQL Server in a virtual machine, you’ll still pay per virtual core allocated (unless you license the full physical server).

7. Redundancy planning

When a server goes down, your business can grind to a halt. Redundancy planning minimizes downtime by avoiding single points of failure. Depending on your budget, we recommend considering the following:

• Redundant power supplies, which allow the server to keep running if one PSU fails or if a circuit goes out
• Hot-swappable drives and at least one hot spare (pre-configured for automatic failover)
• Dual network interface cards (NICs) for failover networking
• Spare fans and extra hard drives
• And of course – regular backup and recovery planning and testing

While you don’t need to stock an entire second server, having these key parts ready can mean the difference between a 10-minute hiccup and a multi-hour outage.

8. Don’t forget about support

Warranty and support contracts provide peace of mind in the case of hardware failures. We recommend getting 3-year extended warranty. Cloud hosting providers provide uptime guarantee as part of their service level agreement. 

Need help buying a server?

Know what matters. Spend where it counts. We offer a dedicated Server Specification service to ensure you get exactly what your business needs. This service is money well spent: we’ll help you avoid costly licensing missteps, overbuilt systems, and hardware headaches. Instead of guessing, you’ll get a smart, scalable server that’s built for performance and peace of mind. Let us take the stress out of the process. Reach out—we’ll make it easy.