[SOLVED] Need advice for setting up a server for a dental office.

[Rlucas23]

Hello everyone, I hope you guys can help me. I have a dental office with about 10 workstation computers right now and may need to expand to 12 computers in the future. Right now the previous owner of the dental office left us with a mess. Our oldest and slowest dell computer is designated as the server computer and shares files with the other 9 computers using dental software called open dental and x ray software. The system was bogging down to the point we could not use the computers. I talked to an IT company in the dental field and they said they could fix the problem for 18,000 that would mean installing an actual server for us. This sounds like an insane cost.

I checked the server computer and it had a 30 gig hard drive that was out of space. I called our IT company and asked if it was possible to replace the server computer with a new one. They said no, that I would have to pay a fortune to buy new licenses for all the dental software and it would be 6,000 to do it and I might as well spend a little more and get the actual server. I asked if there was any cheap short term fix. They said no. I did a little research and decided I would buy the biggest hard drive that the old computer could handle which ended up being a 50 gig drive. I ran a program to mirror the drive to the new HD. Plugged the new HD in and wow, it worked perfect and all the computers were back to running normal speed without freezing up all the time all for less than 100.00.

So I dont trust my IT company, lol. I have windows 7 on 5 computers, I have windows 8 on 2 computers, and windows 10 on 3 computers. Nothing is consistent. I want to buy a server, have it running safely 24/7 with a battery backup, a line conditioner, with enough redundancy that my data and patient info is safe. I need large storage due to new CBCT x rays that can be 1 gig each. Right now the IT company backs up my data at night via the internet connection to the server computer. I have high speed internet coming into the modem, then a watch guard firewall, then going to each computer through a switch.

The IT company told me I need as follows:
1. nobilis i2072tw server with windows 2016 server r2 64bit standard edition with a sm x10drl-c motherboard w/lsi 3108 sas3, intel xeon e5-2620 v4-3 2.1 ghz 8/16 20M cache processor 2100mhz, 32 gb ddr4 2400mhz sdram memory, integrated pci graphics card with 4mb ram, asus 19 inch flat panel monitor, 1 micron 480gb solid state hard os boot drive (do I really need a 480 GB SS boot drive?) 3 4 TB SED self encrypting sata 7200k rpm drives, 24x dvdrw drive, alr server tower, 500 watt power supply, keyboard, mouse, integrated dual gigabit network adapter, ms windows 2016 server operating system w/2012r2 Price 4,795.00

2. 4 gig thumb drive for network confirguration that stays with server. free

3. apc back up pro 1500va battery backup/line conditioning system price 399.00

4. QNAP 4TB NAS network attached storage device - data and virtual server drive backup for disater recovery price 749.00

5. network cable run for NAS device price 175.00

6. network server encryption software for HIPPA compliance on dedicated file server running a server OS price 1,595.00

7. configure network settings and custom configure windows OS, file server and configure windows 2012 on the dedicated server price 1,395.00

8. HIPPA compliant network security price 1,995.00

9. roaming profiles for full compliance auditing per user, individual user logins and passwords price 1,795.00

10. clinical workstation price 1,297.00

11. Custom configure windows OS per terminal Price 249.00 x 11= 2,739.00

12. CAT 6 network cable and end connectors price per terminal 175.00 x number of terminals (I already have all the workstations wired for internet.)

TOTAL = 17,109.00 plus 6% tax = 18,135.54


I have built my own computer in the past and I have ran CAT 6 cable for an entire house. I just do not know much about server set ups. But the above sounds like way overkill and a rip off to me. They are charging me twice for HIPPA, but I think windows security and the watch dog fire wall should make my data and patient info secure right? What is a NAS network and do I need it? The server sounds like its older hardware and software they still have sitting on their shelf and they want to charge me top dollar for overkill. What do I really need that is not 5 kinds of overkill? Thanks for the help. I would like to set this server up myself and just buy what i need. Are there any books that people can suggest or websites i could go to that would give me a step by step directions to set up a small dental office server system?

 

[Rlucas23]

Hello guys,

I have a small dental office and I am getting ready to have a server system set up. I need the patient data on my server at the office to be backed up daily offsite in case of fire so i still have patient files in worst case scenario. Companies charge a lot monthly going on forever to provide cloud back up daily. I was wondering would it be possible to buy a computer for my house and set it up to connect via internet nightly to make a copy of my data from my server at the office just like other data storage companies do?

What would I need to do this? What kind of hardware on the home computer, what if any kind of software on the home computer? Would there be a way to set it up to automatically do it daily? I would have the home computer strictly sitting and doing storage, it would not be used for anything other than storing data from the office.

How could I set it up and what would it cost?

Thanks for all your advice.

 

[USAFRet]

Assuming you are in the USA, obviously you're aware of HIPAA and its regulations.
This is not something you just wing it with a server in your house.

This is something your IT guy sets up. The person who is setting up your server, for instance.

 

[jeremyj_83]

While the server might be overkill right now, it is designed for any growth and having performance in the future.
You do want to have a boot drive as that will help a lot in terms of keeping Windows Server snappy.
The storage is setup such that your 3x4TB drives are the primary and the 4TB NAS (network attached storage) is for backups. Industry standard for normal databases is 14 days worth of backups, for HIPPA related information it might be more.
Best practice is let the IT professional handle this instead of trying to do it yourself. Remember they have been doing this for a long time. While it might seem like a lot of money right now, you would hate to have it setup incorrectly and getting a huge fine or worse losing patient information.

 

[kanewolf]

Obviously HIPAA is a big deal. Assuming you pre-encrypt your backups you could meet the requirements.
Internet bandwidth at your business and home would be additional factors.

Most businesses would prefer the monthly costs because those are operational expenses vs the additional hardware purchases that are capital expeses.

 

[USAFRet]

I realize the "server" and the "backup" are two different concepts.
But these two parts need to work together, and be designed together.

 

[jeremyj_83]

I am a VMware Administrator and System Administrator and I wouldn't want to set this up due to the HIPPA stuff and I have installed and configured servers, routers, switches, etc... Let the people who know the ins and outs of HIPPA compliance for IT deal with the setup. They will make sure it is correct. Also if something they do isn't correct you can blame them, if you do it yourself you have no one to blame or take the fall.