Setting up a network and server for a small company (10 computers)

[palinopsic]

I'm looking into setting up a LAN and server for the small business I work for.

Does anyone have advice on equipment, setup or just a good book or source of info to start learning from?

Here are the details:
-There's a good source of budget and no defined limit. The idea is to get it working as best as possible for what's needed.

-There are about 10 computers in the office. I doubt that will be expanded on much in the near future, but it's best to have the option.

-The main purpose of the network will be to run a prepackaged database system on a server on the network, and have online access to the database for rare occasions.

-The database will need to be backed up somewhere. (in two locations for safety)

-I don't think they will need much storage for file sharing, but the ability to expand it will be beneficial.

-One of the computers is an iMac

 

[13thmonkey]

A good source of info would be paying a consultancy to come in and set it up and do knowledge transfer so that you can maintain it.

The reason for this is two fold:
1. they know what they are doing and won't leave you exposed to the outside world unintentionally, or if they do you can sue them,
2. you get to keep your job, you get to learn from professionals as opposed to gifted amateurs of various capabilities (oh and you don't know which ones are good).

There was a phrase a long time ago, 'no one ever got sacked for buying IBM' regardless of what happened as a result of the installation the finger could never be pointed at you for making a bad decision.

Overall it will be cheaper, quicker, more professional and you'll get a better result and you'll still get to learn. The months of troubleshooting that you'll have to do, whilst business suffers from degraded performance from something that it obviously needs costs the business a lot of money in lost capability. This is business, do it properly. Perhaps next time, when you've learned then you might be able to do it yourself, but not this time.