Today's servers have far more storage capacity, memory and computational power than ever before. If you have not already done so, you should consider upgrading to Windows 2003 Server and consolidating your machines. With a reduction in hardware footprint, improved security, support for modern technologies, higher integration, and lower maintenance and administration costs, a sort term RIO is readily justified. .

At C3SC we can help you with the initial appraisal, justification, and implementation of both software and hardware upgrades.

However, if you do not yet have the need for dedicated devices, a more integrated and economical recommendation is Microsoft's Small Business Server. Designed to meet the needs of smaller and growing businesses, it integrates many of the basic business tools into a single package.

At C3SC we will help you assess your current environment and provide recommendations for an appropriate solution.

High Availability Systems

If you are running critical applications and services, creating a highly available server platform is key. By implementing server clusters single points of failure can be reduced or even eliminated. However, frequently the applications need to know they are running on clustered machines, and have the necessary functionality to make efficient use of this feature. A good example are database applications. Unless transactions are performed in "logical units of work", tables may become out of sync during a fail-over.

Along with improved service availability, a well architected server cluster can also benefit from load balancing. Spreading the processing across two or more machines can give a significant performance boost.

Talk to C3SC to understand more about this option and how your environment would benefit from clustered servers.

NAT

If you have a significant number of people who need concurrent access to the internet, purchasing public IP addresses for each of them may be cost prohibitive. An efficient alternative is implementing a Network Address Translation service. A NAT system allows many users to effectively share the same public address. However, as with other services mentioned here, some applications will either not work at all or need extensive configuring.

At C3SC we have experience with NAT services. Additionally, NAT services can be integrated with other internet services, such as firewalls and VPNs. We will develop the most economical and efficient model for your environment without sacrificing security.

Proxy Server

A Proxy Server can best be described as a gateway to the internet. It reduces your surface area to attack, provides enhanced security and can cache information, reducing the amount of traffic transferred over the Internet connection and improving perceived link performance.

C3SC will install the service and configure servers and desktops alike to use this access portal.

ISA

In the previous paragraphs we outlined some of the services that can be implemented to protect your network from outside attack. What should also be made clear is the level of integration that can exist between these services. Microsofts' Internet Security and Acceleration server brings them all together and is fully integrated with Active Directory.

C3SC will plan the implementation of ISA for your network.

DNS

"A service to translate human readable machine names into machine accessible IP addresses".

Another way to tighten the security of your network infrastructure is to bring your primary DNS server into your organization. It is possible for a hacker to substitute alternative IP addresses in a public DNS. This would redirect a user to a different site that could be posing as the original site. This can be the platform for a phising attack, and users could be tricked into supplying confidential information.

By installing a DNS server within your organization, you can redirect your clients to reference your own machine, and not a public one.

If your network is expanding and you are still using NetBIOS and WINS for name resolution, you will begin to encounter problems in a routed network. Switching to DNS will negate these issues and will scale for future growth.

DHCP

"A service to dynamically distribute and manage IP addresses to client machines".

If you are still using static IP addresses you will already have encountered the administration problems of maintaining that environment. Aside from the time consuming task, manually entering IP addresses will be subject to human error and can be tricky to accurately diagnose.