On top of being redundant, businesses should also take the precautionary step of backing up their hard drives nightly. And not any VAR will do. Make sure the one you select has been certified in the type of network you intend to run and has had ample experience with servers. For more info on questions to ask a VAR, click here . This typically includes 3-4 drives, about 256 MB of RAM, and a redundant power supply.
Quick tips Make it scalable.
Take growth into consideration. A server that can't grow with you will need to be scrapped, and that's a pretty expensive mistake. You're just asking for trouble. Test and test again. Make a point of regularly making sure that your RAID 5 is working correctly and that an alarm will notify you when a hard drive fails.