Q: I own a small business and have four computers and a tablet, all of which have different information on them. I try to save most of the information in a shared file via the network, but this is hard to keep up, and would like to be able to access information remotely when needed. I have been told that I should consider a server with workstations. How does this work?
A: It sounds like what you want to set up is a shared drive, or network drive. This would allow you to save files, but also access them from more than one workstation. To accomplish that you have two basic options, a local, physical drive, like a NAS; or a cloud option, like Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive. I’ve actually used more of the cloud options because I tend to use a tablet on the go, I’m actually typing this on it, because it allows me to access things easily out of the office. That being said, NAS has out-of-office options as well. Western Digital has their WD2Go drives that work well with an app.
Personally I like using the cloud options because they are more lightweight. I would maybe caution against storing financial, personnel, or other sensitive material on these as they are backed up in multiple servers across the globe. Although the chances are slim, if their security was breached, you might be in trouble. That being said, you probably don’t want that information on multiple computers anyway.
Explore some of these options. Cloud service also offer business solutions that may offer features you want for a minimal fee.
Good luck!
