Buying a networked computer system nowadays has become simpler in one respect but much harder in another. There are of course two major components that make up your computer system, one is the hardware and the second is the software. The simple side of the equation is choosing the desktop computer. That's easy; we all now use standard PCs with standard operating systems like Windows, nothing wrong with that. A little more complication comes in to the decision about our network when we need to decide which computer should be used as our main server. This could be another Windows PC just like the workstations or, if required, it could be a much more powerful Unix server supplied by companies such as IBM, HP or Sun.

It's worth looking at the way the Internet works in order to give us an idea of the choices that we have, after all the Internet is by far the biggest computer network in the world so is the best example to follow regarding network design. Plus nearly all computer networks now run on the same lines as the Internet by using IP numbers so your companies own computer network will simply be a small version of the World Wide Web. Just like the Internet your staff will have standard PCs to use and your main company data will be held on a separate server. And also just like the Internet this server could be anything from a small PC to a massive IBM mainframe computer. The decision as to what sort of computer is used as the main server simply depends on how powerful it needs to be and how many users will need to access it at any one time.

This is exactly the same decision that you will need to make when choosing your own network server, how powerful does it need to be and how many people will need to simultaneously use it. It stands to reason that the server will have to be more powerful than each of the workstations because each workstation only has one person using it and the server will be "serving" everyone on the network. Standard Intel based "Windows" PCs can be very powerful nowadays so will be make good servers for small or medium sized networks but their obviously comes a point when more power is needed.

This is the point where the software part of the equation kicks in. Some software companies produce software that can't run on the more powerful computers, their software will only run on standard PCs. This is a problem because the advice their salesmen can give you regarding network design is severely restricted, they have to tell you that a PC server will do the job, whether it will or it won't. Even if a standard PC is powerful enough for the job you will doubt the salesman's advice because you know he can't offer you a choice. And what happens when your network out grows it's sever and the server needs to be replaced, you won't be able to replace the server with anything other than a standard PC because, if you did, your software will not work anymore.

The power requirement of your network server won't just depend on the number of users attached to it, it will also depend on the number of transaction you require the server to process. You could attach dozens of computers to a network server if each of the users were only doing local work on their PCs such as word processing; in this case, because most of the processing is being done on the local PC, the server will not be doing much work so a less powerful server will be needed. The story changes somewhat when all of the user on the network are using one central database like an Accounts program or Transport Management System, in this situation much greater demands are being made on the network server so the ability to use a much more powerful server becomes extremely important. The upshot is simple; if you need a networked computer system make sure you have a choice regarding the power of the server. You need to check that the salesman is able to offer you software that will happily run on both PCs and more powerful computers.