A degraded array
Running on a spare that nothing is watching.
Server management
Server Management, On-Premises or in the Cloud
Workstations are how an attacker gets in. The server is why they bothered. It holds the data, the shares, and the credentials, which is why it, and the NAS beside it, need to be patched, watched and documented rather than left alone because they are working.
What this covers
What Server Management Includes
Server management is patching, monitoring, hardening, capacity planning and backup verification for the machines holding your data, whether a physical server in your office, a virtual machine in Azure, a server hosted with a provider, or the NAS in the corner holding the shared drive.
A server that is running is not the same as a server that is healthy. Four things fail without a sound.
An expired certificate
Fine until the application that depends on it stops.
An unsupported operating system
Keeps working exactly as before, without patches.
A missed security patch
Applied everywhere except the one server nobody wanted to reboot.
Wherever it runs
On-Premises, Hosted, Cloud, or All Three
Where a server lives changes the risks and the bill. It does not change the work: patching, monitoring, hardening, backup and documentation are the same job in every one of these.
On-premises
A physical server in a closet or a rack in your office. Still the right answer for line-of-business applications that were never built for the cloud, and for data that has to stay where you can point at it. It needs power, cooling, a UPS that has been tested, and somebody watching the disks.
Hosted or data center
The same server, in a facility with real power, real cooling and real connectivity. Removes the building as a single point of failure, which matters if a flood or a power cut takes your office out.
Cloud
Azure or another provider, billed by consumption. Excellent for workloads that vary and expensive for workloads that do not. Moving a server that runs flat out all day into the cloud often costs more, not less.
Hybrid, which is common
One application on-premises because the vendor requires it, identity in Microsoft 365, files partly in SharePoint and partly on a share that was never migrated. Managed as one environment rather than three.
Security
How Servers Actually Get Compromised
Rarely by anything exotic. The same handful of findings turn up again and again, and each one is fixable.
Remote access exposed to the internet
Remote desktop published so somebody could work from home remains one of the most reliable ways into a small business. It is found by automated scanning within hours of being opened, not eventually.
An operating system past its support date
When patches stop, every vulnerability discovered afterwards is permanent. The server keeps working, and nothing about it looks wrong.
Shared local administrator passwords
The same local admin password on every machine turns one compromised workstation into access to all of them, including the server.
Backups reachable from the server
Ransomware looks for backups first. A backup on a share the server can write to is encrypted alongside everything else, which is how businesses discover their recovery plan was a single point of failure.
What we manage
What Server Management Covers
Patching on a schedule
Operating system and application updates applied on a schedule you know about, tested where the application is fragile, and reported afterwards rather than assumed.
Monitoring that means something
Disk health and capacity, RAID status, fan speeds and temperatures where the hardware reports them, services, backup jobs and event logs. A failing disk in a redundant array is a quiet warning, and quiet warnings are the ones that get missed.
EDR and hardening
The same endpoint detection and response with 24/7 SOC response that covers your workstations runs on Windows servers too. Unnecessary roles and services removed, remote access behind a VPN with multi-factor authentication, administrative accounts separated from daily-use accounts.
Configuration backup and documentation
What the server does, what depends on it, and how it is configured, written down. A server nobody documented is a server nobody can rebuild.
Active Directory and certificates
Group policy, joiner and leaver processes, and certificate expiry tracked ahead of the date rather than discovered by the application that stops working.
NAS management
Disk health, RAID monitoring, firmware, configuration backup and vendor coordination. A NAS is a server that people forget is a server.
Where it sits
Where It Sits in the Plans
Server management, NAS management and server backup are add-ons on top of any plan, each at a published per-unit rate. Every figure is on the pricing page, so you can total your own environment before speaking to anyone.
Frequently asked
Server Management: FAQs
Should we move our server to the cloud?
Sometimes. Cloud is billed by consumption, so it suits workloads that vary and is often more expensive for a server that runs at a steady load all day. It removes the hardware refresh, the UPS and the building as a risk, which is worth real money. It does not remove patching, backup, or security, which are the same job in either place. The assessment gives you the comparison for your actual workload, including the case where staying put is the right answer.
Our server is old but it still works. Is that a problem?
It depends on whether it is still receiving security updates. Once an operating system passes its support date the machine keeps running exactly as before, and every vulnerability found from then on stays open permanently. Nothing looks wrong. Working and being supported are different things, and only one of them is visible from a desk. The assessment tells you which version you are on and how long it has left.
Do you manage servers you did not build?
Yes. It is the normal case. Onboarding starts by documenting what is actually there, because inherited servers usually carry undocumented decisions somebody made under pressure years ago. We tell you what we find, including the parts we would do differently, before changing anything.
What happens if the server fails completely?
That depends on the backup, which is a separate add-on managed alongside the server. Server backup covers full image backup for bare-metal restore where the hardware supports it, plus file-level recovery. Which of those you need depends on how the server failed, and it is worth agreeing that before you need it rather than during.
Start With an IT Assessment
A thirty-minute call where we go through what you run and what is not working. We reply within one business day, and there is no obligation.
Schedule an IT assessment