I'm looking for advice on setting up a small business network for a start-up retail company.
We're a five-man outfit. We need email, file sharing, printing, scanning etc. We have a bespoke line-of-business application written in .NET that relies on Active Directory and SQL Server 2005. We need our website to be able to connect to our LOB app to retrieve and update data securely.
Currently, my proposed solution for this is to create a small network using SBS 2008 Premium (to cover off the email, LOB app, AD, SQL Server demands) and to pay for a hosted server with configurable firewall (at RackSpace or 1&1 or similar) to host the web site which would allow me to set up a secure VPN tunnel between the website and our LOB app.
My first question is: does this sound like the best solution? And if not where am I going wrong and what are the alternatives?
Okay, so assuming that what I've suggested sounds okay, my next question is what hardware should I be buying for the network? My current shopping list looks like this:
- 1 x 24U rack cabinet with PDU and fans
- 2 x server - Dell Poweredge 2850 or similar (RAID 1 or 5 with redundant PSU's, network cards, etc)
- 1 x hardware firewall - what should I be looking for?
- 1 x 24 port 1GB switch - again what functionality will I need?
- 1 x router - do I need this?
- 1 x UPS - will this include surge protection?
- 1 x Tape Drive
- Plenty of cabling - cat5 or cat6? - what other cabling requirements have I managed to over look?
Given that harware, should I be able to achieve what I'm looking to do? My background is in software development and I've just taken all of this for granted in the past. More fool me ;)
I would be very grateful for any advice you can offer as I need help and/or reassurance on the solution before I go and blow our IT budget.
Thanks
AnyOldIron