If it is, then I will be happy to give you some advise. As a number of people have already mentioned, keep it simple. With that keep it so it is easy for you to manage as well as easy for you to get support for. Sure you can save a ton of upfront cost putting some linux based solution in but I am a big fan of "you get what you pay for." So go with a supported solution.

Start with the back end and work your way forward. People knock Microsoft, but Windows SMB is pretty affordable. Just don't skimp on the hardware, get something scalable. Either way having centralized management of users and resources is key! It is much easier to build it now than to have to migrate to it later. I had a client that was running in full workgroup but had a server. The previous consultants never set them up on a domain, hell they didn't even have the OS they paid for installed on the server. So if you have the opportunity to build from the ground up, build it right!

As for the network, if it is not already wired, well you may want to consider running hard Cat 6 cabling. Hire someone to do it since they will do it properly. Also remember it costs the same in labor to run multiple runs to a location as it does a single run. So plan for expansion. Same goes for the network hardware. Do max a single switch with just what you need, make sure you have room to add more connections.

For the storage server, well where is this data stored now? Are we talking GBs of current data or TBs? Also you mentioned Archving, well how often will this archived material be needed? Will it be accessed frequently or maybe once a year? You can always move it to optical disc and store in a secure location. You could also store it on the web as well.

As for moving everything to "THE CLOUD" well sure, you can host your entire server infrastructure there. There are decent companies out there like Rackspace for hosting services. But if you are working with large media files then you may want to keep some things in-house. To back all this up, well you can go with online backup solutions. Check out reviews, but keep in mind that the initial upload could take days to almost weeks depending on your bandwidth and the size of your data. So you may want to look at some form of backup-to-disk and then run your online backup of those files.

But before you begin ordering and what not, work with the staff and figure out what your budget is. That will help you decided what you can build.

If you are not fresh out of school and this isn't your first job, well then I am with the rest of the guys, quit and let them hire someone who can do the job and please go back to Geek Squad!

It certainly isn't a bad idea to test new hires. I currently have a non-profit client that has a large number of service staff that use laptops. A majority of them have absolutely no clue how to use the computers. Most see the application and confirm they know how to use computers. Frankly I believe laptops are reserved for slightly more advanced end users. We were back and forth with this client a couple times a week because their most recent user was completely computer illiterate. She didn't know why her laptop wouldn't stay on.... I checked the docking station and the power cable was not connected.

Many state agencies require prospective admin staff to take an exam before they can apply for a job. These exams cover a number of topics that have to do with the level of job they are going for. I don't see a problem with developing similar standards for non-government jobs. Then again its tougher for a small business with no IT staff to go through this. What I would recommend is to get your parents to hire an outside firm to help them not only with their IT support but with educating their users. They should easily be able to develop a hiring quiz for new hires as well as develop training plans for users.

Locking down the workstations is also not a bad idea. Get regular users out of the local admin groups on the workstations. Make sure AV is being properly updated and even look into installing a small business class firewall that does some content filtering as well as gateway AV. Sonicwalls provide these services and usually at a pretty good rate.

Good luck!!

I say take all that iPhone money and invest it back into the network!! As a former Verizon customer now turned AT&T slave because I wanted an iPhone, I am a little sad that I was swayed over such a phone as nice as it is. Granted at my last two homes I had barely 2 bars for Verizon and now have full bars for AT&T. Then again the calls still drop. Go figure. So even if they used accurate facts, I would still say "sure they have coverage but it ain't that reliable!" I have a feeling that after the 2 years I may be swinging back to Verizon.

I say shock therapy. Wear some form of optic like the apache pilots have. If the computer senses that they are looking elsewhere other than their mirrors and in front of them, a small shock in the butt could correct this :D

If you are a large startup and you may require an internal Network Admin. Eventually companies get large enough where they do need an internal IT staff that can take care of day-to-day activities and then use an outside consulting company for projects and even extra hands.

I work for an IT consulting firm that actually specializes as both staff augmentation and full time IT support. Most of our clients are small to medium businesses. Some with as little as 10 employees. They don't have enough for a full time person to work on so they use us once a month. We also have an oncall/helpdesk department to handle things when the primary engineer is not on-site. But we also don't automatically give ourselves remote access without the permission of the client. We have some clients that only remote us in when there is a problem. Others trust us fully to be their full time IT support. It really depends on what your product is. I've signed confidentiality agreements with clients in order for them to allow me to work on their systems.

In this day and age IT is a major part of many businesses. You really can't take it for granted. Also you can't go around being paranoid of every IT person. Of course they are going to have full access to your systems and data, but if they are good they will not jeopardize their reputation by stealing data. You get what you pay for also. Look for the companies who have been doing this for a while. Look at their partnerships (Microsoft Gold Partner etc..) Many vendors require that their partners meet certain criteria so not every consulting company can be a Gold Partner just because they know about the product. They need to have a certain amount of certificates among their engineers.

As far as the remote monitoring, well that is a cost savings to you. It costs much less to have someone remote into the systems to look at it than to have someone travel to your office and look at something that may only take a few minutes to fix.

Aside from the hardware, you also have to consider support for the software. Microsoft will limit support on the OS eventually. Windows 95 was EOL a very long time ago.

The best bet would be to plan better. Most manufacturers will not warranty workstations for more than 5 years. Shortly after the system will become End of Life. This is of course if you are going with a brand computer. If you build them, you will need to check the manufacturer warranties on all the parts. So you need to put some IT planning into affect.

If he wants something that will last long, your best bet would be to look into a small business level server. The hardware in an official server is designed to run for long period of times with longer life spans as well. Desktop grade hardware will eventually fail and it certainly will if it is running extended periods of time.

Now on top of all that, you also need to consider support for his business application. Can this database and software be migrated to newer platforms? If not then he may be looking at other problems beside just keeping his hardware running.

Hope this helps.

Ha! Didn't even know the game was still up and running. Good for them. But yeah I was certainly one who jumped in and attempted to play. I got fed up with the ridiculous lag as well as the system requirements to play it at the time. Since then I've got a better rig. Unfortunately Blizzard just keeps my addicted arse coming back to WoW.

Think there are plenty of us out there that would love for someone to come out with an MMO that makes us feel what we felt with WoW 4 years ago. Since then nothing has done that for me.

As for the Anonymous guy who has a thorn in his side about IT pros calling themselves engineers, well true not everyone one of use could be considered that, but the good ones can. We are given problems every day that we need to "engineer solutions for."

As what I do at home, for one I do not even have close to a TB of data. But I just backup to disk. having a copy of data store elsewhere is better than nothing. What home users should do is buy a couple inexpensive external drives and do regular backups of their computer HDDs, at least their personal DATA. Get a firebox safe and store the drives in that.

What I recommend back to the corporate/small business owners is to get at least 2 weeks worth of media as well as monthly tapes. Store the monthlies off site. They can spend the money on Iron Mountain or they can keep it in someone's home safe. (I don't recommend the home safe, but whatever works!). The more data you have the larger the the backup solution will be. But then you have to ask yourself how much is this data worth to the company?? Suddenly $20K is not looking to bad.