IT has taken a central place in the life of businesses for a few years. Essential to be competitive, to work effectively and to expand your horizons, it however requires some skills and different types of servers depending on the use.
Servers are a central element of the operating structure of your company's computer fleet. There are many. For their maintenance, do not hesitate to call on a Server maintenance professional.
Here is an explanation point on the role of the server and on the different types of servers you can choose to use to facilitate your daily work.
What is a computer server?
The server can take different forms: a physical form or a virtual form. Its role is to make available to facilitate access to software and files shared with so -called “customers” computers, connected to it in a network. The server can therefore be a computer or source software. Sometimes the virtual server works thanks to the cloud from your company's internet supplier.
The servers have different roles, the most important being to centralize the data of a company within the same software and to protect it from the security vulnerabilities which can possibly arise. It is also thanks to the servers that computers of the same company can be connected in a network to printers, scanners, access badges and security and alarm systems.
There are many types of computer servers and everyone has a precise and complementary role to others.
The different types of computer servers
Here is an overview of the different types of existing IT servers and their features in order to help you understand the missions that can be assigned to them and their interest in your business.
The web server
THE web server is a platform where software useful is installed for your company, so that they can operate in network on the customer computers attached to it. It feeds websites by providing HTML content, images and videos that allow for example to display this web page as you read it.
He also does the job of fueling an intranet. The web server is accessible by administrators thanks to an online tool that allows you to modify it and authorize or prohibit access.
The file server
THE file server The role of hosting and giving access to files shared by network connected computers. It is actually a hard disk, an external memory, which allows to keep the data of an individual company or computers in a secure manner to keep a copy and to facilitate work in partnership around a project.
Thanks to file servers, establishing a data protection strategy is much easier: it is easier to protect a server from security faults than several computers at the same time.
The print server
THE print server is found in many companies because it saves considerable time on a daily basis. As its name suggests, it concerns the connection of computers in the fleet of a company with available printers. The server responds to computers' printing requests and sends them to the printer, which deals with requests.
Often, this system is supplemented by an operation by badge, which allows each employee to identify their computer on the printer and print the documents that concern it without having access to those of their colleagues.
The application server
THE application server Hoster applications, which makes it possible to unload the memory of computers while allowing network access to the software and applications necessary for the proper execution of tasks that are entrusted to your employees. It is also a money gain, because the applications are only installed on the server, which avoids paying several licenses for shared use.
The DNS server (Domain Name System)
THE DNS serverwhose initials mean Domain Name System, is an application system whose role is to translate the domain names of websites in IP addresses which can be included by the computer that uses it. This type of server works as a giant directory, which contains the names of the sites and the IP addresses connected to others DNS servers and which can give them access to additional information.
To improve the speed and availability of responses, DNS servers can use Anycast routinga technique that makes it possible to redirect requests to the nearest or most available server, thus reducing latency and increasing service resilience.
The messaging server
THE mail server is, like the printing server, one of the most commonly used by companies. It allows you to receive emails addressed to an employee and keep them in memory until the person concerned can have access to it. It is a great way to pool a service via a server by avoiding soliciting too much computers and their own messaging services, which can sometimes be less efficient.
For companies, it is also the opportunity to create a community via individual mail boxes by giving access, subject to validation by the person concerned, calendars, absences and working groups of the same service.
The database server
THE database is used to contain data from your business, because the number is often too large for each computer to contain all those it needs to allow your employee to work effectively. Thanks to the database server, your business files and data are accessible at any time by customer computers, and you can control who has which data automatically.
More than practical, they are also essential for the security of your data. It is a solution that can be essential if your company processes sensitive and personal data relating to customers or other companies. Often, the database servers are used in conjunction with a security service to combat faults and data leaks.
The virtual server
THE virtual server is a type of server that does not work on a physical computer but on specialized software, also called hypervisor. If it is simply a different way of operating software, the servers installed there work in a traditional way. We can therefore find a virtual printing server or database.
The proxy server
THE proxy server Works like a barrier, a mediator between a customer computer and a server. It is often used as a reinforced safety tool because it receives and treats requests sent by a customer to the server. It is the proxy server that meets demand, protecting both the server concerned and the customer from security vulnerabilities and data leaks. In doing so, the server and the customer are not connected and nothing connects them to each other.
The administration and supervision server
THE Administration or supervision servers are used to manage customer systems and computers. Some may interact with other servers and customer computers, others simply have a vocation to monitor traffic and requests that can be sent by customer computers to servers, in order to detect errors or security vaults.
They can then report the breakdowns directly to the provider who takes care of the maintenance of your computer system via an error message, to request his intervention according to the degree of emergency identified.
How does a server work?
THE server Works on a network. Regardless of its mission, its function is to listen to the requests formulated by customer computers and to process them if it can, by communicating information or giving access to software or a file to the user who needs it.
To function properly, the server must be able to check certain information. It is indeed configured to allow access to a specific list of users, on defined time slots or to choose who can read, modify or delete files. This implies that each customer computer is identifiable and can receive the server's response according to the expected method.
Choose the right type of server according to your needs
There are many servers and their roles are all very different. If they operate in a complementary way, it is important to fully understand how they can serve the daily work of your teams or respond to a need to increase your competitiveness.
To make a wise choice among all the solutions available to you, our best advice is to have you accompanied by a qualified professional on Coder.com. Our freelancers only meet the requirement for satisfying their customers: you can count on them to be impartial and help you develop a formula that suits your business.