Lead Image © wabeno, 123RF.com

Server distributions for small businesses tested

Are You Being Served?

Article from ADMIN 31/2016

By Erik Bärwaldt

Six all-in-one Linux server distributions and a NAS system for small businesses and workgroups feature comprehensive feature sets, simple administration, and services. Are these distributions worthwhile?

Many an article has has been dedicated to subjects like scalability of services or enterprise capabilities of servers, but honestly, hardly a majority of people run their own data centers. However, a single server is all it takes to create a centralized infrastructure, and it doesn't need to offer a huge amount of computational power. What people do expect is more functionality. The server needs to act as a file, print, and intranet server; support groupware; implement a permissions concept; and provide access to simple cloud services and the like.

In small businesses that do not have their own IT department and do not employ system or network administrators in particular, you will often find staff without specific IT skills maintaining and managing the company's computer systems. For this target group, specifically, various software enterprises have developed server distributions derived from different Linux variants that promise fast setup and easy operation.

For this article, our team put six of these distributions to the test: ClearOS [1], Collax Business Server [2], Koozali SME Server [3], NethServer [4], Univention Corporate Server [5], and Zentyal Server [6]. The seventh contestant was a pre-installed NAS system by QNAP [7], which represents a class of modern office network-attached storage that offers services comparable to Linux server distros.

In our lab, it was all about installation routines and hardware support, which are typically the biggest obstacles that inexperienced administrators need to overcome. The test team also looked at how distributions behaved

...

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).